Lessons about Paul and Tychicus from the postscript

Eph 6:21-24 [So that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage your hearts. Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.]

Ephesians 5 began with a seemingly impossible command: Therefore be imitators of God. But the rest of the statement made it clear that we are to endeavour to obey that command, as children who are loved by God. Ephesians 5 and 6 have many difficult commands to obey, but we do not obey them to win favour with God or to earn a place in heaven. We obey as children who are already God’s beloved children who have His favour.

Today will be our final study from Ephesians, and we will look at Eph 6:21-24, which while being something of a postscript, still has truths that can be wrung out, including lessons from the life of Paul as well as from the shadowy figure of Tychicus. These verses show us that the scriptures came to us through the real lives of mere human beings who had real needs and relationships.

SOME LESSONS FROM PAUL: From Eph 6:21, we can learn two lessons about Paul.

Firstly RELATIONALITY [So that you also may know how I am . . .] A lot has happened in Paul’s life—he had been arrested and put in prison—and he would want to update the Ephesian believers about these matters, and they would want to know too, because they had a significant relationship. We know something of the depth of that relationship from Acts 20, where we see that when Paul asks them to come to him to Miletus, the Ephesian elders make that 70-kilometer journey to meet with him, and we see the display of sorrow when they realise that they would not see Paul in person again this side of heaven. They are a family, and this is how we should be as well, even giving our brothers and sisters the permission to speak into our lives.

Secondly, TRANSPARENCY [So that you also may know . . . what I am doing]. Paul models transparency for us. In Acts 20:18, we see that he began his final message to the Ephesian elders by reminding them about how he had lived transparently before them, saying: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time . . .” Paul’s life was intertwined with theirs. It made sense for him to say, “Be an imitator of me,” because they could observe him so closely. But if we were in his place we are perhaps more likely to say, “Don’t imitate me, imitate Christ.” We would do this because we are sinners. But then, so was Paul, and he acknowledged it himself, saying in 1 Tim 1:15 that he was the chief of sinners. In this way, he sets an example not just of a righteous and triumphant life, but also of repentance, humility, and the recognition of the grace of God in our lives.

SOME LESSONS FROM TYCHICUS: This wonderful man is one of the unsung heroes of the New Testament. Surprising though it sounds, he is actually mentioned five times in the scriptures, in Acts 20:4, Eph 6:21, Col 4:7, 2 Tim 4:12, and Titus 3:12. In Eph 6:21, he is described as “beloved brother and faithful minister.”

FAITHFULNESS IN TERMS OF THE LENGTH OF TIME HE SERVED PAUL: When he is first mentioned in Acts 20, he is spoken of as someone who is already known to all. And we see him for the last time in Paul’s second epistle to Timothy, which is the last book that Paul penned. It was probably written during a second imprisonment, shortly before Paul’s martyrdom. At this stage, Paul sends Tychicus to Ephesus so that Timothy could be relieved to come to Paul. Tychicus was Paul’s letter courier. He carried Paul’s epistles to the Ephesians, to the Colossians, to Philemon, and probably to Timothy. This was a great responsibility, because the letters entrusted to him were written by an apostle and regarded as the word of God to the people of God, as scripture. Apart from carrying the epistles, he would likely have read and preached the letters to the congregations in Ephesus and Colossae, as he would have been able to explain what was on Paul’s mind.

TYCHICUS WAS FAITHFUL AND STEADFAST IN MINISTRY: We see how Paul sends Tychicus to relieve Timothy who was serving in Ephesus. And again we see Paul sending him to relieve Titus in Crete. In spite of his prominent role in assisting the apostle, we know so little about Tychicus. While Paul was so important, he would not have gotten far without people like Tychicus in his team. Most of our lives will not occupy even a footnote in future history books, but the Lord uses humble and seemingly insignificant people to build His church. God has used millions of such immensely insignificant people to plunder Satan’s kingdom in order to populate His glorious kingdom.

The epistle began with the mention of PEACE and GRACE in Eph 1:2 [Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ] and ends in the same way in Eph 6:23-24 [Peace be to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible]. In fact the whole message in this epistle to the Ephesians, in all its precision and grandeur, is infused with the peace and grace that comes from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.