Acts 15:36-41 – At the height of being used by God, Paul and Barnabas experienced such a sharp disagreement that they parted ways. Offenses will come. They are inevitable. What are we to do when conflicts arise?
2 thoughts on “Offenses Will Come”
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It’s one thing to be an intellectual Calvinist, to understand the concepts, and even be able to teach these things well, but it’s an entirely different thing to truly believe it and for it to become part of our thinking in all areas. It’s not uncommon to find a person who promotes Sovereignty of God, and to be able teach these things well in the context of the bible discussions on Free will, and God’s control, but when discussing other topics to sound very much like an Arminian.
Two things:
1) I believe that what happened between Paul and Barnabas was supposed to happen, that God was in control. All the benefits of the clash are known to us so I won’t write about them. Later Paul later praised Mark (for whatever it’s worth) in 2 Tim 4:11. Being a Calvinist in heart as well as head, I see the clash as something God arranged for his own purposes which later came to light for us. I don’t look at the event as a situation where one person was right, and the other wrong. If I had to do that I would have to say Paul was wrong because he was presuming that Mark would not change which is to presume that God is not in control, but alas, it doesn’t matter, nor is it the point.
2) Yes, Barnabas walked off the pages of Scripture. So what? Is the importance or measure of a Christian based on mention in scripture? That kind of thinking reminds me of the argument among the apostles as to which was greatest. They seemed to have argued about this more than once (Luk_9:46 ,Luk_22:24).. I wonder if one of the factors they used for arguing was which one Christ spoke to the most, or perhaps who’s name was mentioned most often??? The problem of self importance, or assigning importance to another Christian (which is not much better) is just another Arminian thinking tendency. If we in fact realize that God decides who he uses for what task, enables them, puts it in their hearts and minds to carry out, we’ll be less enamored with the accomplishments of men and perhaps stop assigning one more prominence than another based on some measure WE deem important. Like a name being mention in the bible. I realize that we live in a time were bible pastors and teachers like to publish books. It’s like some kind of Christian merit badge. They hardly get through a service without mentioning the fact they’re published. (out of the abundance of the heart)..
Paul was used by God to write much of the new testament and was mentioned more than other Christians, but we cannot nor should we assume that those not mentioned, or not mentioned again after some point were being punished, or remanded to the figurative ‘back seat’ of Christian ministry.
God’s will be done in all cases.
Mark, Are you aiming your comments at me, or just being general in your description about published authors?