Acts 15:36-40
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. And Barnabas determined to take with them John, whose surname was Mark. But Paul thought not good to take him with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work. And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus; and Paul chose Silas, and departed, being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God.
WILLIAM KELLY (1821-1906): We lose sight of Mark for six or seven years, which for all we know, may have been so much lost time; after that he becomes the passive cause of an exceedingly unfortunate dispute.
H. A. IRONSIDE (1876-1951): Paul had lost confidence in Mark because of his leaving the work and returning to Jerusalem upon the completion of the evangelistic tour in Cyprus. Barnabas, kindly in spirit and evidently moved by natural affection, wanted to give the unfaithful helper a second chance, but Paul was obdurate. He felt he could not afford to jeopardize the success of their work by again taking with them one who had proved himself a weakling.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): Paul did not believe in these impulsive people who could not hold on under difficulties. But Barnabas, knowing Mark better—and feeling a kinsman’s lenity to his faults, insisted that they should take Mark.
THOMAS GOODWIN (1600-1679): Barnabas was in the wrong, for he went upon a carnal ground, because Mark was his sister’s son.
J. S. HOWSON (1816-1885): Barnabas would not be without strong arguments to defend the justice of his claims. Mark had come to a willing obedience, had left his home in Jerusalem, and he was ready now to face all the difficulties and dangers. To repel him in the moment of his repentance was surely “to break a bruised reed,” and to “quench the smoking flax.”
THE EDITOR: Paul’s rejection might have crippled him spiritually for years. During those so-called “lost” years, I think Mark grew spiritually more mature under the influence of Peter and Barnabas. Barnabas likely didn’t know about Mark’s secret flight from Gethsemane, but Mark did; combined with his failure on that mission trip, his conscience had probably humbled him considerably. And how it must have dismayed Mark to be the subject of this dispute!
C. H. SPURGEON: Barnabas was right in his mild judgment of Mark, for he was a sound believer at bottom and, notwithstanding this fault, he was a real, true-hearted disciple. Barnabas was right, but I think that Paul was not wrong.
THE EDITOR: Paul was zealously thinking of the spiritual good of the Gentile churches they had planted on their first missionary journey. What if Mark faltered again? What a terrible testimony and bad example that would be for those young churches.
H. A. IRONSIDE: I take it Paul considered the work of the Lord so serious he could not think of linking up again with a man who had shown so little sense of the importance of service for the Lord.
MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546): The cause of their disagreement could hardly have been small since it separated these two, who had been joined together for years in a holy partnership.
THE EDITOR: “Barnabas was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and faith,” Acts 11:24. Given the Spirit’s testimony to his character, Barnabas, the “son of consolation,” was concerned with Mark’s spiritual good; he would do the same for any believer in a similar situation. It is presumptive to say that Barnabas was guilty of nepotism, as so many assume. And if Paul implied something to that effect, Barnabas likely bristled at it, feeling unjustly accused. Maybe it also aggravated a suppressed resentment: Barnabas was also an apostle, and older than Paul, Acts 14:12-14: in Lystra, they called Barnabas, “Jupiter,” and Paul, “Mercury;” in the Greek pantheon, Jupiter was the chief god, and Mercury was his son. And the Holy Spirit had said, “Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them,” Acts 13:2.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): Afterward the order changes, and we read of “Paul and Barnabas.”
J. S. HOWSON: The indirect censure Barnabas had received earlier from Paul in Antioch, Galatians 2:11, may have been perpetually irritated by the consciousness that his position was becoming daily more and more subordinate to Paul. Once Barnabas was spoken of as chief of those “prophets at Antioch,” among whom Saul was the last, Acts 13:1; now his name was scarcely heard, except when he was mentioned as the companion of Paul.
ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): Has Paul forgotten all that he once owed to Barnabas? Barnabas alone of all the disciples in Jerusalem held out his hand to him. Barnabas alone believed Saul’s wonderful story of his conversion. “They were all afraid of Saul, and believed not that he was a disciple, But Barnabas took Saul, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way to Damascus, and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus Christ,” Acts 9:26,27. Barnabas stood up for Saul; he trusted and befriended him when everyone else suspected him. Barnabas staked his good name and all his influence with the apostles, on the genuineness of Saul’s conversion, and on the sincerity and integrity of his discipleship.
THE EDITOR: Paul could have treated Barnabas more considerately. And subsequent events later proved his hasty judgment of Mark’s character to be wrong. But Paul’s characteristic zeal wouldn’t let it go.
J. S. HOWSON: It is not difficult to understand the obstinacy with which each of the disputants, when feelings were once excited, clung to his opinion.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): There was a sharp contention—Literally, a paroxysm, or fit of a fever.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): They were certainly both at fault to let the contention be sharp; it is to be feared they gave one another some hard words…We may further observe that the church at Antioch seem to countenance Paul in what he did. Barnabas sailed with his nephew to Cyprus, and no notice was taken of him, nor a recommendation given him—but when Paul departed, he was “recommended by the brethren to the grace of God.” They thought he was in the right.
ALEXANDER WHYTE: Who was right and who was wrong in this sharp contention I have no heart to ask. Both were wrong—and multitudes in the churches who heard of the scandal, and took contending sides in it, were wrong also. And this sad story is told us to this day, not that we may take sides in it, but that the like of it may never again happen amongst ourselves.
H. A. IRONSIDE: “A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city,” Proverbs 18:19. The beginning of strife is as a drop of water, which, after a break in the dike, grows into a torrent of water that is practically impossible to stem. However, as the years went on, a kindly, considerate feeling prevailed; in his old age Paul spoke affectionately of Barnabas, 1 Corinthians 9:6, and Mark: “Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry,” 2 Timothy 4:11. I am sure most of us are thankful that Barnabas gave Mark another chance. Many a young Christian has failed in the beginning, but gone on later to become a valuable worker in the vineyard of the Lord Jesus Christ.
ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER (1772-1851): Learn to think for yourselves. Avoid premature judgments and hasty decisions.
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): We shall profit greatly, when we have learned to refrain hasty judgment.
