What would the Bible say about you if you had been a part of it? Would you be viewed well? Poorly? Would it have a lot to say, or would you get only one or two obscure mentions? Today, I want to share a couple of small thoughts about somebody who has a very small role in the Bible, but whose role is one that I think all of us should want to follow.
Beloved Brother and Faithful Minister
The person I have in mind is a man in the New Testament named Tychicus. He only shows up a handful of times, appearing in the parting messages of four of Paul’s letters. We never learn anything about Tychicus’ life story, or about what he did or where he ended up. The only things we ever hear about him are the passing references that Paul makes at the end of a few of his letters.
Acts 20:4 (ESV) “Sopater the Berean, son of Pyrrhus, accompanied [Paul]; and of the Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus; and Gaius of Derbe, and Timothy; and the Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus.”
Titus 3:12 (ESV) “When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.”
2 Timothy 4:9-12 (ESV) “Do your best to come to me soon. For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. Luke alone is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.”
Colossians 4:7-9 (ESV) “Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts, and with him Onesimus, our faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They will tell you of everything that has taken place here.”
Ephesians 6:21-22 (ESV) “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.”
Even though we only have the smallest fragments of information about him, and don’t know where he came from or what he did, we still learn a great deal about Tychicus from these messages. We know that he was a faithful Christian, that he devoted himself to the service of God, and that he was a valuable servant to Paul in his travels. We know that Paul trusted Tychicus to take care of important tasks when he was unable to do them himself, and that Tychicus was well known as being dependable to accomplish them. In every way, these verses gives us an image of a faithful and good servant of God.
Tychicus is exactly the kind of the person that we all should be seeking to emulate: not someone who achieved fame or great honor, but someone who did good for the sake of God and for the sake of their brethren. We should want to be dependable workers that others can rely on, no matter what the task is. We should be ready to do any task for our brethren, whether big or small and whether we will be rewarded or not. Like Tychicus, our presence should an encouragement to the hearts of those around us.
I find the stories of people like Tychicus highly encouraging. Not all of us are going to have the dramatic lives of somebody like Paul, but all of us can be the kind of person that Tychicus was: humble, faithful, and dutiful to our brethren.
