September 3, 2015 | Doing Life Together

 

“Tychicus, our dearly loved brother, faithful servant, and fellow slave in the Lord, will tell you all the news about me. I have sent him to you for this very purpose, so that you may know how we are and so that he may encourage your hearts.”  (Colossians 4:7-8 HCSB)
 
Fellow slave
Tychicus is a remarkable person! Paul tells us that Tychicus was a bond-slave of Jesus. “Slave” didn’t mean Tychicus lived in chains. “Fellow slave” means Tychicus is the kind of guy that one can bond with in the service of the Master.
The Greek word is beautiful and telling. What we translate “fellow slave” is σύνδουλος syndoulos. It’s a combo term. Sunmeans “together” and is used of a companion or partner. Doulos is a slave – in particular, one who willingly bonds himself to a master. Therefore, Tychicus is a person with whom one can bond together in willingly serving Jesus.
Is that true of us? Please consider your own soul and no one else. Ask yourself, “Am I the kind of person one can bond with in Jesus’ service?”
Are you a good team member? Or are you coasting behind other’s teamwork? Are you always complaining; always looking for greener grass elsewhere; always stirring up trouble? Do you give yourself to your Life Group or ministry team…or are there always walls there? Is bonding in ministry with your brethren a priority…or just something you tack on if there’s time left?
Tychicus obviously prioritizes his life partnerships in Christ. We should as well.
Doing life
Jon Bloom co-founded the ministry Desiring God, and he had some great insights on this in an old post:
 
If we are old enough and live in a region where we have options, we do choose our church community. But we don’t get to choose who else joins that community.
Invariably, after some time…we must live with leaders who disappoint us and fellow members who see the world differently. Besides their irritating temperamental idiosyncrasies, they have different interests, ministry priorities, educational philosophies, and musical preferences than we do.

“Doing life” with them doesn’t end up looking or feeling like the community of our dreams – our idealized abstract concept. Perhaps we need a change, to find a different church where we can really thrive.

Perhaps. If the defects of the church community include things like ethical or doctrinal unfaithfulness, a change may be exactly what is needed for us to thrive.

But if our restlessness is due to the disillusionment of having to deal with difficult, different people and defective programs, then perhaps the change we need is not in church community but in our willingness to love our neighbors, the ones God has given us to love.

The distinguishing mark of the church has never been its utopic society but its members’ love for each other (John 13:35). And…the glory of this love shines when it is costly and inconvenient.
In other words, we grow deepest and shine brightest when we are like Tychicus. And just in case I haven’t told you lately, it’s an honor to be sunduolos with you.
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