May 27, 2024

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“Find out what pleases the Lord. Tychicus, our dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. I am sending him to you for this very purpose, that you may know how we are, and that he may encourage you.” (Ephesians 5.10; Ephesians 6.21-22)

REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

We dare not forget that this is a letter of encouragement and a solicitation of faithfulness from Paul to the Christ Community of Faith in Ephesus. His letter would have been one of support to his protege, Timothy, who was the first bishop of Ephesus. It must have been a tremendous challenge to be the bishop of Ephesus with two prominent early Church leaders being associated with him there. Of course, there was Paul who looked upon Timothy like a son. Paul mentored Timothy in the faith and encouraged him to be circumcised (though seemingly in contradistinction to Paul’s battle against the Judaizers on the prescription of circumcision to be a “legitimate” Christ follower.) Perhaps he did this in deference to Timothy’s mother, Eunice and his grandmother, Lois, who raised him in the midst of the Old Testament scriptures; his father being Greek (although not knowing if his father was a convert to Christianity, Judaism or neither.) Several times Paul mentions the term “adoption” in his letters and while such a practice as was common in Rome to establish an heir when the father had no children, no such definitive word is found describing such a relationship between Paul and Timothy. Regardless, the spiritual connection and discipleship is immutable.

There would have also been the “challenge” of having the beloved disciples, John, who we know was the Presbyter for the Seven Churches of Asia Minor. John also was the caregiver and “adopted” son, as ordained by Jesus on the cross, of Mary the mother of Jesus. It would be from Ephesus that John was exiled to the island of Patmos where he received the Revelation of the Resurrected Christ with instruction concerning “the Last Day.” John would have provided instructional oversight to the seven churches in the presbytery and wise counsel. No writings or instructions from John to Timothy are known. There would have been no need for such considering their proximity with both Timothy and John residing in Ephesus. We do know that Timothy died shortly after John was exiled. For this reason, there may have been no directive given to Timothy in the Book of Revelation. Thus, the words given to the Seven Churches were delivered for each of the pastors or bishops in those congregations without specificity. Regardless, to have two key early Church leaders in his company would be of great importance to his identity as a pastor and as a ,,follower of Christ.

As we come to the close of this Letter to the Ephesians [the Faith in Christ Community,] Paul is clear on the purpose of his letter as well as the messenger. His letter is to be without question about living life as a follower of Christ. Mentions of himself are only in reference to his understanding of such a Christ-following life. But he is not without an awareness that many within that fellowship, including Timothy, would be concerned for his welfare. They would have been aware of his trials and tribulations including his imprisonment in Rome. They would also be confident that his imprisonment combined with his unfailing steadfastness to the hold of the gospel on his life would most likely culminate in his death. Still, priorities were maintained and his instruction and encouragement of the people of God called by the name of Jesus the Christ would always come first. The purpose of Tychicus was to bring the letter to Ephesus, share it and then encourage those who heard it that Paul was not deterred in the promotion of the Gospel as it was given to him. To maintain the call of Christ to be an apostle of His gospel is what would most certainly please God. He did not do it to “please” God as if to gain some advantage by it save to continue to confront evil with good and the falsehoods of humanity with the truth of God’s divinity revealed in Jesus of Nazareth, God’s Christ and the Messiah of God’s people. Paul did desire to be pleasing to God in his faithfulness and obedience, however. To do the will of God was to walk in the path of Christ who, as John remembered Jesus declaring, was and is and will always be “…the way, the truth and the life which leads to God the Father.” The singularity of that declaration made the gospel the priority understanding for all who would follow after Jesus as the Christ. They would know full well that, again using the words of Jesus as John remembered them, “…no greater love is there than this that one would lay down their life for another; by this the whole world will know that you are My disciples.” It would be toward this end that Paul maintained the faith given to him first by the Law which Jesus fulfilled in His earthly ministry culminating in His death, burial and resurrection and by the resurrected Christ Himself on the Damascus Road. If Paul was to lose his life for the sake of the gospel and for defending that faith in Jesus as the Christ before Caesar, Rome and even back to those whom he had served in Jerusalem, then it was simply the right and good, pleasing, thing to do which honored God and Christ.

The encouragement promised by Paul through Tychicus was not in simply giving “attaboys.” It was the encouragement to maintain the faith as it had been given to them through the teaching of the Law and the Prophets, the disciples and apostles (including himself and John) and their own pastor who would have been Timothy. The establishment of such a gospel legacy would have been critical to the identity of the Church in Ephesus in those critical years when Rome under Nero’s rule would become more and more intolerant of the Christian movement as God’s Kingdom on earth as it was in Heaven. Even more so it would have been critical to maintain the encouragement of that word following the cruelty suffered until subsequent rulers including Domitian culminating in the exile of John the Elder of the Seven Churches and beloved of Christ. He would have been, at that time, the last survivor of the original twelve. Now it would be time for the Church to truly take up the mantle of responsibility and opportunity to not only know what pleases God but to, as did Paul, please God with faithful service to the world even to the point of willingness to lay down their lives for one another. They would not be able to do so without encouragement then and neither are we in these troubling times. Be encouraged, mighty ones of God and seek to be pleasing to God in the offering of yourselves to one and all in Jesus’ name.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, before we were conceived in the womb, You had already formed us in Your love and by Your Spirit brought us into being. Each one of us is blessed with the opportunity of doing right, being good and producing the fruit of the Spirit so that others may be fed the truth of that same love so that the two will become one. It is our soul’s sincere desire to embrace the oneness You have in mind that we would know that we are Your people and that You are our God. Lead us in that discovery of the truth and the manifestation of that love for us all. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.