PERSONAL: “TYCH´ICUS WILL tell you about my affairs; he is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord” (Col. 4:7). These personal references to people in the Lord have their universal significance, for they tell us what we must be in the Lord.
The central thing in Tychicus was that he was a “faithful minister”—that was the center of his life call. He had a call and was faithful to that call. That call gave him drive and direction. He was single-pointed. But that central drive and direction in the fulfillment of his call subjected him to the temptation of not being a “beloved brother” and a “fellow servant.” He did not fall into that temptation—as many of us do. He was so brotherly that he was “beloved,” and he was able to work with others, so he was called a “fellow servant.”
This temptation of not being a brother and not being able to work with others as a fellow servant is the temptation of the strong, devoted, driving type of Christian worker. He is so busy and so absorbed in fulfilling his mission that he neglects to be brotherly; he is so absorbed in his own affairs that he cannot work with others. In the end he is isolated. He hasn’t been brotherly along the way and hasn’t worked with others, so he is a victim of his own drive. He has driven himself apart from others in successful loneliness. He has succeeded in being a lonely soul.
Tychicus was a well-rounded person—faithful in his ministry, brotherly in the midst of his ministerial drive, and capable of working with others as a fellow servant, instead of being a lone wolf. If we are to stay in the Lord and function at our best, we must be driving, brotherly, and cooperative. Then we are strong; otherwise our strength is weakness.
O Lord Jesus, Thy drive to fulfill Thy ministry and Thy mission was all-absorbing. Thou didst set Thy face to go to Jerusalem, and yet how tender and brotherly and how concerned about the brotherhood. Make me like Thee. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: Search me. Am I a beloved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant?
