AM Bible Study Group; June 26, 2013
Colossians 4:7-9
Theme: God is able to use people of remarkably different natures to do His work together.
(Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are taken from
Ultimately, it is God who does His own work. He Himself decrees it, plans it, empowers it, and sees to its ultimate success. His mighty hand is in all His work, from beginning to end. Yet, in His great wisdom and grace, He has designed His perfect work to be accomplished through using imperfect people like us.
Few people have made as great a study of God’s work through human beings as the Methodist preacher and devotional writer E.M. Bounds. He wrote the following words in another century; but they might just as well have been written last week.
We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new plans, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him, than anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. . . . This vital, urgent truth is one that this age of machinery is apt to forget. The forgetting of it is as baneful on the work of God as would be the striking of the sun from his sphere. Darkness and confusion, and death would ensue.
What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use—men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men—men of prayer (From E.M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer [Baker Book House, n.d.], pp. 5-7).
God Himself does His marvelous work; but He does it through people like us who surrender to His use—people who entrust themselves to Him through prayer. He has ordained no other way for the work of the gospel to be done in this world than through people—people who are faithful to His cause, available for His use, open to His instruction, and set-apart unto His holiness.
And that’s one reason why we should never treat lightly a portion of Scripture like the closing section of Colossians. It’s easy to pass it by because ‘it’s just a list of a bunch of people’. These final words of Paul’s letter—a letter on the sufficiency of Christ—is a list of the kinds of people through whom God worked, and of some of the ways God used them. This letter is about God’s perfect and complete work; but we find that, in the end, the work has got the hand-prints of people all over it. It’s very appropriate, then, that at the close of a letter about the sufficiency of Christ, our focus should be on the ways that God uses “people” to advance the all-sufficient work of Christ in one another’s lives. Through a passage such as this, we gain insight into the ways God can use people like you and me.
This passage is not something to rush through. And so, today, we’ll just consider verses 7-9, which describe for us some of the people that Paul sent to minister to the Colossians in his absence—and the character traits that showed them worthy of such a trust. In verses 10-14, Paul sends greetings from those who are ministering to the Colossians from far away—doing great work for them in the power of the Spirit, though not in their presence. And in verses 15-18, Paul highlights the ways that the Colossians themselves can minister to others—reminding us of the ways that we can serve.
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Paul did not deliver this letter or explain its contents in person. In fact, it’s apparent that he never even met the Colossians (2:1). He simply knew about them through the reports of others (1:7-8). Nevertheless, Paul loved these dear brothers and sisters deeply. But even though he couldn’t come to them at this time because he was in prison (4:3), the letter—and the care that he wished to extend through it—was personally delivered to the Colossian believers by means of other faithful hands, who ministered on Paul’s behalf.
Two men could hardly have been more unlikely to form such a team. Who were they?
I. TYCHICUS—A FAITHFUL FELLOW-WORKER (vv. 7-8).
A. You might consider Tychicus Paul’s faithful “delivery-man”. He appears several times in the New Testament; and each time, he’s either traveling somewhere with Paul, or he’s traveling somewhere on Paul’s behalf. In Acts 19, we’re told of how the apostle Paul’s preaching caused a near riot in the city of Ephesus. And Acts 20:1-5 introduces Tychicus to us when it says, “After the uproar had ceased, Paul called the disciples to himself, embraced them, and departed to go to Macedonia. Now when he had gone over that region and encouraged them with many words, he came to Greece and stayed three months. And when the Jews plotted against him as he was about to sail to Syria, he decided to return through Macedonia. And Sopater of Berea accompanied him to Asia—also Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians, and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. These men, going ahead, waited for us at Troas.” This man Tychicus wrote no books that we possess today; nor did he preach any sermons that we have recorded in the Bible. All that we know of him is that he faithfully went wherever Paul wanted him to go, and faithfully did whatever Paul commissioned him to do. His name means “Chance”—but Paul didn’t feel he was taking any chances in sending him! In corresponding with Timothy, Paul wrote, “Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for ministry” (2 Timothy 4:11); but was able to say, “And Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus”. He might have really preferred to have Tychicus with him; but the work in that dangerous and critical city of Ephesus needed a good reliable servant of the gospel. Tychicus was the man to send. And to Titus, who ministered in the difficult field of the Isle of Crete, Paul wrote, “When I send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there” (Titus 3:12). You and I are beneficiaries of Tychicus’ faithfulness even today! Because of him, we have three books in the New Testament that he faithfully delivered to their recipients—Ephesians (Ephesians 6:21), Colossians (Tychicus probably being mentioned here because he delivered this letter), and most likely the tiny book of Philemon (which appears to have been delivered at the same time as the letter to the Colossians).
B. Note carefully what Paul tells us in this letter about this man Tychicus. Paul used him to minister personally to the Colossians on his behalf by keeping them informed. He wrote, “Tychicus, a beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that he may know your circumstances and comfort your hearts . . .” (vv. 7-8). Other Bible translations have it—probably more accurately—that Tychicus came so that the Colossians believers would know about how Paul was doing rather than the other way around. As the NIV has translated verse 8, “I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts.” Paul was in prison; and they, know doubt, were deeply concerned about him. But in either case, Paul wanted Tychicus to go and convey important personal information to them, so that their hearts would be comforted—and certainly his as well.
C. You can see that Tychicus was a very important man, used by God to bless the church in some very crucial ways. And his qualifications were things that you and I can possess. First of all, he was a “beloved brother”—a man who had placed his faith in Jesus and who had cultivated a love for Jesus and for those who had also trusted Him. This made him a welcomed representative of Paul. Second, he was a “faithful minister”—a man who could be entrusted with a task of ministry, even a task that involved many miles of hard travel; and who could be expected to fulfill what was entrusted to him. This made him sufficiently trustworthy to take on important tasks for Paul. Thirdly, he was a “fellow servant”—a man who considered himself, above all else, the slave of Jesus Christ; and who could be expected to work lovingly in the service of His master under the direction of another of Christ’s slaves. He had no personal motives or agenda. His only agenda was that of the same Lord and Master that Paul served. This made Tychicus a very valuable co-laborer with Paul. It’s clear that Tychicus was also a good communicator. Paul trusted him to convey information from himself to the Colossians; and to convey information to him from them. And finally, if we look ahead to verse 10, we see that Paul could entrust a young brother in Christ to Tychicus who needed particular care and encouragement. He was a man of compassion and encouragement who knew how to mentor another in Christ.
II. ONESIMUS—A FORMERLY UNFAITHFUL SLAVE (v. 10).
A. The believers in Colossea had never met Tychicus. That’s why Paul had to introduce him to them in this letter. But Paul didn’t send Tychicus to come to them alone. As it turned out, Paul was able to send a fellow-Colossian. Paul wrote, that he sent Tychicus “with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you” (v. 9a). The story of this man Onesiums—and how it was that he, a Colossian, was returning to his home town—is a remarkable one. It’s a story that’s explained in one of the other letters that Tychicus probably delivered at this time—that of Paul’s tiny letter to Philemon. Onesimus was a slave who had belonged to the household of Philemon—a prominent member of the Colossian church. Apparently, this slave had caused a lot of heartache and damage to Philemon and his family. It may be that he even stole from Philemon’s household. Apparently, while the young slave was on the run from his master, he met up with the prisoner Paul—either because he had also ended up in the same prison as Paul, or was already knew something about Paul and came to him in a time of trouble. In either case, in a time of great distress in the young man’s life, God sovereignly led Onesimus to Paul; and Paul, in turn, led Onesimus to Christ. And now, Paul was sending the runaway-slave back to his Christian master; “no longer as a slave but more than a slave—a beloved brother” (Philemon 16). Paul wrote his letter to Philemon, in large part, to urge his dear friend and brother in Christ to receive this repentant slave back. Paul even wrote, “But if he has wronged you or owes anything, put that on my account” (Philemon 18).
B. Onesimus’ name means “profitable”. And he had proven to be anything but a profitable slave to Philemon. Nevertheless Paul wrote to Philemon and said that he “once was unprofitable to you , but now is profitable to you and to me. I am sending him back. You therefore receive him, that is, my own heart, whom I wished to keep with me, that on your behalf he might minister to me in my chains for the gospel” (Philemon 11-13). Formerly, Onesimus was a failure as a slave (and it’s pretty hard to think of how much more of a failure someone can be than to be a failure as a slave). But through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, even he became immeasurably useful to the cause of Christ; so much so that Paul would have kept him nearby if he could; but preferred to send him along with his trusted fellow-worker Tychicus.
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Here then are two very different men. One was man who had gained a proven reputation for faithfulness over time to the cause of Christ—a man whose name means “Chance”, but who always proved to be ‘a sure thing’. The other was a man who had proven very unfaithful in the past, but who had now been transformed into a faithful servant of Christ—whose name means “profitable”; and who, in time, showed himself true to his name. One a success story, the other a former failure. But Paul sent them together. He said, “They will make known to you all things which are happening here” (v. 9b).
Those are the kind of people God uses to minister on His team personally to others of His people—if they will but be available to Him for His transformation and use. There’s hope for us too!