Welcome to Day 2504 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

Day 2504 – A Final Farewell – Daily Wisdom – Colossians 4:7-18

Putnam Church Message – 11/10/2024 Jesus Christ, Our Leader – A Friendly Farewell Colossians 4:7-18 Last week, we explored The Big Deal About “Little” Things and how important our vertical and horizontal communications are: our talk and our walk reflect our new life in Christ. This week, we will finish Paul’s letter to the Colossians chapter 4:7-18 in a message titled ‘A Friendly Farewell.’ It is on page 1835 of your Pew Bibles, but I will read it from the NLT ⁷Tychicus will give you a full report about how I am getting along. He is a beloved brother and faithful helper who serves with me in the Lord’s work. ⁸I have sent him to you for this very purpose—to let you know how we are doing and to encourage you. ⁹I am also sending Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, one of your own people. He and Tychicus will tell you everything that’s happening here. ¹⁰Aristarchus, who is in prison with me, sends you his greetings, and so does Mark, Barnabas’s cousin.| As you were instructed before, make Mark welcome if he comes your way. ¹¹Jesus (the one we call Justus) also sends his greetings. These are the only Jewish believers among my co-workers; they are working with me here for the Kingdom of God. And what a comfort they have been! ¹²Epaphras, a member of your own fellowship and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings. He always prays earnestly for you, asking God to make you strong and perfect, fully confident that you are following the whole will of God. ¹³I can assure you that he prays hard for you and also for the believers in Laodicea and Hierapolis. ¹⁴Luke, the beloved doctor, sends his greetings, and so does Demas. ¹⁵Please give my greetings to our brothers and sisters^[^b^] at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church that meets in her house. ¹⁶After you have read this letter, pass it on to the church at Laodicea so they can read it, too. And you should read the letter I wrote to them. ¹⁷And say to Archippus, “Be sure to carry out the ministry the Lord gave you.” ¹⁸HERE IS MY GREETING IN MY OWN HANDWRITING—PAUL. Remember my chains. May God’s grace be with you. The great poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote a poem, “Friendship is a sheltering tree.” How right he was. Think about it. Friends reach out to us and offer us refuge like the branches of a tree. They give us shade, shelter, provision, and protection. They invite us to a familiar place of refreshment, retreat, and repose. In particular, true friends provide three vital things for a quality life. Friends provide companionship, without which we’d be lonely and isolated. They provide comfort—a pat on the back, a shoulder to cry on, and kind words of consolation when we need them. They provide accountability and perspective to keep us on the straight path. By sharing our lives with others outside our immediate families, our world enlarges, our hearts are strengthened, and our minds are sharpened with fresh insight. One psychologist notes the importance of friendship to our overall health: I have discovered that friendship is the springboard to every other love. Friendships spill over onto the other important relationships of life. People with no friends usually have a diminished capacity for sustaining any kind of love. They tend to go through a succession of marriages, be estranged from various family members, and have trouble getting along at work. On the other hand, those who learn how to love their friends tend to make long and fulfilling marriages, work well on business teams, and enjoy their children. If we look to Christ as our Leader and example, we see He, too, had friends who labored with Him—some very close, others more on the periphery of His ministry. He had the “more than 500 of his followers” to whom He appeared after His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:6). He had the seventy whom He sent out in pairs to preach (Luke 10:1). And He had the twelve disciples who were with Him day in and day out (Matt. 10:2–4). Within that group were three individuals (Peter, James, and John) with whom He had an especially personal bond (Mark 5:37; 9:2; 14:33). And even among these three, he seemed to have an especially intimate friendship with one, “the disciple whom He loved”—John (John 19:26; 21:20). All of these and many others were involved in Jesus’ life and ministry. Many women traveled and supported Christ as disciples. Think also about Lazarus, Martha, and Mary. They provided companionship not only for Jesus Himself but also for one another. These concentric circles of friends were like sheltering trees, giving comfort and accountability. In the closing twelve verses of the letter to the Colossians, the apostle Paul names no fewer than ten friends who had been a vital part of his life and ministry. Among these friends are those who stayed with him through thick and thin, those who prayed for him and supported him, and even one who strayed, for whom Paul continued to be concerned. Let’s examine Paul’s friendly farewell to the Colossian Christians, |exploring his close circle of friends and gleaning wisdom and insight for our own lives, lived under the leadership of Jesus Christ. —4:7–9— Paul first mentions two close friends, one of whom carried this letter to the Colossian church and the church in Ephesus (Eph. 6:21–22). (Bulletin Insert) Tychicus (Col. 4:7–8). Paul regarded Tychicus as a much-loved brother, a faithful minister, and a fellow servant. He is portrayed as consistent, loyal, trustworthy, and reliable—someone intimately familiar with Paul’s condition. This wasn’t the only time Tychicus served as one of Paul’s trusted personal envoys. In Titus 3:12, Paul says, I am planning to send either Artemas or Tychicus to you. As soon as one of them arrives, do your best to meet me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to stay there for the winter. Being from Asia Minor himself (see Acts 20:4), Tychicus knew the culture and could be trusted to represent Paul well. Onesimus (Col. 4:9). As we will see when we explore the single-chapter book of Philemon next week, Onesimus was a runaway slave from Colossae who had come to know Christ when he had encountered Paul in Rome. He had fled from his owner,>Philemon, who was the letter’s recipient now bearing his name. When he escaped from his service to Philemon, Onesimus traveled west, all the way to Italy, ending up by God’s providence in Paul’s rented home in Rome. This encounter led to his conversion to Christ, resulting in a desire to make things right with his owner, Philemon. Paul describes Onesimus as a “faithful and beloved brother” (4:9). I find it interesting that Onesimus, who was legally a slave, was simply called a “brother” in Christ, while Tychicus, who was free, was called a “fellow bond-servant” (literally, “slave”) in the Lord (4:7). Surely Paul recognized the irony. Perhaps he was intentionally trying to put things in perspective. Though believers’ unity in Christ as brothers and sisters doesn’t cancel out social distinctions, |we must regard those distinctions as secondary to our primary identity as members of the same family, regardless of ethnicity, social status, or gender (see Gal. 3:28). At the end of Colossians 4:9, we’re told that both these men—the veteran minister Tychicus and the new convert Onesimus—would represent Paul to the church in Colossae. They would give an oral report about what was happening to him in Rome. While stuck in Rome under house arrest, Paul depended on them as his hands, feet, and mouth. —4:10–14— Next Paul mentions six more friends who were remaining with him in Rome: Aristarchus, Mark, Jesus (Justus), Epaphras, Luke, and Demas. The first three are Jews; the second three are Gentiles. Paul mentioned one of them earlier in the letter—Epaphras (1:7). Two of them—Mark and Luke—are well-known as Gospel writers. Three of them are probably new to most of us—Aristarchus, Justus, and Demas. Aristarchus (4:10). Aristarchus is mentioned in Acts 20:4 as one who, along wi...