SHARE YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com

In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here.

Colossians 4:7-9

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Do you have people you care about who are distant from you?

I know I do. In fact, I don’t have any family that live in the same location as me. None. Several relations don’t even reside in this country.

Given this, it’s very hard for me to know the circumstances that my loved ones are going through, and vice versa, unless those circumstances are shared. This is what makes communication so important, whether by mail, e-mail, call, text, or nowadays, social media.

While we have so many ways to communicate in the 21st century, it wasn’t quite like that in biblical times which made it more difficult for someone to know how others were doing who lived elsewhere.

Take the Apostle Paul for example. He had been placed under house arrest in Rome and therefore couldn’t travel to visit any of the churches he had planted or any new locations where the Gospel needed shared. Since he was always on the road, it would have been hard for him to know how his brothers and sisters in Christ were doing. Ditto for the other way around.

And so we find Paul communicating by letters, even while incarcerated as he was as he wrote the letter to the church in Colossae which has been the focus of our study for weeks now. As he closes, Paul intentionally makes arrangements so his circumstances can be shared to the Colossian believers after he had heard about them from Ephaphras, the emissary from Colossae who visited Paul in Rome (Colossians 1:7).

As we see in our passage, Paul had made arrangements to send the letter to Colossae with Tychicus, his “dear brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant in the Lord”. Not only would Tychicus bring the letter but also would testify to Paul’s circumstances with the intent of encouraging the hearts of the Colossian believers.

Of interest, Tychicus had a traveling companion, a slave by the name of Onesimus, who Paul called a “faithful and dear brother”. If the name Onesimus sounds familiar, it should. For Paul writes a different letter from his Roman imprisonment to Philemon, the Colossian master of Onesimus who had fled to Rome. We’ll be covering Philemon a little later as I continue to write through the New Testament.

Both Tychicus and Onesimus were going to share Paul’s circumstances and tell his brother and sisters in Colossae about everything that was happening in Rome. Paul didn’t want the Colossian church to worry about him, not knowing how he was doing. We also know he wanted to send guidance to the church as well so they would stay the course and preserve the purity of the Gospel they had been taught.

Anyone who loves and cares for another is concerned about the circumstances their loved one may be under at any one given time. As Christians, we should not only check in on people to let them know they are thought of but also share our circumstances, never afraid to ask for prayer when needed.

Communication is always the key as it is truly the lifeblood of relationship.

Amen.  

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com