Colossians 4.7-Tychicus Will Communicate Information to the Colossians Regarding Paul's Circumstannces
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Sunday March 26, 2017
Colossians: Colossians 4:7-Tychicus Will Communicate Information to the Colossians Regarding Paul’s Circumstances
Lesson # 111
Colossians 4:7 As to all my affairs, Tychicus, our beloved brother and faithful servant and fellow bond-servant in the Lord, will bring you information. (NASB95)
“Tychicus” is the proper name Tychikos (Τυχικός), which means “fortunate.”
“Beloved brother” is composed of the following: (1) adjective agapētos (ἀγαπητός), “beloved” (2) noun adelphos (ἀδελφός), “brother.”
The adjective agapētos means “beloved” indicating the eternal spiritual relationship that existed between Tychicus, Paul, Timothy, their companions in Rome, Epaphras and the Colossians as a result of all of them exercising faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
It describes the personal love and affection Paul, Timothy, their companions in Rome, the Colossians and Epaphras had for Tychicus indicating that they were all dear friends.
The adjective agapētos is modifying the noun adelphos, which means “brother” referring of course to Tychicus and is emphasizing with the faithful believers in Colossae their common familial relationship with Paul, Timothy, their companions in Rome, Epaphras and Tychicus.
“Faithful servant” is composed of the following: (1) adjective pistos (πιστός), “faithful” (2) noun diakonos (διάκονος), “a servant.”
The noun diakonos means “servant” and is used to describe Tychicus’ service as a pastor who communicates the gospel of Jesus Christ.
It speaks of Tychicus faithfully communicating Paul’s apostolic teaching to the church at Colossae and describes him as someone who serves Jesus Christ on behalf of His church.
The noun diakonos is modified by the adjective pistos which means “faithful” and is describing Tychicus’ service on behalf of Jesus Christ and His body, the church as remaining a loyal servant of Jesus Christ.
This adjective describes him as firmly adhering to Paul’s apostolic teaching and firmly resisting the false teaching of the Essence branch of the Judaizers whose teaching was being propagated in Colossae.
“Fellow bond-servant in the Lord” is composed of the following: (1) noun sundoulos (σύνδουλος), “fellow bond-servant” (2) preposition en (ἐν), “in” (3) noun kurios (κύριος), “the Lord.”
The noun sundoulos expresses the idea of being a slave together with others and here the word is used figuratively of Tychicus who faithfully served the Lord Jesus Christ.
It expresses the common relationship that Tychicus had with Paul, Timothy, their companions in Rome and Epaphras in that they all were serving the Lord Jesus Christ in some fashion or another.
The noun kurios refers to Jesus Christ and indicates the following: (1) His equality with the Father and the Spirit. (2) His joint-rulership with the Father over the entire cosmos. (3) His highest-ranking position as Chief Administrator in the divine government. (4) His absolute sovereign authority as Ruler over all creation and every creature. (5) His victory over the sin nature and Satan and His kingdom.
The noun kurios is the object of the preposition en, which functions as a marker of a state or condition expressing the idea that Tychicus exists in the state or condition of being a fellow-servant of the Lord.
“As to all my affairs” is a reference to Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome while awaiting trial before Nero in A.D. 62.
“Will bring you information” is composed of the following: (1) verb gnōrizō (γνωρίζω), “will bring information” (2) personal pronoun su (σύ), “you.”
The verb gnōrizō means “to cause someone to know something, to cause information to be known by someone” and refers to Tychicus causing the Colossians to receive information with regards to all of Paul’s circumstances in Rome.
The future tense of this verb gnōrizō is a predictive future tense indicating that something will take place or come to pass indicating that Tychicus “will certainly” cause the Colossians to know all about Paul’s circumstances in Rome.
The plural form of the personal pronoun su, which means “all of you” referring to the Colossian Christian community as a corporate unit and functions as a dative of advantage expressing the idea that the Colossians will benefit from Tychicus providing them information regarding Paul’s circumstances in Rome.
Colossians 4:7 Tychicus, a beloved brother, as well as a faithful servant and in addition, a fellow-servant of the Lord, will for your benefit certainly provide you information with regards to all my circumstances. (My translation)
Colossians 4:7 begins the final section of the Colossian epistle, which contains final greetings and instructions from Paul.
Colossians 4:7-9 contains a reference to the messengers who carried this epistle to the Colossians and also contains a commendation of Tychicus.
Colossians 4:10-14 presents greetings from Paul’s companions in Rome.
Lastly, Colossians 4:15-18 communicates greetings from Paul and brief instructions from him.
Here in Colossians 4:7, the apostle informs the Colossian Christian community that Tychicus will provide them information with regards to all his circumstances.
Tychicus was the primary letter carrier.
Peter Davids writes “The job of a letter carrier was not simply that of a postman. The job included reading the letter to the congregation, explaining and expanding anything that needed it, and answering the questions that arose, whether about the content of the letter or about the writer and his situation. This is the reason why the commendation of the letter carrier was so important and why the authors sometimes say that the person was ‘faithful’ or would explain how things went with the author, for that let the hearers know that the explanations and expansions of the letter carrier were authorized. The letter carrier was authorized to be the first exegete and to expand and fill in as needed. In the New Testament letters, mention is often made regarding such letter carriers, both men (e.g. Titus, some of the Corinthian correspondence; Silvanus 1 Pet 5:12) and women (Phoebe, Rom. 16:1-2). They were the first interpreters of Peter and Paul.”
When Paul wrote Colossians, he was suffering his first imprisonment in Rome while awaiting trial before Nero in A.D. 62.
Therefore, when he says that Tychicus will inform the Colossians about his circumstances, he is referring to this imprisonment which eventually resulted in his release.
Paul had two Roman imprisonments: (1) A.D. 60-62: Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians and Philemon (2) A.D. 68: 2 Timothy, Hebrews.
The apostle Paul wrote Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians and Philemon during his first Roman imprisonment while he was awaiting his appeal before Caesar and he was actually permitted to have his own rented quarters in Rome with a Roman soldier guarding him (See Acts 28).
Tychicus appears five times in the Greek New Testament (Acts 20:4; Eph. 6:21; Col. 4:7; 2 Tim. 4:12; Tit. 3:12).
Acts 20:4 reveals that Tychicus was from Asia Minor and traveled with Paul on his third missionary journey (Acts 20:4).
Like Timothy, Tychicus was also a pastor-teacher since Paul dispatched him with authority as his delegate to the Christian communities in Ephesus and Crete to replace two pastor-teachers, namely Timothy and Titus respectively.
Timothy and Titus’ responsibilities included communicating the Word of God to the Ephesian and Cretan churches and in particular Paul’s apostolic instructions.
Further indicating that Tychicus was a communicator of the Word of God is that he is described as a “faithful servant” in Ephesians 6:21-22 and Colossians 4:7.
Tychicus was sent to the Colossians (Colossians 4:7-9) as well as the Ephesians 6:21-22 to provide the churches in these cities information regarding Paul’s first Roman imprisonment.
Paul mentions Tychicus again in 2 Timothy 4:12 and in this verse, he informs Timothy that he was sending Tychicus with authority as his delegate to communicate his apostolic teaching to the Ephesian Christian community as Timothy’s replacement.
This is indicated by Paul’s language since he employs the verb apostellō rather than pempo since the former expresses the idea of delegated authority while the latter does not.
Thus, Paul wanted to convey to Timothy that he dispatched Tychicus to Ephesus to be his replacement.
This verb expresses the fact that like Timothy, Tychicus would have authority delegated to him by Paul to be the apostle’s delegate to the Ephesian Christian community in order that he might communicate Paul’s apostolic teaching.
Therefore, like Timothy and Titus, Tychicus was trusted by the apostle Paul because he would never delegate such authority to someone to be his delegate to the Christian community unless they were faithful and were trusted to communicate his apostolic teachings to the church.
In Titus 3:12, Paul informs Titus that he was sending either Artemis or Tychicus to relieve him of his duties on the island of Crete in order that he could spend the winter with him at Nicopolis.
Titus was to communicate to the Cretan Christian community Paul’s apostolic teaching just as Timothy was delegated authority to communicate this teaching to the Ephesian Christian community.
Therefore, we can see from Second Timothy 4:12, Ephesians 6:21-22, and Colossians 4:7 that Paul entrusted Tychicus to deliver these three letters to Timothy and the Ephesian and Colossian Christian communities and maybe even Paul’s epistle to Titus if Tychicus was sent to Crete rather than Artemis.