The References: 2 Timothy 4:12 I sent Tychicus to Ephesus. Ephesians 6:21 Tychicus will tell you how we are and he will encourage you. Colossians 4:7 A faithful minister and fellow servant of the Lord; I am sending him that he may encourage your hearts.
The story that emerges: This man does not appear in the New Testament except for these oblique references, but they present a man who spoke and ministered as Paul would have. After all Paul entrusted Tychicus to carry the letters that Paul wrote to the church in Ephesus and the church in Colossae. Furthermore Paul knew that Tychicus would speak comfort and strength to the hearts of the believers in these two cities.
“He will encourage your hearts,” Paul wrote to both churches about the sweet influence of Tychicus among them. The verb Paul used combines the word “along side” and also “to call.” A simple meaning would be that Tychicus was called to go into the deepest needs of the Christ' people and speak to them comfort and hope.
How did he bring encouragement? By listening, by patience, and by understanding the grief, the concerns, the hopes of the people. The pastoral care of Tychicus came with love and discernment, with comfort and assurance from the Word of God.
From what we know of the geopolitical circumstances of the cities, we can see two sources of challenge to the churches, one external and the other internal.
The external one was persecution. The Roman authorities forced believers to acknowledge only one king, the Roman one. The pagan environment brought a worship that merged cult prostitution with idolatry. From each of these the small band of Christ followers faced threats to life and faith.
The internal threat came from false teachers who had insinuated themselves into the life of the church. These teachers tried to persuade the believers of a teaching above what Paul taught and of a God who was more than Christ. To counter this, Paul stated, “Christ is the image of the invisible God; all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in Him; He made peace through the blood of His cross. This is the Gospel which you have heard from me” (2:15, 19, 20, 23). Tychicus built on these clear affirmations of Christ, helping the Colossians to see the power and authority of the Lord and the anchor of their faith.
Can we hear Tychicus’ encouragement today? Yes to persecution and yes to false teaching.
An estimated 260 million Christians today suffer persecution for their faith. That is not a statistic. That is our family report, an update on our brothers and sisters. These family members can’t come to our gatherings because they are being held in torture and in prison. We can learn more about them from several web sites. One outstanding one, Opendoorsusa.org, gives the worse offending countries and offers resources for prayer.
The armament against persecution has always been prayer. These people are, after all, precious children of their heavenly Father. He watches over them as the Good Shepherd. On behalf of these fellow believers, we pray for: protection from and under hostile authorities; the right words to speak; reminder of God’s power and presence in their weakness; and a witness of forgiveness and confidence in the face of death.
The influence of false teaching inside the church is the same today as then. Making friends with the culture can blur the distinctions between secular morals and God’s, between an earthbound worldview and the heavenly one. Encouragement like Tychicus’ warns us against “getting in step with everyone else,” “doing what our friends are doing,” and then finding churches that don’t raise any objection to our accommodation. Like Lot’s wife, we can easily step back and accept their ways. Like her end, the cost is getting lost in the wide path of destruction. In this climate any diversion from the Ten commandments merely becomes a nonissue. Encouragement for us is remembering how it all started -- in the garden and hearing the devil say so innocently, “Did God really say you may not…” (Genesis 3:1). Encouragement is training us to listen for that quotation, to recognize its source, and then to hold to the path of life. I was curious about one thing when I had a chance to interview Tychicus in heaven. He was with several friends from his days in Ephesus but made room for me on the bench. My question was an easy one: “What were the reactions you had from the pagans and the false teachers as you confronted them? Giving encouragement to the faithful sounds so wonderful, but your message sent arrows to targets, targets of influence. How did that go down? What did you have to face?” His answer was not surprising. His face showed a passing grimace but also a smile. The grimace was for his opposition; the smile was for his love for them. What he went on to describe was easy to recognize; only the year has changed. If the Light has shown in the darkness, the darkness has always kicked back—refusing the truth and rejecting the messenger. That is what Tychicus received—blowback ranging from embarrassment of spiritual failure to rebellion against the Lord. The encouragement from Tychicus gave the last words, words from his friend Paul: Faith, hope, truth, and love. Don’t lose any of them. But the greatest of them in all circumstances is love.
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