Ephesians 6

Paul will not leave the church guessing. Tychicus—“the beloved brother and faithful servant in the Lord”—is sent so they may know how Paul is and what he is doing. Classical Arminians hear ordinary, responsible means: a willing servant whose fidelity the church can receive. “Make known to you all things” is pastoral transparency. Grace uses a brother’s truthful speech; the Ephesians are treated as people who can hear and respond.

Rumor unsettles churches; Paul answers it with a named messenger. “Beloved” and “faithful in the Lord” are not self-made badges—they describe a man the Lord has made useful. Even from confinement the apostle provides for distant saints. Christ’s care of His people runs through appointed ministers, and Tychicus’s credibility is bound up with the Lord who holds him.

The sending has a double aim: news of how we are, and encouragement of hearts. Wesley hears Tychicus relating the supports Paul finds from God and the gospel’s success. Arminians take the pastoral aim at face value—hearts can be strengthened by true report. Grace meets the church in a brother’s words; they are not left to private anxiety or speculation.

“For this very purpose” marks a deliberate mission, not a casual errand. God supplies not only doctrine but a messenger so anxious hearts are steadied. Encouragement is a means of grace. The same Lord who bound Paul also sent Tychicus, that the church might know the truth and be consoled in it.

Wesley notes that this verse recapitulates the whole epistle: peace to the brothers, and love with faith, from the Father and the Son. Classical Arminians gladly confess the source—these are not meritorious works the church manufactures. They are gifts sincerely given, to be received and lived. “Love with faith” names living union with Christ, not a bare profession. The brethren are to walk in what God actually bestows.

Calvin hears the prayer as doctrine: faith and love, as well as peace itself, are gifts of God bestowed through Christ—from the Father and the Son equally. The closing does not hand the church a self-produced harmony. “Love with faith” is one blessing from above, not love as a human add-on to a faith we generated. What the letter required, God must give.

The blessing is spoken over “all those who love” Christ with love incorruptible—not a nameless decree, but people whose love is actual. Wesley: in incorruption, without corrupting Christ’s gospel, without mixture of corrupt affections, and with continuance till grace issue in glory. Arminians do not treat love as a wage that purchases grace; they treat it as living faith’s necessary mark. Grace attends those who so love; a dead or hypocritical profession is not what Paul blesses.

“All those who love” names the people grace has already made. Incorruptible love is not the meritorious door into favor; it is the Spirit’s fruit in the elect. Calvin’s prayer is that God would continue to bestow His favor on those who love Christ with a pure conscience—grace’s continuance, not a human prerequisite that causes grace. Look not for a love you must manufacture in order to qualify, but for the incorruptible love God works in His own, and rest in the grace that both begins and keeps it.