On Sunday night in the car, on our way back from church, we had some good discussion about the sermon from Ephesians 6:21-24. My children were fascinated by the meaning of Tychicus, and the circumstances around him that would have caused his parents to call him “Lucky”. This got me thinking. So I decided to do a little more digging and write this article.

As we already know, Tychicus was the apostle Paul’s scribe and courier who delivered the epistle to the Ephesian church. Tychicus was sent not only to deliver the letter but also to encourage the Ephesian church about Paul’s condition in prison.

As I mentioned on Sunday, the name 'Tychicus' comes from the Greek word tyche, the word for fortune, fortunate or luck. What I learned since then is that Tyche was one of the many gods of Greek Mythology. She was considered the Greek goddess of Success, Fortune, Luck, and Prosperity. Greeks believed that she had the power to define the fate and fortune of people and also of entire cities; thus, she was highly revered.

So, it seems fair to conclude that Tychicus' parents were ‘god’-fearing people, or at least superstitious parents who wanted the blessings of this Greek goddess by naming their son after her.

I did a little more digging. In Hinduism there is a similar god by the name of Lakshmi. She is the Hindu goddess of wealth, good fortune, beauty, and abundance. When we first moved to India, we stayed in Kolhapur where the famous Mahalaxmi temple is situated. There is a 2 feet x 8.5 inch image of Lakshmi carved in black stone in this temple where millions of worshippers come visit each year. A little more about that later.

I also discovered that there was an Egyptian god of luck, Bes. This god was considered extremely good luck. He was supposed to watch over the common man, children, women in childbirth, and anyone else who needed protection from evil. 

Even in Norse mythology there was a ‘god’ of luck. Gefion was an old-Scandinavian vegetation and fertility goddess, especially connected with the plough. She was considered the patron of virgins and the bringer of good luck and prosperity.

I also discovered that Hotei is the Buddhist god of luck and that in China they used to have a god of wisdom, luck and happiness that they called Fukurokuju.

Many other similar gods of luck exist in various religions. So why isn't luck considered a Christian concept or ideology?

Luck, by its very definition, means success or failure brought by chance rather than through one's own actions. The concept of Luck is not biblical. Believing in luck is essentially a belief that something other than God has the power to affect our lives. The Bible teaches that God is sovereign and in control.

From an earthly perspective, things may seem to happen at random, but throughout the whole of Scripture, it is clear that God is in control of all of His creation and is somehow able to take the random acts of natural law, the free will of both good and evil men, and the wicked intent of demons and combine them all to accomplish His good and perfect will (Genesis 50:20; Job chapters 1 and 42; John 9:1-7). And Christians, specifically, are given the promise that God works all things, whether seemingly good or bad, together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Tychicus reminds me of the parents we met on a train in India while traveling back home to Kolhapur. I started a conversation with these parents who were traveling with their 9-month-old son to visit the Mahalaxmi temple. They were proud parents, and both Keri and I doted on their son. They told us that they were going to give the goddess Mahalaxmi an offering of gold equivalent to the weight of their son for changing ten years of bad luck by giving them this son. 

We tried our best to show these parents that the God who had blessed them with their son is called ‘Yahweh’. God reveals to us in His Word that not only does the life he gives begin at conception, but He knows who we are even before then (Jeremiah 1:5). 

Psalm 139:13–14 tells us of the majestic work of God working in the womb. God himself wonderfully forms a child in his image. This is not ‘luck’ or chance or good fortune. No, this is the hand of our awesome God.  For any event of life; no matter how small (Matthew 10:29-31) or how large (Daniel 4:35; Proverbs 21:1), God is sovereign over all (Ephesians 1:11; Psalm 115:3; Isaiah 46:9-10), and thus nothing is merely the matter of chance.

The next time you are tempted to wish someone ‘good luck’, remember Tychicus. Remember how our sovereign God can pull out of the pagan world one whose parents named him Lucky, so that he would become the church’s encourager by reminding us that even though the world believes in luck, God is in-control. God works all things, whether seemingly good or bad, together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. It's not 'good-luck' but rather our good God. Let’s make sure we give God the glory and not all these human-generated false world-views.