Vers. 21, 22. Apostolical Care for the Church.

I. Paul was careful to keep up an intercourse and communion with the Churches of Christ.—There ought to be fellowship and correspondence among the Churches. They should all unite their endeavours for the common edification and comfort. The Church of Christ is one. We should seek the counsel of sister Churches under our difficulties, and be ready when requested to afford them our counsel under theirs.

II. Paul was solicitous that the Christians among whom he had preached should know of his condition and doings.—He was a prisoner, but suffered not his time to pass in restless impatience or useless indolence. He received all who came to him and preached to them the kingdom of God. He instructed his fellow-prisoners. He spent much of his time in prayer. Several of his epistles were written when he was in bonds. Paul’s example teaches us that we should do good in every condition.

III. When Paul sends Tychicus he gives him written testimonials that he might be received in the character of a minister.—This precaution was taken that the Churches might not be imposed upon by ignorant pretenders or artful deceivers. The Church is a regular, organised community. We are to receive none as ambassadors of Christ but those who come to us according to the order He has settled. Ministers ought to act in concert and unite their labours in building up the kingdom of Christ. Tychicus co-operated with Paul.

IV. Fidelity is an essential part of the ministerial character.—Paul calls Tychicus “a faithful minister.” Such a minister undertakes his work with pure intentions and abides in it with constancy, even though he may meet with worldly discouragements. Tychicus was sent to comfort the Ephesians under their grief for Paul’s imprisonment, and to guard them against any discouraging apprehensions. Ministers are to strengthen new converts and young professors to constancy and perseverance in religion by laying before them the comforting and animating motives of the Gospel.—Lathrop.

A Faithful Minister.—1. It concerns Christians to inform themselves of the life and way of eminent men in the Church, and chiefly of those who have been sufferers for truth, that they may be incited to sympathise with them, to follow their example and bless the Lord on their behalf. 2. It is in a singular manner required of a minister that he be faithful—diligent in his work, sincere in his aims and endeavours, neither adding nor paring what God has committed unto him to speak. 3. We should labour so to inform ourselves of the case and carriage of others and how it goes with the affairs of Christ’s kingdom elsewhere as to draw spiritual edification thence. 4. To know God’s gracious providence towards his suffering servants, together with their undaunted courage under sufferings and the use God makes of their sufferings to advance His truth, is sufficient ground of comfort and encouragement to God’s people.—Fergusson.

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Verses 23, 24.

A Suggestive Benediction—

I. Recognises the Divine source of all blessing.—“From God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (ver. 23). All our blessings are Divine, and flow from the inexhaustible fountain of the Divine beneficence. “God the Father,” in the eternal counsels of His wisdom and love, “and the Lord Jesus Christ,” who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself as an atonement for human sin—the glorious Trinity of Persons in the Godhead—contribute from their combined perfections, the spiritual good that encircles every believing soul. “The God of Christians,” says Pascal, “is not barely the Author of geometrical truths, or of the order of the elements—this is the Divinity of the heathen; nor barely the providential Disposer of the lives and fortunes of men, so as to crown His worshippers with a happy series of years—this is the portion of the Jews. But the God of Abraham and of Jacob, the God of Christians, is a God of love and of consolation; a God who fills the heart and the soul where He resides; a God who gives them a deep and inward feeling of their own misery and of His infinite mercy, unites Himself to their spirit, replenishes it with humility and joy, with affiance and love, and renders them incapable of any end but Himself.” The religious character of the Lancashire people was illustrated by an incident that happened towards the close of the cotton famine. The mills in one village had been stopped for months, and the first waggon-load of cotton that arrived seemed to them like the olive branch that told of the abating waters of the deluge. The waggon was met by the women, who hysterically laughed and cried and hugged the cotton bales as if they were dear old friends, and then ended by singing that grand old hymn, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

II. Implores specific blessings upon Christian brethren.—“Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith” (ver. 23). Where there is no love there is no peace, and peace and love without faith, are capricious and worthless. Love is the strength of the forbearance and self-suppression so essential to the maintenance of peace. As faith grows and intensifies it opens up new channels in which love can flow. We are to contend for the faith, not that peace may be disturbed, but that it may rest on a firmer and more permanent basis. What greater boon can we desiderate for our brethren than that they may abound in “peace and love with faith”?