Read posts about the great apostle, theologian, missionary, and author.

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Hello My Name Is Tychicus

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, Colossians 4:7-8

When you read Paul’s letters, he often sends greetings back and forth or mentions people who would have been known to his first-century readers but whose identities are lost to history. However, there are a few people, that with a careful reading a more detailed picture emerges. Tychicus is one of those guys. His first mention with Paul is in Acts 20:4 when Paul was in Ephesus. That leads many to suspect he was from Ephesus or at least the area nearby. Paul had been warned that trouble was waiting for him on his planned journey to Jerusalem. That didn’t deter Paul or any of his party from making the trip.

Now let’s be honest, we fuss if a flight gets canceled or if there are construction delays. We have no idea what an undertaking it was in to agree to accompany someone on a trip in the first century. Tychicus stayed with Paul throughout his arrest, through three trials and through the voyage to Rome which included a shipwreck.

He delivered the letters to Colossae and Ephesus and maybe the one to Philemon. This involved walking across Italy AND Greece AND another hundred miles across Asia Minor (with passage by ship across the Adriatic and Aegean Seas in between, of course). Finally, he was sent back to Ephesus to fill in as pastor for Timothy so Timothy could visit Paul in prison one last time. (2 Timothy 4:12)

All of those qualities made Tychicus the kind of guy worth emulating, but Paul’s own words about him are worth a closer look.

A beloved brother – Not only was he a believer and follower of Jesus Christ, but he was a beloved one. Tychicus had a heart and an attitude that endeared him to the apostle. Do we have that kind of heart and attitude?

A faithful minister – Tychicus was entrusted with difficult, yet critical tasks and he faithfully completed them. He demonstrated his faithfulness not only to the Lord who called him but the one he served with. Are we that loyal and determined?

A fellow servant – Tychicus was first and foremost a servant. He clearly didn’t seek attention or prominence or even recognition. He willingly worked to do whatever was needed. Do we exhibit that same selflessness and humility?

Hardly as well-known as Timothy or even Barnabas or Silas, Tychicus stands as an example of a beloved, faithful servant who served not only his Lord but devoted his life to serving the body of Christ. He’s certainly worth knowing and emulating.

What are some ways you serve or can serve?
Would others use Paul’s words about Tychicus to describe you?

Read the Hello My Name Is series

Final Words Before Battle

By Paula Wiseman

You’re equipped.
You have a strategy.
Some final words before you go into battle.

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints. Ephesians 6:18

Be on the alert with all perseverance and petition.

Be ready for stealthy attacks.
Avoid traps and snares.
Watch out for weak spots of your own.

Don’t give up.
Don’t lose focus.
Don’t get impatient.

Pray for each other, for strength and courage.
Encourage and hold each other up.
Care for the wounded.
Refresh the weary.

But there is no mention of spectators.
You are in the battle.
Are you are equipped?
Are you alert?
Are you engaged?

Now with those final words, get in the battle!

When God Told Paul ‘No’

By Paula Wiseman

And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 2 Corinthians 12:9

In a heartfelt letter to his friends at Corinth, Paul opens up in a moment of transparency and vulnerability about his deep frustration with what he calls a “thorn in his flesh”. But more than just a venting session, Paul uses it to tell his friends what Jesus taught him through the experience. (That in itself is a great model worth imitating.) So let’s see what we can draw when God told Paul ‘no’, not just once but three times.

Everyone struggles. Everyone from scholars to casual readers has offered up opinions as to what the thorn might have been. Frankly, I think that detail is left out so we can more readily identify with the struggle itself and apply the lessons given. Everybody wrestles with something that never seems to let up. It is there at every turn, ready to strip away all the progress we’ve made, making each step forward three times harder than it has to be. Paul was a better pastor for his suffering. His church and readers would know that they weren’t failures or weak or outside God’s favor because they struggled.

Grace – It’s not just for salvation. When God told Paul ‘no’, it demonstrates here, once again, the need for and the power of grace in our lives. You may be able to look back at a time in your life and wonder how you got through it. Grace. Even today, you may question how you’re going to go on. Grace. John MacArthur in his commentary on these verses lists several things that sufficient grace enables us to do: “to believe the gospel; to understand and apply the Word to all the issues of life; to overcome sin and temptation; to endure suffering, disappointment, and pain; to obey God; to serve Him effectively; and to worship Him.”

God knows what we need. Paul listed his impressive credentials a couple of times in Acts and in his letters. Pharisee. Scholar. Zealous for the things of God. It would have been easy and natural for him to devise a plan for evangelizing the known world and working tirelessly to carry out that plan. What Paul needed was Christ-reliance far more than self-reliance and this thorn was one way that Jesus moved Paul that direction. In fact, he used all sorts of difficulties to reinforce to the super-achieving apostle that he was not self-reliant. Neither are we. Following Christ is a life of dependence.

No one likes to be told ‘no,’ especially when the request is to ease pain, suffering, and hardships. The truth is, we learn more and we are better testimonies to Christ’s power in our struggles.

Next we’ll finish up this series with a look at the most significant ‘no’ of all.

John MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary – 2 Corinthians, (Chicago: Moody Press, 2004).

We Think You Ought to Know

By Paula Wiseman

We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. 2 Corinthians 1:8 NLT

That’s Paul talking. You know, the Apostle.
Crushed. Overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure.
His words.

We think you ought to know.
In case you think being in leadership, or in ministry is easy.
In case you think I’m exempt.
In case you think following God means everything is smoothed out …
We think you ought to know.

It was too much.
I did not see how we were going to get through it.

Not the words we typically think of coming out of the mouth of someone who wrote a big chunk of the New Testament.
But there they are. Unvarnished.

If you read the whole passage, though, you find Paul learned three important things.
He learned God’s comfort rains down. (v.5)
He learned to rely on God alone. (v. 9)
He learned how many people were praying for him and how necessary those prayers were. (v.11)

If you are in a place like Paul, may God comfort you with the assurance that the things he learned are true for you as well.

If you are not in a place like Paul …
Pray for those who are.

That I May Know Him

By Paula Wiseman

“[T]hat I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,” Philippians 3:10

Paul has just said he gave up everything he had gained in ordered to know Christ.
This is experiential knowledge, not academic.
Being saved was the beginning of that knowledge rather than the end.

What is the power of His resurrection?
Assuring me the payment for my sins was accepted.
Being justified, made right, in the eyes of God.
Securing my future hope.
Imputing me with His own righteousness.
Becoming more Christ-like each passing day.
Raising me from spiritual death to life and walk as a new creation.
Encouraging me to endure whatever comes my way.
Counting me an heir to the great riches of heaven.
Enjoying access to God.
Receiving the indwelling Holy Spirit.

But Paul doesn’t stop there.

He wants to know, to experience the fellowship of His sufferings.
It is when we suffer that we learn what a Savior we have.
He is our High Priest touched with our infirmities.
He is the one who will never leave us nor forsake us.
He was tempted in points like we are so He responds to us with grace and mercy.

Paul wanted to be conformed to Christ’s death.
In Christ’s death, He exhibited the highest, unquestioning obedience to and trust in God the Father.
He was utterly focused and surrendered to carrying out the task the Father had given Him.

Can we say with Paul, O that I may know Him…?

It’s Counterintuitive

By Paula Wiseman

But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; 1 Corinthians 1:27

Not too long ago I was getting ready for the day and I reached for my foundation from the fancy makeup store. You know the kind–flawless coverage expertly matched to my exact skin tone… Anyway, I was leaned up to the bathroom mirror blending it across my cheek and something dawned on me. The foundation boasts that it’s made with Amazonian clay. Clay is dirt. I was putting dirt on my face. On purpose. With the intent that I would look better with the dirt than without it.

Rather than focusing on the looming existential crisis threatening the makeup industry, I saw an object lesson. (You suspected as much, didn’t you?) Our life in Christ means adopting a lifestyle and a way of thinking that is often counterintuitive. Jesus tipped us off to it in the Beatitudes.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek. All those declarations went against the wisdom of the day.

He told a wealthy young man to get rid of his riches in order to store up treasures in heaven. He explained to His disciples that to be great they had to become servants. And He said the way to life started with death.

God doesn’t do things this way just to confuse us. OR to throw us off balance. It underscores that God is not like us and does not operate according to our systems or our expectations. Paul explains why in 1 Corinthians– “that no flesh should glory in His presence.” (1 Corinthians 1:29). We can’t come to God on the basis of our wisdom, or status, or wealth or anything else.

We come on the basis of what we have in Christ alone.

Of course, this time of year, we celebrate that Jesus Christ did the most counterintuitive thing ever. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, not just to teach us, not just to be a good example, but to give His life in exchange for ours. The King for the criminal. The holy for the profane. The beloved for the enemy.

Hallelujah! What a Savior!