_TYCHICUS AND ONESIMUS, THE LETTER-BEARERS._
"All my affairs shall Tychicus make known unto you, the beloved
brother and faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord: whom I
have sent unto you for this very purpose, that ye may know our
estate, and that he may comfort your hearts; together with Onesimus,
the faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make
known unto you all things that _are done_ here."--COL. iv. 7-9 (Rev.
Ver.).
In Paul's days it was perhaps more difficult to get letters delivered
than to write them. It was a long, weary journey from Rome to
Colossae,--across Italy, then by sea to Greece, across Greece, then by
sea to the port of Ephesus, and thence by rough ways to the upland
valley where lay Colossae, with its neighbouring towns of Laodicea and
Hierapolis. So one thing which the Apostle has to think about is to find
messengers to carry his letter. He pitches upon these two, Tychicus and
Onesimus. The former is one of his personal attendants, told off for
this duty; the other, who has been in Rome under very peculiar
circumstances, is going home to Colossae, on a strange errand, in which
he may be helped by having a message from Paul to carry.
We shall not now deal with the words before us, so much as with these
two figures, whom we may regard as representing certain principles, and
embodying some useful lessons.
I. Tychicus may stand as representing the greatness and sacredness of
small and secular service done for Christ.
We must first try, in as few words as may be, to change the name into a
man. There is something very solemn and pathetic in these shadowy names
which appear for a moment on the page of Scripture, and are swallowed up
of black night, like stars that suddenly blaze out for a week or two,
and then dwindle and at last disappear altogether. They too lived, and
loved, and strove, and suffered, and enjoyed: and now--all is gone,
gone; the hot fire burned down to such a little handful of white ashes.
Tychicus and Onesimus! two shadows that once were men! and as they are,
so we shall be.
As to Tychicus, there are several fragmentary notices about him in the
Acts of the Apostles and in Paul's letters, and although they do not
amount to much, still by piecing them together, and looking at them with
some sympathy, we can get a notion of the man.
He does not appear till near the end of Paul's missionary work, and was
probably one of the fruits of the Apostle's long residence in Ephesus on
his last missionary tour, as we do not hear of him till after that
period. That stay in Ephesus was cut short by the silversmiths'
riot--the earliest example of trades' unions--when they wanted to
silence the preaching of the gospel because it damaged the market for
"shrines," and "_also_" was an insult to the great goddess! Thereupon
Paul retired to Europe, and after some months there, decided on his last
fateful journey to Jerusalem. On the way he was joined by a remarkable
group of friends seven in number, and apparently carefully selected so
as to represent the principal fields of the Apostle's labours. There
were three Europeans, two from "Asia"--meaning by that name, of course,
only the Roman province, which included mainly the western seaboard--and
two from the wilder inland country of Lycaonia. Tychicus was one of the
two from Asia; the other was Trophimus, whom we know to have been an
Ephesian (Acts xxi. 29), as Tychicus may not improbably have also been.
We do not know that all the seven accompanied Paul to Jerusalem.
Trophimus we know did, and another of them, Aristarchus, is mentioned as
having sailed with him on the return voyage from Palestine (Acts xxvii.
2). But if they were not intended to go to Jerusalem, why did they meet
him at all? The sacredness of the number seven, the apparent care to
secure a representation of the whole field of apostolic activity, and
the long distances that some of them must have travelled, make it
extremely unlikely that these men should have met him at a little port
in Asia Minor for the mere sake of being with him for a few days. It
certainly seems much more probable that they joined his company and went
on to Jerusalem. What for? Probably as bearers of money contributions
from the whole area of the Gentile Churches, to the "poor saints"
there--a purpose which would explain the composition of the delegation.
Paul was too sensitive and too sagacious to have more to do with money
matters than he could help. We learn from his letter to the Church at
Corinth that he insisted on another brother being associated with him in
the administration of their alms, so that no man could raise suspicions
against him. Paul's principle was that which ought to guide every man
entrusted with other people's money to spend for religious or charitable
purposes--"I shall not be your almoner unless some one appointed by you
stands by me to see that I spend your money rightly"--a good example
which, it is much to be desired, were followed by all workers, and
required to be followed as a condition of all giving.
These seven, at all events, began the long journey with Paul. Among them
is our friend Tychicus, who may have learned to know the Apostle more
intimately during it, and perhaps developed qualities in travel which
marked him out as fit for the errand on which we here find him.
This voyage was about the year 58 A.D. Then comes an interval of some
three or four years, in which occur Paul's arrest and imprisonment at
Caesarea, his appearance before governors and kings, his voyage to Italy
and shipwreck, with his residence in Rome. Whether Tychicus was with him
during all this period, as Luke seems to have been, we do not know, nor
at what point he joined the Apostle, if he was not his companion
throughout. But the verses before us show that he was with Paul during
part of his first Roman captivity, probably about A.D. 62 or 63; and
their commendation of him as "a faithful minister," or helper of Paul,
implies that for a considerable period before this he had been rendering
services to the Apostle.
He is now despatched all the long way to Colossae to carry this letter,
and to tell the Church by word of mouth all that had happened in Rome.
No information of that kind is in the letter itself. That silence forms
a remarkable contrast to the affectionate abundance of personal details
in another prison letter, that to the Philippians, and probably marks
this Epistle as addressed to a Church never visited by Paul. Tychicus is
sent, according to the most probable reading, that "ye may know our
estate, and that he may comfort your hearts"--encouraging the brethren
to Christian stedfastness, not only by his news of Paul, but by his own
company and exhortations.
The very same words are employed about him in the contemporaneous letter
to the Ephesians. Evidently, then, he carried both epistles on the same
journey; and one reason for selecting him as messenger is plainly that
he was a native of the province, and probably of Ephesus. When Paul
looked round his little circle of attendant friends, his eye fell on
Tychicus, as the very man for such an errand. "You go, Tychicus. It is
your home; they all know you."
The most careful students now think that the Epistle to the Ephesians
was meant to go the round of the Churches of Asia Minor, beginning, no
doubt, with that in the great city of Ephesus. If that be so, and
Tychicus had to carry it to these Churches in turn, he would necessarily
come, in the course of his duty, to Laodicea, which was only a few miles
from Colossae, and so could most conveniently deliver this Epistle. The
wider and the narrower mission fitted into each other.
No doubt he went, and did his work. We can fancy the eager groups,
perhaps in some upper room, perhaps in some quiet place of prayer by the
river side; in their midst the two messengers, with a little knot of
listeners and questioners round each. How they would have to tell the
story a dozen times over! how every detail would be precious! how tears
would come and hearts would glow! how deep into the night they would
talk! and how many a heart that had begun to waver would be confirmed in
cleaving to Christ by the exhortations of Tychicus, by the very sight of
Onesimus, and by Paul's words of fire!
What became of Tychicus after that journey we do not know. Perhaps he
settled down at Ephesus for a time, perhaps he returned to Paul. At any
rate, we get two more glimpses of him at a later period--one in the
Epistle to Titus, in which we hear of the Apostle's intention to
despatch him on another journey to Crete, and the last in the close of
the second Epistle to Timothy, written from Rome probably about A.D. 67.
The Apostle believes that his death is near, and seems to have sent away
most of his staff. Among the notices of their various appointments we
read, "Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus." He is not said to have been
sent on any mission connected with the Churches. It may be that he was
simply sent away because, by reason of his impending martyrdom, Paul had
no more need of him. True, he still has Luke by him, and he wishes
Timothy to come and bring his first "minister," Mark, with him. But he
has sent away Tychicus, as if he had said, Now, go back to your home, my
friend! You have been a faithful servant for ten years. I need you no
more. Go to your own people, and take my blessing. God be with you! So
they parted, he that was for death, to die! and he that was for life, to
live and to treasure the memory of Paul in his heart for the rest of
his days. These are the facts; ten years of faithful service to the
Apostle, partly during his detention in Rome, and much of it spent in
wearisome and dangerous travelling undertaken to carry a couple of
letters.
As for his character, Paul has given us something of it in these few
words, which have commended him to a wider circle than the handful of
Christians at Colossae. As for his personal godliness and goodness, he is
"a beloved brother," as are all who love Christ; but he is also a
"faithful minister," or personal attendant upon the Apostle. Paul always
seems to have had one or two such about him, from the time of his first
journey, when John Mark filled the post, to the end of his career.
Probably he was no great hand at managing affairs, and needed some plain
common-sense nature beside him, who would be secretary or amanuensis
sometimes, and general helper and factotum. Men of genius and men
devoted to some great cause which tyrannously absorbs attention, want
some person to fill such a homely office. The person who filled it would
be likely to be a plain man, not gifted in any special degree for higher
service. Common sense, willingness to be troubled with small details of
purely secular arrangements, and a hearty love for the chief, and desire
to spare him annoyance and work, were the qualifications. Such probably
was Tychicus--no orator, no organiser, no thinker, but simply an honest,
loving soul, who did not shrink from rough outward work, if only it
might help the cause. We do not read that he was a teacher or preacher,
or miracle worker. His gift was--ministry, and he gave himself to his
ministry. His business was to run Paul's errands, and, like a true man,
he ran them "faithfully."
So then, he is fairly taken as representing the greatness and sacredness
of small and secular service for Christ. For the Apostle goes on to add
something to his eulogium as a "faithful minister"--when he calls him "a
fellow-servant," or slave, "in the Lord." As if he had said, Do not
suppose that because I write this letter, and Tychicus carries it, there
is much difference between us. We are both slaves of the same Lord who
has set each of us his tasks; and though the tasks be different, the
obedience is the same, and the doers stand on one level. I am not
Tychicus' master, though he be my minister. We have both, as I have been
reminding you that you all have, an owner in heaven. The delicacy of the
turn thus given to the commendation is a beautiful indication of Paul's
generous, chivalrous nature. No wonder that such a soul bound men like
Tychicus to him!
But there is more than merely a revelation of a beautiful character in
the words; there are great truths in them. We may draw them out in two
or three thoughts.
Small things done for Christ are great. Trifles that contribute and are
indispensable to a great result are great; or perhaps, more properly,
both words are out of place. In some powerful engine there is a little
screw, and if it drop out, the great piston cannot rise nor the huge
crank turn. What have big and little to do with things which are equally
indispensable? There is a great rudder that steers an ironclad. It moves
on a "pintle" a few inches long. If that bit of iron were gone, what
would become of the rudder, and what would be the use of the ship with
all her guns? There is an old jingling rhyme about losing a shoe for
want of a nail, and a horse for want of a shoe, and a man for want of a
horse, and a battle for want of a man, and a kingdom for loss of a
battle. The intervening links may be left out--and the nail and the
kingdom brought together. In a similar spirit, we may say that the
trifles done for Christ which help the great things are as important as
these. What is the use of writing letters, if you cannot get them
delivered? It takes both Paul and Tychicus to get the letter into the
hands of the people at Colossae.
Another thought suggested by the figure of Paul's minister, who was also
his fellow-slave, is the sacredness of secular work done for Christ.
When Tychicus is caring for Paul's comfort, and looking after common
things for him, he is serving Christ, and his work is "in the Lord."
That is equivalent to saying that the distinction between sacred and
secular, religious and non-religious, like that of great and small,
disappears from work done for and in Jesus. Whenever there is
organization, there must be much work concerned with purely material
things: and the most spiritual forces must have some organization. There
must be men for "the outward business of the house of God" as well as
white-robed priests at the altar, and the rapt gazer in the secret place
of the Most High. There are a hundred matters of detail and of purely
outward and mechanical sort which must be seen to by somebody. The
alternative is to do them in a purely mechanical and secular manner and
so to make the work utterly dreary and contemptible, or in a devout and
earnest manner and so to hallow them all, and make worship of them all.
The difference between two lives is not in the material on which, but in
the motive from which, and in the end for which, they are respectively
lived. All work done in obedience to the same Lord is the same in
essence; for it is all obedience; and all work done for the same God is
the same in essence, for it is all worship. The distinction between
secular and sacred ought never to have found its way into Christian
morals, and ought for evermore to be expelled from Christian life.
Another thought may be suggested--fleeting things done for Christ are
eternal. How astonished Tychicus would have been if anybody had told him
on that day when he got away from Rome, with the two precious letters in
his scrip, that these bits of parchment would outlast all the
ostentatious pomp of the city, and that his name, because written in
them, would be known to the end of time all over the world! The eternal
things are the things done for Christ. They are eternal in His memory
who has said, "I will never forget any of their works," however they may
fall from man's remembrance. They are perpetual in their consequences.
True, no man's contribution to the mighty sum of things "that make for
righteousness" can very long be traced as separate from the others, any
more than the raindrop that refreshed the harebell on the moor can be
traced in burn, and river, and sea. But for all that, it is there. So
our influence for good blends with a thousand others, and may not be
traceable beyond a short distance, still it is there: and no true work
for Christ, abortive as it may seem, but goes to swell the great
aggregate of forces which are working on through the ages to bring the
perfect Order.
That Colossian Church seems a failure. Where is it now? Gone. Where are
its sister Churches of Asia? Gone. Paul's work and Tychicus' seem to
have vanished from the earth, and Mohammedanism to have taken its place.
Yes! and here are we to-day in England, and Christian men all over the
world in lands that were mere slaughterhouses of savagery then, learning
our best lessons from Paul's words, and owing something for our
knowledge of them to Tychicus' humble care. Paul meant to teach a
handful of obscure believers--he has edified the world. Tychicus thought
to carry the precious letter safely over the sea--he was helping to send
it across the centuries, and to put it into our hands. So little do we
know where our work will terminate. Our only concern is where it begins.
Let us look after this end, the motive; and leave God to take care of
the other, the consequences.
Such work will be perpetual in its consequences on ourselves. "Though
Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious." Whether our service
for Christ does others any good or no, it will bless ourselves, by
strengthening the motives from which it springs, by enlarging our own
knowledge and enriching our own characters, and by a hundred other
gracious influences which His work exerts upon the devout worker, and
which become indissoluble parts of himself, and abide with him for ever,
over and above the crown of glory that fadeth not away.
And, as the reward is given not to the outward deed, but to the motive
which settles its value, all work done from the same motive is alike in
reward, howsoever different in form. Paul in the front, and Tychicus
obscure in the rear, the great teachers and path-openers whom Christ
through the ages raises up for large spiritual work, and the little
people whom Christ through the ages raises up to help and
sympathize--shall share alike at last, if the Spirit that moved them has
been the same, and if in different administrations they have served the
same Lord. "He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a
prophet"--though no prophecy come from his lips--"shall receive a
prophet's reward."
II. We must now turn to a much briefer consideration of the second
figure here, Onesimus, as representing the transforming and uniting
power of Christian faith.
No doubt this is the same Onesimus as we read of in the Epistle to
Philemon. His story is familiar and need not be dwelt on. He had been an
"unprofitable servant," good-for-nothing, and apparently had robbed his
master, and then fled. He had found his way to Rome, to which all the
scum of the empire seemed to drift. There he had burrowed in some hole,
and found obscurity and security. Somehow or other he had come across
Paul--surely not, as has been supposed, having sought the Apostle as a
friend of his master's, which would rather have been a reason for
avoiding him. However that may be, he had found Paul, and Paul's Master
had found _him_ by the gospel which Paul spoke. His heart had been
touched. And now he is to go back to his owner. With beautiful
considerateness the Apostle unites him with Tychicus in his mission, and
refers the Church to him as an authority. That is most delicate and
thoughtful. The same sensitive regard for his feelings marks the
language in which he is commended to them. There is now no word about "a
fellow-slave"--that might have been misunderstood and might have hurt.
Paul will only say about him half of what he said about Tychicus. He
cannot leave out the "faithful," because Onesimus had been eminently
unfaithful, and so he attaches it to that half of his former
commendation which he retains, and testifies to him as "a faithful and
beloved brother." There are no references to his flight or to his
peculations. Philemon is the person to be spoken to about these. The
Church has nothing to do with them. The man's past was blotted
out--enough that he is "faithful," exercising trust in Christ, and
therefore to be trusted. His condition was of no moment--enough that he
is "a brother," therefore to be beloved.
Does not then that figure stand forth a living illustration of the
_transforming_ power of Christianity? Slaves had well-known vices,
largely the result of their position--idleness, heartlessness, lying,
dishonesty. And this man had had his full share of the sins of his
class. Think of him as he left Colossae, slinking from his master, with
stolen property in his bosom, madness and mutiny in his heart, an
ignorant heathen, with vices and sensualities holding carnival in his
soul. Think of him as he came back, Paul's trusted representative, with
desires after holiness in his deepest nature, the light of the knowledge
of a loving and pure God in his soul, a great hope before him, ready for
all service and even to put on again the abhorred yoke! What had
happened? Nothing but this--the message had come to him, "Onesimus!
fugitive, rebel, thief as thou art, Jesus Christ has died for thee, and
lives to cleanse and bless thee. Believest thou this?" And he believed,
and leant his whole sinful self on that Saviour, and the corruption
faded away from his heart, and out of the thief was made a trustworthy
man, and out of the slave a beloved brother. The cross had touched his
heart and will. That was all. It had changed his whole being. He is a
living illustration of Paul's teaching in this very letter. He is dead
with Christ to his old self; he lives with Christ a new life.
The gospel can do that. It can and does do so to-day and to us, if we
will. Nothing else can; nothing else ever has done it; nothing else ever
will. Culture may do much; social reformation may do much; but the
radical transformation of the nature is only effected by the "love of
God shed abroad in the heart," and by the new life which we receive
through our faith in Christ.
That change can be produced on all sorts and conditions of men. The
gospel despairs of none. It knows of no hopelessly irreclaimable
classes. It can kindle a soul under the ribs of death. The filthiest
rags can be cleaned and made into spotlessly white paper, which may have
the name of God written upon it. None are beyond its power; neither the
savages in other lands, nor the more hopeless heathens festering and
rotting in our back slums, the opprobrium of our civilization and the
indictment of our Christianity. Take the gospel that transformed this
poor slave, to them, and some hearts will own it, and we shall pick out
of the kennel souls blacker than his, and make them like him, brethren,
faithful and beloved.
Further, here is a living illustration of the power which the gospel has
of binding men into a true brotherhood. We can scarcely picture to
ourselves the gulf which separated the master from his slave. "So many
slaves, so many enemies," said Seneca. That great crack running through
society was a chief weakness and peril of the ancient world.
Christianity gathered master and slave into one family, and set them
down at one table to commemorate the death of the Saviour who held them
all in the embrace of His great love.
All true union among men must be based upon their oneness in Jesus
Christ. The brotherhood of man is a consequence of the fatherhood of
God, and Christ shows us the Father. If the dreams of men's being knit
together in harmony are ever to be more than dreams, the power that
makes them facts must flow from the cross. The world must recognise that
"One is your master," before it comes to believe as anything more than
the merest sentimentality that "all ye are brethren."
Much has to be done before the dawn of that day reddens in the east,
"when, man to man, the wide world o'er, shall brothers be," and much in
political and social life has to be swept away before society is
organized on the basis of Christian fraternity. The vision tarries. But
we may remember how certainly, though slowly, the curse of slavery has
disappeared, and take courage to believe that all other evils will fade
away in like manner, until the cords of love shall bind all hearts in
fraternal unity, because they bind each to the cross of the Elder
Brother, through whom we are no more slaves but sons, and if sons of
God, then brethren of one another.