I have a confession to make… I sometimes listen to Taylor Swift. Go ahead and laugh! I certainly wouldn’t say she’s my favorite musician, but she’s very talented and her music is really catchy. If you’ve ever listened to her music, you’re probably well aware that a common theme runs throughout her albums: constant relational drama. Now, let me begin by saying that this is not a blog post to address why we should or shouldn’t listen to Taylor Swift songs or any other secular music. The reality is that we should evaluate everything we encounter in this world (music included) through the lens of the gospel. This is what I’ve set out to do in this post with one particularly catchy T-Swift song that my wife and I listened to while painting our living room recently. In the song Bad Blood, Swift sings about a once vibrant relationship with a boy, which she describes as “mad love.” However, this relationship takes a dramatic downhill turn, and the couple has a complete fall out. The main message of the song is that there is absolutely, positively no going back to the way things used to be now that they’ve “got bad blood.” No do-overs. No fixing things. No reconciliation. Things went south. It’s over and done, and that’s final.
This bad-blood-now-so-no-going-back view doesn’t just exist in Taylor Swift’s song. This is the prevailing view in our culture in terms of how to deal with relational hardships. Things get hard in a friendship? Then, just forget it! We can’t get along? Let’s go our separate ways. A spouse hurts you? Forget him, forget her…forever. Sadly, this is not just the mentality of the culture at large but also within the church and in Christian homes. Ever since sin came into the world through Adam and Eve, people have been relationally broken. And since that point, our most natural responses to relational challenges have been defensiveness, blaming, fighting, and sometimes even murder– the results of hearts full of anger, hatred, envy, and ultimately an unwillingness to forgive those who have wronged us. Inability to forgive others and be reconciled not only dooms our relationship here on earth, but also indicates that we don’t understand the radical forgiveness and reconciliation to God that we’ve been granted through Jesus Christ. Left to ourselves, we will never see and experience true reconciliation with God and others. In fact, the Bible is clear that before our hearts are changed by Christ, we are actually in rebellion against it. In our sin, we have no desire to be reconciled to God or each other. Thank goodness, God did not leave us to ourselves. Rather he sent his Son to rescue us and reconcile us back to Him. When we repent of our sin and trust in what Jesus did on the cross as enough to make us clean, we’re reconciled to God through Christ’s shed blood. Instead of pouring out His wrath on us, God poured his wrath onto His Son for us. Once enemies of God, those in Christ are now called beloved sons and daughters. This is the epitome of radical reconciliation.
Now according to 2 Corinthians 5:11-21, understanding and experiencing this radical reconciliation back to God through Jesus sets us free to image our Creator by embracing the ministry of reconciliation in our earthly relationships. We not only desire to be made right with God but with others as well. When we truly grasp the enormous debt of our sin that has been paid for and forgiven in Christ, it seems like a small thing to forgive others who have sinned against us here on earth. When a believer forgives and seeks reconciliation with someone who’s wronged them, they are telling a watching world they understand the gospel. When two believers are reconciled to one another in the midst of major relational struggles, it magnifies the gospel of Jesus Christ. However, if a professing believer refuses to seek to be made right with someone who’s wronged them, they’re actually telling the world that they haven’t really experienced true reconciliation to God through the gospel. In fact, they’re telling the watching world that they’re still in rebellion to God. Far too many Christians and churches have fallen into tise worldly way of thinking and living in relationship with others. It’s destructive and it’s demonic. Run from it.
Relationships aren’t easy. Conflicts and challenges will always exist on this earth. But through Christ, believers have been reconciled to God and entrusted with a ministry of reconciliation. Have you experienced forgiveness and freedom in Christ? If so, then tell the world in the way you seek to handle relational challenges. If you’re in a situation right now where you’ve been wronged or you’ve wronged someone else, seek restoration. If there’s bad blood from years past, you may need to model biblical repentance and ask for forgiveness. Or you may need to extend the grace and mercy that you’ve received from God. As catchy as the song is, the reality is that for those who know Jesus, there is no such thing as bad blood. There’s only reconciling blood, flowing from Calvary and making things whole.
For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. (Colossians 1:19-20 ESV)
Adam K Rice 