Chance the Rapper is known for explicit lyrics, but he's also been very public about exploring and growing in his Christian faith. 

In April of 2018, the hip hop artist labelled himself as a Christian rapper. Since then he's faced plenty of pushback from Christians. Most of the criticism is due to the content of his lyrics.

A professor of communications & media at Providence University College says those criticisms might be fair. However, Dr. Nicholas Greco says that Chance seems to be genuine in growing as a disciple of Jesus.

Last week Chance announced that he was going on a sabbatical to take time to read his Bible. 

“I’m going away to learn the Word of God which I am admittedly very unfamiliar with. I’ve been brought up by my family to know Christ but I haven’t taken it upon myself to really just take a couple days and read my bible. we all quote Scripture and tell each other what God likes and doesn’t like but how much time do we spend as followers of Jesus to really just read and KNOW his Word.”

Eager to grow in faith

On Monday, December 17, Chance started an Instagram Live video in which he read through the entire book of Galatians.

"One thing I didn't know about the Bible," he says at the beginning of the video "that I guess a bunch of people did know, is that it's not all like narrative. You know what I mean? There's some stories, but then there's like, Psalms that are like poems . . . and I'm finding out reading this as well that there's a few letters."

"I watched a bit of the start where he talks about why he's doing this and he sort of invites his viewers to join with him while he's reading Scripture," Greco says. "It's just a fascinating thing."

Greco points out the rapper's Bible itself is evidence of somebody who is eager to learn and grow in his faith.

"I just noticed in the video that he has sticky notes -- post-it notes -- on his New Living Translation there. That points to something," Greco says. "I mean I don't have sticky notes all over my Bible. But he's put them there because he feels that there are things that are important that he wants to see again."

Greco says that Chance's eagerness to grow and willingness to share is something that other Christians should admire.

By the end of the video there were over 4,000 people watching and listening to the book of Galatians being read.

Listen to the full interview between Mike Thom and Dr. Nicholas Greco:

 

Watch Chance the Rapper read Galatians: