The Bryce Crawford Podcast - Scandalous Love (EP 187)

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

In this episode, Bryce talks about Scandalous Love

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Carver podcast. I'm Bryce and today by the title of the episode in the spirit of Easter, Good Friday, Palm Sunday. I figured that this passage would be great to talk about why we believe and are consumed by the scandalous love of God. We are going to be in the book of Philemon. And if you were someone listening to this, who doesn't know what the book of Philemon is. It is after Titus before Hebrews. So comment below if you've never heard of Philemon in your Bible. It is one chapter. There's a letter that Paul wrote. to his friend Philemon, and I believe that this letter is so such a beautiful picture of the love of God. So we're going to dive into us. If you've got your Bibles, we're going to be in Philemon. We're going to start in verse 8. So Paul is writing this letter to Philemon, and he's like, at first, you know, he does the typical Paul greeting, and then he's like, yo, you know, I love your faith, and I'm grateful for you, and this, this and that. Here we go. Paul's writing now. Verse 8, accordingly, though I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do what is required, yet for love's sake, I prefer to appeal to you. I, Paul, an old man,

and now a prisoner also for Christ. Stop right there. Paul many times throughout the New Testament, Church of Corinth, Galatia, Ephesus, he is commanding them to do something, right? As Paul's like, look, I know my authority in Christ, but for the sake of law that we listen to, I'm appealing to you to make the wisest decision according to the law. Here's the law. So basically what's happening is Paul is writing a letter to Philemen about Phileiman's runaway slave, Wonsomis. So here's what happened. Philemon had a slave named Wonsomis, who ran away from home, and he ran to Rome and knocked on the door, and coincidentally, the guy that he stumbles upon would be Paul.

Now, it would make sense that onceomis would know who Paul was through Paul and Philemon's relationship, but onceimus, who was Philemon's slave, ran away and stumbled upon Paul. Now, there was this ancient Greek law or tradition that was now adopted by the Romans. essentially was if a runaway slave ran away from their slave owner and stumbled upon someone, that family would offer that runaway slave sanctuary in their home. And one of two things would happen is while that runaway slave has found sanctuary in a new family's home. That family has to convince that slave to go back to their slave owner or they sell the

slave on the slave market and whatever money that comes from that slave they give to the slave owner. Does that make sense? And so with that being said, Paul is now giving Philemon the opportunity to wisely and lovingly follow the law in onceomis favor. This is what he says. I Paul an old man, now a prisoner also for Christ, I appeal to you for my child, onceimus, whose father I became in my imprisonment. Formerly, he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and me. Let's stop right there. Once a miss is the one runaway slave. I forgot to mention this. Paul's on house arrest. Right? Paul's on house arrest in Rome. So what's happening? Once a miss was probably helping Paul out around the house. Furthermore, that term child where it says, for my child, once a miss,

Paul used that language oftentimes for converts for the fate. So what we can assume from the context of the passage is once a miss was a runaway slave. Stumbles upon Paul is helping Paul around the house during the sanctuary hour while Paul's on house arrest. Onceimus becomes a convert to Christianity. And so now Paul, as he's convincing Onceimus to go back home, he's now convincing Phileman to offer him grace. And he says, look, now he was formally useless to you, Philemon, because he had left you in verse 11.

He says, formerly he was useless to you. But now he's useful to both me and you. Because now he's assuring Phileman, like you would be glad that if Onceimus is helping anyone, he's helping me. Right? So now he's not only useful to Philemon because he's helping me, but he's useful to me because I'm reaping the benefits of it. So now he's kind of like a little bit of sweet talk here. Verse 12.

I am sending him back to you. Sending my very heart. Man, I love that verse. I would have been glad to keep him with me in order that he might serve me on behalf, on your behalf during my imprisonment for the gospel. But I preferred to do nothing without your consent. because according to the law, he's honoring Philemon and honoring the law without your consent in order

that your goodness might not be by compulsion but out of your own accord meaning he's appealing to sincere love. I want you to do something, Philemon, not because I'm asking you to do it. I want you to do it because you sincerely love God. Isn't that beautiful? Let's stop right there.

When we follow Jesus, we don't follow Jesus because we have to, but we do it because we want to because we love him. in the same way. Paul is asking Philema to respond in that way. I don't want you to respond in this way or send him this way or let him be here because you feel like you have to now. I want you to respond in such a way because you want to because you love God and you love people. Verse 15, for this perhaps is why he was parted from you for a while that you might have him back forever.

Verse 16, no longer as a bond servant, but more than a bond servant as a beloved brother, especially to me. but how much more to you both in the flesh and in the Lord? So now he says, if you so willingly and so gracefully receive Philemon back, even though he's done wrong, receive him back, not as your slave, but as your brother. You know, Jesus says in the Gospels, he says something very important. You know, the disciples say, hey, your mother and your brothers are here, and Jesus is like, my family, my mother, my brothers and sisters are the ones that do the will of my father, meaning this family of God is more than just blood.

I mean, we are all connected globally around this one truth, that Jesus Christ is Lord. So he's like, I hope that you receive him not as a slave, but as a brother. He is converted to the faith. Receive him joyfully that he is now converted. And then I love that. That he says this verse 17, Paul says,

so if you consider me your partner, receive him as you would receive me. Paul is saying, even though one submits is slapped you in the face and rebelled against you and done something, wrong when you receive him don't receive him as this dirty nasty wrongdoing human receive him as you would receive me gently humbly joyfully gracefully receive him that way and in the same way that's how we're that's why we're afraid to approach god i mean i can imagine you and i were once like once a miss or maybe you

were watching your listening this and you feel like once a miss where you know you've done wrong you know you've back stabbed god you know you've slapped him in the face you know if you spit on him you're like i don't know if i can approach him because i'm too afraid or because i don't know how he's going to receive you me or if he's going to punish me. And so the heart of God is to do exactly what Paul is asking Philemon to do is like receive him how you would receive me, joyfully, graciously, things like that. And I love what he said in verse 18. And this is the whole heart of the gospel and this is why I love. And if you get anything out of this entire letter, this is it. Once a miss, a runaway slave from Phileman who has done wrong, who deserves to be punished.

Paul is sending him back, who is now converted to Christianity in Paul's presence. Paul is sending him back. And this is what he says. If he, talking about once a miss, Paul talking about once a miss, if he has done anything wrong, if he has wronged you at all or owes you anything, charge that to my account. Verse 19, I, Paul, write this with my own hand. I will repay it to say nothing of your owing me even your own self. So Paul says, look, once a miss has done something wrong to you, once a miss has done anything. Paul, the most beautiful picture of the gospel says this, if once a miss has wronged you at all,

I with my own hand, I want you to know this, Paul is saying to Phileman, I, Paul, who, who am writing this with my own hand and saying to you, charge it to my tab, I will pay for his mistakes. Well, that doesn't make sense because Paul hasn't done anything wrong. In fact, Paul is already in prison. Paul's already on house arrest. What do you mean you're going to pay for his mistakes? That is the beauty of the gospel.

You and I were once like once a miss, or maybe you are like once in a miss where you're constantly spitting in God's face, slapping and rebelling against him, and you have no right or reason to deserve the grace or mercy of God. but Jesus Christ says, hey, Father, if anyone has wronged you, charge it to my tab, I will pay you. That's why what happened in the Garden of Gathrimony is so beautiful when he's sweating, drops of blood, because he's saying, like, look, like, Father, if there is another way, let me know, but not my will, your will be done. Because Jesus Christ didn't want to put the sake of humanity on the altar.

That's why he put his own life on the altar, because he was saying, charge the mistakes and wrongdoing of man on my tab, which is my body. Let me be sacrificed for it. And so Paul is having the same heart posture saying, look, I know once a miss did something wrong. Receive him how you would receive me. But let me tell you something. I know that there has to be justice. There has to be payment.

And so if onceomis has wronged you, don't punish onceimus, charge it to my tab. Because I've done something wrong. That is the beauty of the gospel. That is the beauty of God's love. That's why it's so scandalous. The love of God is so. scandalous is because it doesn't make sense. What do you mean that I've done wrong stuff but charge it to Jesus's tab? What do you mean that I've made a mistake and I deserve justice but you're going to

inflict the justice on God instead of me? What do you mean? And that is the scandalous love of God. That is the whole heart of this narrative of scripture. From Genesis 1-1 to Revelation 22, the whole 66 books is a narrative of the rescue mission that God wanted to become so close to you and me, so close to man, even though we were the ones that screwed up. That's the scandalous love. of God. And it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense to our brains because we know what we deserve. It doesn't make sense to our lives because we know we deserve to be backstab. You know what? Maybe maybe you feel that way. Maybe you feel like a wants to miss and maybe you're afraid to go back or maybe you're afraid to turn to Jesus or maybe you're afraid to apologize to that friend because

you think that when you approach that person that you're going to get what you deserve because we're so used to getting what we deserve. You know what I mean? We're so used to inflicting evil when evil's been done to us. We're so used to only loving people when we've been loved. Everything's so transactional. And Jesus Christ here, in the letter of Philemon, Paul to Phileman is saying, hey, once this has made some mistakes, but whatever he's wronged you for, charge it to my account, and don't hold it against him.

The Bible says, he who knew no sin, talking about Jesus, became sin, so that you and I could become the righteousness of God. Our wrongdoing was charged to his. account and that is the heart. I want to be more like Paul. And then verse 20. What does he say? I, Paul, write this with my own name. Verse 19. I will repay it to say nothing of you of your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, I want some benefit from you and the Lord. Refresh my heart in Christ. And then he says this, confident of your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say. At the same time, prepare a guest room for me. For I am hoping that through

your prayers, I will be, I will be graciously given to you. So he says something. He says, you know, confident he knew the character of Phileman. He's a faithful follower of Jesus. He says, Philemon, I know you're going to do far more than out of my sincere heart. I'm asking you to do so the next time I see you prepare a guest room for me so that me, you, and once a miss can celebrate the goodness of God being shown to once in a mess through Philemon for his grace. All in all, man, this gospel is one of grace scandalous love. The love of Jesus Christ is full of grace.

It's a gift that you and I don't deserve. Yes, we slapped God in the face, but it says, nope, I know you've done that, but I'm going to put that on Jesus's tab. I know you've done wrong, but I'm going to inflict that justice on Jesus so that I can have you. That's the heart of the Father. Furthermore, a lot of people get dismissed construed, the scandalous love of God. Like a lot of people think, oh, grace is amazing. Grace is amazing. That's an excuse to sin by no means.

Paul would write in Romans 6 through 8. Just because you have grace does not mean you should go sin. That is abusing God's grace. Rather, the book of Titus, right before Phile. would tell you and I that the grace of God actually fuels us to walk this thing out. And so you know what the beauty of this is, is that the grace that Phileman will show to once a mess will transform once in his faith so much so that it will give him endurance and confidence to follow Jesus Christ, even though he's done wrong.

And to be honest, that's what my faith does for me, knowing that Jesus has paid my debt, that he's shown me grace, that he has sacrificed his life for me. That gives me confidence, even though I've done so much wrong to endure in the faith. Because I know that my faith isn't about what I've done, but it's about what he has done. If your faith is about what you can do, you will fail and fail and fail and you will never make the cuss because you are broken. And there is no amount of self-help books, no amount of things that you can fill in your heart that will fix your issues, fix your life or cancel out your mistakes. We need an eternal payment to pay an infinite debt that we have towards God. And that's why Christ's sacrifice is so beautiful.

And that's why I mentioned this verse so many times, but Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2. and we look to Jesus, who is the author and perfector of our faith, and the scriptures say, it was for the joy set before Jesus that he endured the cross. Why would Jesus, who has no flaw in him, who has made no mistake, who has created all things and always existed, why would Jesus, why would he do something that is not in his own nature? Why would he take on death? Why would he die for things that he didn't do? Why would he take justice on that he didn't deserve?

Why would he take the payment for sins that he didn't commit? And the Bible would say it wasn't the thickness of nails that killed him. It wasn't the Romans that killed him. It wasn't the beating that killed him. That it was love for you and me that made Jesus stay on the cross. That he could not get down because he couldn't fathom having relationship without you. So he endured the pain for the sake of you. That is scandalous love.

That is the grace of God. And that love should compel you to live this thing out. Let me tell you something really quick. Michael Culeano said something that rocked me to the core. The name of Jesus Christ should move you. The gospel should move you every time you hear. You and I should never grow cold. We shouldn't grow cold to the gospel unless it's on Easter or Good Friday.

That is silly. That is awful. We should be sober to the reality of what Jesus has done. His name and his sacrifice and his resurrection, the defeating of sin and death, everything in His grace. We should be sober to it and moved by it every single time we think of it, talk about it, say his name. But we have grown mundane to it in America because we think that he's a label or a lifestyle or a keychain on our backpack or a sticker on our waterball. He is more than that. He is alive and active sitting on the throne in heaven, getting good.

glory for his sacrifice for humanity and you and I rob him of the glory when we think we can do it on our own. So let me tell you, we have to be moved by this. And the book of Philemon is a beautiful picture. I, Paul, write with my own hand. Hey, Philemon, if I haven't made my point enough, I just want you to know, I have written this with my own hand and I want you to see this right now. Charge once a missed mistakes to my tab. Charge once a missed wrongdoing to my account. And in the same way, that's the heart of Jesus. Charge man's mistakes to my life so that they may have life. Because Jesus' mission was to come to give what? Life abundantly. And I pray that the scandalous love of God transforms you in such a beautiful, profound way so that you never forget.

I don't want you to forget. Don't forget the beautiful love of God. Lord Jesus, we love you. We thank you for who you are. We thank you for your scandalous love. God. Our prayer is simple. Would your love radically transform us from the inside? out and would your grace fuel us to live this thing out God we love you we thank you we praise you in Jesus name amen