28 Does Being in Christ Make You Independent of Others?
August 28
Does Being in Christ Make You Independent of Others?
NOW THE HUMAN element comes in: “Now that you also may know how I am and what I am doing, Tych´icus the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord will tell you everything” (Eph. 6:21). When we are in Christ, are we shut off from relationships with others and their ministrations to us? When we are in Christ, are we isolated and insulated from human help and fellowship? Do we become antisocial or unsocial? This verse answers that. Tychicus was a “beloved brother” as well as a “faithful minister.” Being in the Lord made them more deeply one in the brotherhood.
To the description in Ephesians of Tychicus as a “beloved brother and faithful minister,” Colossians adds, “a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord” (Col. 4:7). The last—fellow servant—is important. In fact, the combination of all three is most important—beloved brother, faithful minister, and fellow servant. Some are faithful ministers; they are devoted to their work, driving and earnest, but they could not be described as beloved brothers. They are too absorbed in being faithful ministers to be beloved brothers. They have little time for brotherliness. Then some are beloved brothers, hail-fellows well met, but not faithful ministers. They cultivate friends, but do not convert people. They are so kindly they cannot convert.
Then there are those who are faithful ministers but not good fellow servants. They cannot work with others; they are lone wolves. Tychicus was all three, and, most important of all, he was in the Lord. When you are in the Lord, a faithful minister, a beloved brother, and a fellow servant, then you are a strong person indeed—and indispensable. God and man can send you on errands for the kingdom. Being in the Lord means to be in a brotherhood in the Lord. In the Lord means to be very social.
O Father, I thank Thee that to be in Thee and in Thy Son means to be in fellowship with Thy sons. When we belong to Thee, we belong to each other, and anything that takes us out of fellowship with one another takes us out of fellowship with Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: It may be that I have such drive that I drive past human need.
