A Barnabas in Our Lives

St. Barnabas, Apostle

11 June 2024

The church’s life is team work. No one lives to himself alone (Rm 14:7), so we cannot forget how important working with each other is. Is the case of Barnabas’ insisting on taking John Mark with him on a missionary visit to Asia Minor a counterexample of this requirement for team work (Acts 15:35-40)? Paul, who was unhappy that Mark had gone home during the first missionary journey (Acts 13:13), afterward declined to take him on a second journey. This must have been a stinging rebuke for the eager, although previously unsteady, young man. Barnabas came to his rescue, seeing to it that they two made a missionary team, leaving Paul and Silas also to strike out on their own. At first, this might be taken as an organizational disaster. Yet, nothing could be further from the truth. Paul and Barnabas contended about the best way to carry out the mission of visiting the congregations of Asia Minor and proclaiming Christ in Cyprus, and the conclusion was that they should double the number of visitation teams. Doubling the man power is hardly a negative outcome. Paul had his way in the matter of Mark and Barnabas his way.

Barnabas, whose feast day is today, was truly the son of consolation (Acts 4:36) for the broken hearted Mark; encouraging him with the work of seeing to the needs of the churches. He was to provide the Lord’s consolation to them with the consolation he himself had received from the Lord through Barnabas (2Co 1:4). Both Paul and Barnabas had their roles to play in the life of John Mark. Paul was the law and Barnabas the gospel for the young man. Barnabas kept excessive sorrow from overcoming a young man with whom, at the time, Paul refused to work. Notice too, that this was not the end of the collaboration between Paul and Mark. Later Paul described Mark as “very useful to me for ministry” (2Ti 4:11). There were issues bigger than the difference of opinion that resulted in a parting of the ways between Barnabas and Paul. They still had the unity that they shared in Christ Jesus. They had a fellowship that a parting of the ways could not break. Mark needed both Paul and Barnabas and matured as a Christian leader because of the involvement of both of them in his life. Their unity in Christ demanded that both Paul and Barnabas, each in his own way, provide what the Lord wanted for Mark and that Mark needed. Jesus sent them both, and for their own purposes, into the life of Mark.

Jesus sends us leaders who are both like Paul and like Barnabas. Some are ready with the rebuke that we need. Others are ready with a word of comfort and encouragement. Both are important. We should thank God for both. Both enable us to preach the Word of God and to evangelize those who are in need of hearing of Christ as their Savior. As we thank God for Paul, so too we give thanks for Barnabas in the consolation that he offers. We need both a Paul and a Barnabas in our lives.

John Chrysostom

“‘Paul and Barnabas remained in Antioch, teaching and preaching the word of the Lord, with many others also’ (Acts 15:35). They did not simply wait in Antioch, but taught. What did they teach, and what did they preach? They both taught those who were already believers and evangelized those who were not yet believers. ‘And after some days Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are”’ (Acts 15:36). Because there were uncounted trials, their presence was needed. “How they are,” he says. Naturally, he did not know this. See Paul ever alert, solicitous, unable to be idle, though he underwent dangers without end. Notice that it was not out of cowardice that he came to Antioch. He acts just as a physician does in the case of the sick. And the reason for visiting them he showed by saying, ‘Where we preached the word of the Lord.’

“‘Now Barnabas wanted to take with them John called Mark. But Paul thought best not to take with them one who had withdrawn from them in Pamphylia and had not gone with them to the work. And there arose a sharp disagreement, so that they separated from each other. Barnabas took Mark with him and sailed away to Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and departed, having been commended by the brothers to the grace of the Lord’ (Acts 15:37-40). So Barnabas departed from them.

“The point to be considered, is not that they differed in their opinions, but that they accommodated themselves to one another, seeing that it was the greater good to separate. Did they withdraw in anger? God forbid! In fact, after this Barnabas received many commendations from Paul in his epistles. There was ‘sharp disagreement,’ it says, not anger or quarrelling. The contention availed so far as to part them. Barnabas took Mark because he supposed it to be beneficial, but he did not avoid working with Paul thereafter, because of the fellowship they had with each other. It seems to me that the parting took place after due consideration, and that they said one to another: ‘As I desire not to be parted, and you desire to be so, therefore that we may not fight, let us distribute the places.’ In fact they did this, altogether yielding each to the other. For Barnabas wished Paul’s plan to stand, and therefore withdrew. On the other hand, Paul wished the other’s plan to stand, and therefore he withdrew. Would to God we too made such separations, as to go forth for preaching. Paul is an amazing and great man!

“This contest was extraordinarily beneficial for Mark. For the awe inspired by Paul converted him, while the kindness of Barnabas resulted that he was not left behind. They could contend, but the result supported a single goal. Seeing Paul choosing to leave him, Mark would be exceedingly awed, and would condemn himself, and seeing Barnabas so taking his part, he would greatly love him. The disciple, Mark, was corrected by the contention of the teachers rather than being offended by it. For if indeed they did this with a view to their own honor, he might well be offended. But if they did it for Mark’s good, and they contended for one and the same goal, to show that Barnabas, who honored him, had made a good decision, what is there out of place in it?”

John Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts, 34