Acts 15:36-41 And some days after Paul said to Barnabas… The dissension of Paul and Barnabas, painful in itself, may yield useful matter of reflection. HUMAN INFIRMITY IS MATURE CHRISTIANS. 1. The fact of it. Paul judged severely of Mark on moral grounds. His desertion of him and Barnabas (Acts 13:13) on a former occasion was to his mind a strong proof of inconstancy. But Mark had fallen away from them, not from Christ. And Barnabas would lean to the side of leniency and clemency towards the young disciple. The contention became sharp. Both thought themselves to be contending for Christ; both were unconsciously contending for self. Both were in the right, each from his own point of view aiming at the good of the young man and the furtherance of the kingdom. 2. The consolation of it. (1) With reference to the person concerned. Chrysostom says that the strife was of great service to Mark; for the sternness of Paul brought a change in his mind, while the kindness of Barnabas suffered him not to feel abandoned. (2) With reference to us. We may be encouraged by the thought that these holy men were of like passions with ourselves, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. Divine love triumphs over and is made perfect in human weakness. Apart from that, man's very virtues become faults; the mildness of Barnabas degenerates into softness, the severity of Paul into harshness. Divine love converts faults into blessings. Mark is humiliated, and thereby raised in Christian manhood. The separation of the apostles divides the stream of saving grace into two streams, and so the more widely spreads it in the world. - J. Parallel Verses KJV: And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. |
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