Scandalous Love (EP 187)

Bryce Crawford· Host0:00

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the "Bryce Crawford 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 gonna be in the Book of Philemon. And if you are someone listening to this who doesn't know what the Book of Philemon is, Philemon is, it is after Titus, before Hebrews. So comment below [chuckles] if you've never heard of Philemon in your Bible. It is one chapter. It is 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 gonna dive into it. So if you got your Bibles, we're gonna be in Philemon. We're gonna start in verse eight. 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 eight, "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? And so 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 Philemon about