P.O.D.: Portrait Meaning

Portrait Lyrics

You're not who they say you are
They made you the enemy
(CHRIST-Jah flesh; CHRIST-Light within; CHRIST- Beginning and the end)
Taken something so beautiful
Painted a new picture that makes me sick
(CHRIST-Witness; CHRIST-Living one;...

1. InexorableDream

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   May 13th 2010 !⃝

   This song can be confusing and could be taken in various ways. It is a song derived from a religious motive and the audience can take it the wrong way if reading the lyrics like a book.
   
   The first two lines, "You're not who they say you are/They made you the enemy" specifically talk to Jesus Christ or God and are sang in a way that expresses anger at the population. Difficult to understand by listening to the lyrics alone, the backup singer sings "(CHRIST-Jah flesh; CHRIST-Light within; CHRIST- Beginning and the end)." It could be taken incorrectly that this is how the people are making Christ look when he is truthfully not this. Anyone who knows anything about the world would know that Christ is looked at as being untrue and a myth by many so called experts of history.
   
   If the observer hears the incorrect interpretation of the first two lines then he/she will likely miss that the singer is now telling Christ about the people when he sings "Taken something so beautiful
   Painted a new picture that makes me sick" This suggests that he is singing to Christ and is explaining to Him that he knows the truth and restates what Christ is to him again with the same line as the third one.
   
   The fifth and sixth lines continue to address the people's misunderstanding and lies saying, "Feed our minds confusion
   Sweeten the taste of pollution." I think this suggests that the song is supposed to be confusing as the people who talk against Christianity and God usually fill in the gaps of their theory with confusing ideas and things that don't always add up. They will take versus out of the Bible and claim they contradict even though after reading the context around the lines they don't contradixt at all.
   
   The chorus states the fact that people kill people, Christians kill Jews, Islamic people kill Christians, or any combination of the mix. All three of these religions have the same basic God in mind, just different names and different beliefs about how He told us to be. P.O.D. Has said before that they have a different idea of Christianity and they do not think that it really matters what form of Christianity people follow. They do not think someone has to be Catholic, Lutheran or any specific form of Christianity as long as the person believes and follows the word.
   
   The second verse I think starts with P.O.D. Talking specifically to nonbelievers saying, "I refuse to be like you Without life, empty, caving in." This being followed with the usual praising Christ for who He is. The last four lines in this verse (minus the usual shouting of who Christ is) are lines of the singer confessing and asking Christ for forgiveness. "I surrender, giving up all that is me Yielding to you Shape me in my brokeness Empower me forever."
   
   The outro is purely thanking God and telling Him that He has given himself to God. He lets God know that it is by His hand that He has gotten so far and done so well.
   
   "I know you will complete this work started in me
   I need you more than ever now that I know who you are
   I know you will complete this work started in me
   I need you more than ever now that I've come so far"

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