Chapter 30
THE CONCLUSION
REQUEST: COMMENDATION: BENEDICTION
The apostle has bidden his readers apply themselves with wakeful and incessant earnestness to prayer (Ephesians 6:18). For this is, after all, the chief arm of the spiritual combat. By this means the soul draws reinforcements of mercy and hope from the eternal sources (Ephesians 6:10). By this means the Asian Christians will be able not only to carry on their own conflict with vigour, but to help all the saints (Ephesians 6:18); and through their aid the whole Church of God will be sustained in its war with the prince of this world.
The apostle Paul himself stood in the forefront of this battle. He was suffering for the cause of common Christendom; he was a mark for the attack of the enemies of the gospel. On him, more than on any other man, the safety and progress of the Church depended. Philippians 1:25 In this position he naturally says: "Watching unto prayer in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints-and for me." If his heart should fail him, or his mouth be closed, if the word of inspiration ceased to be given him and the great teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth no longer spoke as he ought to speak, it would be a heavy blow and sore discouragement to the friends of Christ throughout the world. "My afflictions are your glory. Ephesians 3:13 My unworthy testimony to Christ is showing forth His praise to all men and angels. Pray for me then, that I may speak and act in this hour of trial in a manner worthy of the dispensation given to me." Strong and confident as the apostle Paul was, he tier himself to be nothing without prayer. It is his habit to expect the support of the intercessions of all who love him in Christ. He knew that he was heaped by this means, on numberless occasions and in wonderful ways. He asks his present readers to entreat that "the word may be given me when I open my mouth, so that I may freely make known the mystery of the gospel, on which behalf I serve as ambassador in bonds, that in it I may speak freely, as I ought to speak." This sentence hangs upon the verb "may-be-given." Jesus said to His apostles: "It shall be given you in that hour what you shall speak, when brought before rulers and kings". Matthew 10:18-20 The apostle stands now before the Roman world. He has appealed to Caesar, and awaits his trial. If he has not yet appeared at the Emperor's tribunal, he will shortly have to do so. Christ's ambassador is about to plead in chains before the highest of human courts. It is not his own life or freedom that he is concerned about; the ambassador has only to consider how he shall represent his Sovereign's interests. The importance which Paul attached to this occasion is manifest from the words written to Timothy 2 Timothy 4:17 referring to his later trial. St. Paul has this special need in his thoughts, in addition to the help from above continually required in the discharge of his ministry, under the hampering conditions of his imprisonment. comp. Colossians 4:3-4
The Church must entreat on Paul's behalf that the word he utters may be God's, and not his own. It is in vain to "open the mouth," unless there is this higher prompting and through the gates of speech there issues a Divine message, unless the speaker is the mouthpiece of the Holy Spirit rather than of his individual thought and will. "The words that I speak unto you," Jesus. said, "I speak not of myself." The bold apostle intends to open his mouth; but he must have the true "word given" him to say. We should pray for Christ's ambassadors, and especially for the more public and eloquent pleaders of the Christian cause, that it may be thus with them. Rash and vain words, that bear the stamp of the mere man who utters them and not of the Spirit of his Master, do a hurt to the cause of the gospel proportioned to the blessing that comes from such lips when they speak the word given to them.
Such inspiration would enable the apostle to "make known the mystery of the gospel with freedom and confidence of speech": the expression rendered "with boldness" means all this. Before the emperor Nero, or the slave Onesimus, he will be able with the same aptness and dignity and self-command to declare his message and to vindicate his Master's name. "The mystery of the gospel" is no other secret than that which this epistle unfolds, Ephesians 3:3-9 the great fact that Jesus Christ is the Saviour and the Lord of the whole world. Jesus proclaimed Himself to Pilate, who represented at Jerusalem the imperial rule, as the King of all who are of the truth; and the apostle Paul has the like message to convey to the head of the Empire. It needed the greatest boldness and the greatest wisdom in the ambassador of the Messianic King to play his part at Rome; an unwise word might make his own life forfeit, and bring incalculable dangers on the Church.
St. Paul's trial, we suppose, passed off successfully, as he at this time anticipated. The Roman government was perfectly aware that the political charge against their prisoner was frivolous; and Nero, if he personally gave Paul a hearing on this earlier trial, in all probability viewed his spiritual pretensions on his Master's behalf with contemptuous tolerance. If he did so, the toleration was not due to any want of courage or clearness on the defendant's part. It is possible even that the courage and address of the advocate of the "new superstition" pleased the tyrant, who was not without his moments of good humour nor without the instincts of a man of taste. The apostle, we may well believe, made an impression on the supreme court at Rome similar to that made on his judges in Caesarea.
St. Paul's bonds in Christ have now become widely "manifest" in Rome. Philippians 1:13 He pleads in circumstances of disgrace. But God brings good for His servants out of evil. As he said at a later time, so he could say now: "They have bound me; but they cannot bind the word of God." He was "not ashamed of the gospel" in the prospect of coming to Rome years before; Romans 1:16 and he is not ashamed now, though he has come in chains as an evil-doer. Through the intercessions of Christ's people all these injuries of Satan are turning to his salvation and to the "furtherance of the gospel"; and Paul rejoices and triumphs in them, well assured that Christ will be magnified whether by his life or death, whether by his freedom or his chains. Philippians 1:12-26 The prayers which the imprisoned apostle asks from the Church were fulfilled. For we read in the last verses of the Acts of the Apostles, which put into a sentence the history of this period: "He received all that came to him, preaching the kingdom and teaching the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, with all boldness, none forbidding him."
The paragraph relating to Tychicus is almost identical with that of Colossians 4:7-8. It begins with a "But" connecting what follows with the statement the apostle has just made respecting his position at Rome. As much as to say: "I want your prayers, set as I am for the defence of the gospel and in circumstances of difficulty and peril. But Tychicus will tell you more about me than I can convey by letter. I am sending him, in fact, for this very purpose."
St. Paul knew the great anxiety of the Christians of Asia on his account. Epaphras of Colossae had "shown him the love in the Spirit" that was felt towards him even by those in this region who had never seen him in the Colossians 1:8. The tender heart of the apostle is touched by this assurance. So he sends Tychicus to visit as many of the Asian Churches as he may be able to reach, bringing news that will cheer their hearts and relieve their discouragement. Ephesians 3:13 The note sent at this time to Philemon indicates the hopeful tidings that Tychicus was able to convey to Paul's friends in the East: "I trust that through your prayers I shall be given to you". Philemon 1:22 To the Philippians he writes, perhaps a little later, in the same strain: "I trust in the Lord that I myself shall come shortly". Philippians 2:24 He anticipates, with some confidence, his speedy acquittal and release: it is not likely that this expectation, on the part of such a man as St. Paul, was disappointed. The good news went round the Asian and Macedonian Churches: "Paul is likely soon to be free, and we shall see and hear him again!"
In the parallel epistle he writes, "that you may know"; Colossians 4:8 here it is, "that you also may know my affairs." The added word is significant. The writer is imagining his letter read in the various assemblies which it will reach. He has the other epistle in his mind, and remembering that he there introduced Tychicus in similar terms, he says to this wider circle of Asian disciples: "That you also, as well as the Churches of the Lycus valley, may know how things are with me, I send Tychicus to give you a full report." It is not necessary, however, to look beyond the last two verses for the reference of the also of Ephesians 6:21: "I have asked your prayers on my behalf; and I wish you in turn to know how things go with me." Possibly, there were some matters connected with St. Paul's trial at Rome that could not be fitly or safely communicated by letter. Hence he adds: "He shall make known unto you all things." When he writes "that ye may know my affairs, how I do," we gather that Tychicus was to communicate to those he visited everything about the beloved apostle that would be of interest to his Asian brethren.
The apostle commends Tychicus in language identical in the two letters, except that in Colossians "fellow-servant" is added to the honourable designations of "beloved brother and faithful minister," under which he is here introduced. We find him first associated with St. Paul in Acts 20:4, where "Tychicus and Trophimus" represent Asia in the number of those who accompanied the apostle on his voyage to Jerusalem, when he carried the contributions of his Gentile Churches to the relief of the Christian poor in Jerusalem. Trophimus, his companion, is called a "Greek" and an "Ephesian". Acts 21:28-29 Whether Tychicus belonged to the same city or not, we cannot tell. He was almost certainly a Greek. The Pastoral epistles show Tychicus still in the apostle's service in his last years. He appears to have joined St. Paul's staff and remained with him from the time that he accompanied him to Jerusalem in the year 59. From 2 Timothy 4:9-12 we gather that Tychicus was sent to Ephesus to relieve Timothy, when St. Paul desired the presence of the latter at Rome. It is evident that he was a man greatly valued by the apostle and endeared to him. Tychicus was well known in the Asian Churches, and suitable therefore to be sent upon this errand. And the commendation given to him would be very welcome to the circle to which he belonged. The apostle has great tact in these personal matters, the tact which belongs to delicate feeling and a generous mind. He calls his messenger "the beloved brother" in his relation to the Church in general, and "faithful minister in the Lord" in his special relation to himself. So he describes Epaphroditus to the Philippians as "your apostle and minister of my need." In conveying these letters and messages, this worthy man was Paul's apostle and minister of his need in regard to the Asian Churches. He is a "minister in the Lord, " inasmuch as this office lies within the range of his service to the Lord Christ.
We observe that in writing to the Colossians the apostle applies to Onesimus, the converted slave, the honourable epithets applied here to this long-tried friend: "the faithful and beloved brother" Colossians 4:9 -Every Christian believer should be in the eyes of his fellows a "beloved brother." And every true servant of Christ and His people is a "faithful minister in the Lord," be his rank high or low, and whether official hands have been laid upon his head or not. We are apt, by a trick of words, to limit to the order which we suitably call "the ministry" expressions that the New Testament applies to the common ministry of Christ's saints. comp. Colossians 4:12 This devoted servant of Christ is employed just now as a newsman and letter-carrier. But what a high responsibility it was, to be the bearer to the Asian cities, and to the Church for all time, of the epistles of Paul the apostle to the Ephesians, Colossians, and Philemon. Had Tychicus been careless or dishonest, had he lost these precious documents or tampered with them, how great the loss to mankind! We cannot read them without feeling our debt to this beloved brother and faithful servant of the Church. Those who travel upon Christ's business, who link distant communities to each other and convey from one to another the Holy Spirit's fellowship and grace, are "the messengers of the Churches and the glory of Christ". 2 Corinthians 8:23