Ver. 7. “All my affairs shall Tychicus make known unto you, the beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord.” Admirable! how great is the wisdom of Paul! Observe, he doth not put everything into his Epistles, but only things necessary and urgent. In the first place, being desirous of not drawing them out to a length; and secondly, to make his messenger more respected, by his having also somewhat to relate; thirdly, showing his own affection towards him; for he would not else have entrusted these communications to him. Then, there were things which ought not to be declared in writing. “The beloved brother,” he saith. If beloved, he knew all, and he concealed nothing from him. “And faithful minister and fellow-servant in the Lord.” If 310 “faithful,” he will speak no falsehood; if “a fellow-servant,” he hath shared his trials, so that he has brought together from all sides the grounds of trustworthiness. Ver. 8. “Whom I have sent unto you for this very purpose.” Here he shows his great love, seeing that for this purpose he sent him, and this was the cause of his journey; and so when writing to the Thessalonians, he said, “Wherefore when we could no longer forbear, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone, and sent Timothy our brother.” (1 Thess. iii. 1, 2.) And to the Ephesians he sends this very same person, and for the very same cause, “That he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts.” (Eph. vi. 21, 22.) See what he saith, not “that ye might know my estate,” but “that I might know yours.” So in no place doth he mention what is his own. He shows that they were in trials too, by the expression, “comfort your hearts.” Ver. 9. “With Onesimus, the beloved and faithful brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things that are done here.” Onesimus is the one about whom, writing to Philemon, he said, “Whom I would fain have kept with me, that in thy behalf he might minister unto me in the bonds of the Gospel: but without thy mind I would do nothing.” (Philem. 13, 14.) And he adds too the praise of their city, that they might not only not888 be ashamed, but even pride themselves on him. “Who is one of you,” he saith. “They shall make known unto you all things that are done here.” Ver. 10. “Aristarchus my fellow-prisoner saluteth you.” Nothing can surpass this praise. This is he that was brought up from Jerusalem with him. This man hath said a greater thing than the prophets; for they call themselves “strangers and foreigners,” but this one calleth himself even a prisoner. Just like a prisoner of war he was dragged up and down,889 and lay at every one’s will to suffer evil of them, yea rather worse even than prisoners. For those indeed their enemies, after taking them, treat with much attention, having a care for them as their own property: but Paul, as though an enemy 888 Sav. adds οὐκ, but without necessity. 889 ἤγετο καὶ ἐφέρετο, which is most properly said of property plundered in war. 548 Colossians 4:5,6