Be the Barnabas

 Be the Barnabas! 

Have you ever had a friend stand up for you? What about someone who helped and supported you even before you became friends? Barnabas was that kind of person. His life provides some great lessons for us today.

Barnabas' given name was Joses (or Joseph) but the apostles gave him the name Barnabas, which means "Son of Encouragement" or "Son of Exhortation" (Acts 4:36) 

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. And he went through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches. (Acts 15: 36-41)

It is well known that there became a rift between Paul and Barnabas concerning a young John Mark, since the latter abandoned their first missionary journey earlier in the mountainous area of Turkey. When deciding to go back and check on folks from previous journeys, Paul thought it unwise to include Mark. Paul and Barnabas decided to split and go different ways. Paul travelled with Silas. Barnabas chose to encourage Mark, a young man who didn’t have many friends. Barnabas must have said to himself, “John Mark needs me; if I don’t help him now, he may never amount to anything.” And so Barnabas took Mark with him, and they went back to re-visit churches that had been established on the earlier missionary journey. Tradition says that Barnabas stayed on the island of Cyprus until his death.

It is important to note that there were no nasty fights or bitter feelings between Paul and Barnabas. Paul later spoke very kindly about Barnabas (1 Corinthians 9:6). Paul also was convinced that Mark became a mature disciple of Jesus, and wrote to Timothy, encouraging him to come visit him in prison — and then he said (in essence), “Bring Mark with you because he is useful for ministry” (see 2 Timothy 4:11).

I am so glad Jesus never turned His back on me but kept pursuing me. We all can learn from Barnabas! We never know . . .