849
THE KING'S BUSINESS
trace bis career after chapter 15 of Acts. He drops from view u;nder the
8. He was trustworthy, Acts 11: 29, 30. He was made chairman of the re– lief committee for famine-stricken Ju– dea. 9. He was not "greedy for filthy lucre." 1 Cor. 9: 6. 10. He was not afraid of persecution. Acts 15: 26. The words witness and martyr are the same. To be a witness for Christ in the early church meant to seal the testimony with blo9d. It cost something then to fol– low Christ. 11. He bad a fine personal appear– ance, Acts 14 : 11-18. When the peo– ple at Lystra accorded Barnabas and Paul Divine honors, they called Barna– bas Jupiter, who was the king and fa– ther of all the gods on Mt. Olympus. 12. He was tender hearted, Col. 4: 10. Gal. 2: 13. He excused the defection of Mark In the first missionary jour– ney and would have given him another chance, which Paul refused, Acts 15: 37. 13. He was a man of humility. The blessed partnership which began to do business for God as Barnabas and Paul, after a while resumed operations as Paul and Barabas, Acts 14: 14; Acts 15: 2. This speaks as much for Barna– bas as for Paul. Barnabas was willing to take the second place and give the younger man the honor of being first. Rom. 12: 10. 14. He bad a definite call to the foreign field, Acts 13:2. The same enthusiasm that be put into the work at Antioch made the first mission– ary journey that he took with Paul a triumphant march through Asia Minor. He flung himself into Christian work with the zeal of a conqueror and be– came one of the pillars of the Apos– tolic church. "He was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and faith," Acts 11 : 24. Happy is the believer of whom as much may be said today! i\ ~ One cannot r esist tbe feeling that Barnabas Is not properly rated by mod– ern Christians. This defect Is partly due to the fact that Luke does not
COl\11\IENTS SELECTED By Keith L. Brooks
shadow of the disagreement with Paul, whose steps Luke traces all the way to Rome. But Luke and Paul enable us to gain a clear picture of Barnabas If we piece together all the incidents wherein be figures. At the conference in Jerusa– lem (Acts 15:1-29; Gal. 2:1-10) the foremost figures are Paul and Barnabas on one side; Peter, James and John on the other. In the private conference, when the program was drawn up and the concordat reached, Barnabas spoke before Paul (15:12) as the better known In Jerusalem and less offensive to the church there. In the letter to the Antioch church we read: "our be– loved Barnabas and Paul, men that have hazarded their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Renan says that after Paul be was the most active missionary of the first century. He was a liberal contributor to the poor saints in Jerusalem. It is in this capacity that we first hear of him (Acts 4: 36). The voluntary surrender of all for the good of the whole at once gave Barnabas a place of prominence and power in the Jerusalem church, to the envy of Ananias and Sapphira. Barna– bas had shown himself the true Levite with the Lord as bis portion. He evi– dently gave the total value of the sale of bis land to the support of the poor saints, quite in contrast to the duplicity of Ananias and Sapphira. Our first pic– ture of Barnabas ls that of a man of generous sympathies with the common people in spite of bis more aristocratic affiliations. Barnabas was sponsor for Saul when under suspicion. It is not easy to live down one's past. The very complete– ness of Saul's work of destruction in Jerusalem made it all the more Im– perative that no mistake be made this time. The wolf might throw off the sheep's clothing and again ravish the fold. The apostles were all afraid of Paul (Acts 9:26). The imperfect tense pictures the shrinking away from Saul as be presented himself. "He essayed to join himself to the disciples." They did not believe that Saul was a genuine disciple. It was a crucial moment for Saul and for Christianity. "But Bar– nabas took him and brought him to the
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