IN TODAY’S WORLD of electronic communication, it’s possible to message hundreds, even thousands of people at once. This can be massively convenient when many people need the same or similar information. This can even be done on the sly using the bcc: or “blind carbon copy” function (does anyone under the age of fifty even know what a carbon copy is?). We often bcc: people because we want to keep their contact information private. Other times, however, it’s a way of saying, “Psst. I want you to see what I said to so-and-so, but I don’t want them to know I told you. Don’t say anything, okay?”

And of course, it can all go sideways if we’re not paying attention. You may know stories of people spreading slander or gossip about some individual using an existing list of office emails — and forgetting to take that person’s email off the list. What was meant only for the eyes of some ended up being seen by everyone, to the embarrassment of the one who sent the message, and an organizational nightmare may ensue.

The apostle Paul could not have imagined our world of emails, text messages, tweets, and social media. He had no telephone or telegraph, no way to send messages except by word of mouth, a handwritten letter, or both. What we make fun of today as “snail mail” may be slower than instantaneous electronic messaging, but it’s still much, much faster than anything Paul could use.

Score one for the snails.

Nor, apparently, was Paul one to keep secrets. After all, it would have been a practical and pastoral luxury for Paul to write multiple private letters to individuals. Instead, he wrote letters that were to be read aloud in gatherings of Christians, with an eye toward the community as a whole. If a city had more than one house church, his letter would have been read in all of them. And some letters were meant to be read in more than one city. The letter to the Ephesians, for example, doesn’t deal with specific local issues and questions as many of his other letters do; scholars generally agree that Paul meant that letter to be read not only in Ephesus but in other churches in the surrounding area.

Thus, in a way quite different from a message from one person to another, the letter to the Colossians comes from both Paul and Timothy, and is addressed to the entire Christian community in Colossae. At the end of the letter, Paul names several additional people who are with him. Tychicus and Onesimus are probably the ones bringing the letter to Colossae; they will update the Colossians on all the news about Paul. The apostle also sends greetings from several other folks, both Jews and Gentiles. He even sends greeting to the Christians in nearby Laodicea, and explicitly instructs the Colossians to make sure that his letter is read there too.

Who are all the people Paul names? We know a little about some of them, but have to be content with much guesswork when trying to imagine their role. For now, let’s concentrate on the first two names Paul lists, Tychicus and Onesimus. Here’s what he says:

Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. He is coming with Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother, who is one of you. They will tell you everything that is happening here. (Col 4:7-9, NIV)

Tychicus is mentioned in a very similar way at the end of the letter to the Ephesians: “Tychicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing” (Eph 6:21). Indeed, there is so much overlap between the list of people mentioned at the end of the letters to the Colossians, the Ephesians, and to Philemon that many believe the three letters were sent together, borne by Tychicus. He was one of Paul’s traveling companions (Acts 20:4) and appears to have been a close associate. With regard to the Colossians, his job is to bring the letter and encourage the people with news about Paul.

He may also have had the unstated role of lending moral support to Onesimus. Onesimus, you’ll remember, was the runaway slave who belonged to a prominent member of the Colossian community, a man named Philemon. By Roman law, Philemon had the right to punish Onesimus severely just for running away, regardless of whether he stole anything from Philemon as many believe. But Onesimus is now a Christian through the ministry of Paul, and has been helping to care for Paul in his imprisonment. Paul does the right thing by sending Onesimus back to Colossae.

But he doesn’t go back empty-handed. It’s likely that he and Tychicus carried not only the letters to the Colossians and Ephesians, but to Philemon as well. Imagine the scenario. Philemon has a legitimate complaint against Onesimus, and the Colossians as a whole would only have remembered him as a runaway slave, not as a member of their church. But now he comes bearing a letter from Paul, urging Philemon to treat him as their brother in Christ. Again, he doesn’t tell Philemon what to do as much as tell him how to see; can he see Onesimus in a new light, for who he now is in Christ? Can the Colossians accept that Onesimus is now their “faithful and dear brother,” one of them, as Paul describes?

Remember, too, that Paul addresses the letter to Philemon not only to him as an individual but to all the members of his house church. No bcc: here. Everything is out on the table. Everyone knows what Paul has said, and Philemon knows that they know.

In a more individualistic setting, Paul may have given Philemon strictly private counsel and left it up to him to decide. But Paul doesn’t think that way. The situation between Philemon and Onesimus is a matter for the church.

Yes, Philemon is the one who ultimately must decide what to do. But he does so as the church watches, setting a precedent and modeling what it means to follow Christ, in whom there is neither slave nor free (Col 3:11).

Can we even imagine our own spirituality being on such public display?