Going Their Separate Ways
A Scriptural Re-evaluation of the Division between Paul and Barnabas
By Pastor Charles Schmitt
The Message on this passage dealing with the separation between Paul and Barnabas reads: "Tempers flared, and they ended up going their separate ways" (Acts 15:39). The KJV reads: "The contention was so sharp...they departed asunder." J.B. Phillips translates this passage: "There was a sharp clash of opinions so...they went their separate ways." C.B. Williams reads, "The disagreement was so sharp that they separated..."
These two great apostles, Paul and Barnabas, had such sharp disagreement over taking the young defector, John Mark, with them on their second apostolic journey that the result was a severe rupture in relationship and in serving together. "They had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company. Barnabas took Mark and sailed for Cyprus, but Paul chose Silas and left commended by the brothers..." (Acts 15:39-40, NIV).
The Greek word used here for "contention" ("disagreement") is paroxusmos, from which we get our English word paroxysm, "a sudden attack...a sudden outburst" (Webster). The Greek word used here for "departed asunder" ("parted company") is apochorizomai, used in 1 Corinthians 7:10-11 ("chorizo") as a synonym for divorce. Whatever happened between Paul and Barnabas-however such a seemingly benign issue became such bone of contention-one thing is certain, the outcome was a virtual "divorce" in the Body of Christ.
One of the first places that Paul revisited in Acts 16 on his second apostolic journey was the Galatian area where he and Barnabas had just previously labored together establishing the churches in Derbe, Lystra, Iconium and Antioch of Pisidia (cf. Acts 16:1-2 with 14:21-23). I often wondered how Paul explained to these new believers in these Galatian cities that he and Barnabas, their spiritual parents, were now "divorced"; that he and Barnabas had had such a falling out, such a separation, such a parting of company, that they were no longer able to serve side by side in the Kingdom of God? And, as in every divorce, I am sure it was the children who suffered the most, for in this case these were the spiritual children of Paul and Barnabas in the family of God.
For years, the traditional evangelical spin on this catastrophe has not satisfied me-"this is how God increases the ministry"; "now instead of one missionary team, there would be two"; etc. It has just become increasingly hard for me to believe that God used sin to increase His kingdom in the earth. That is not His way. Then one day, recently, I had an unusual insight.
According to one New Testament timeline, this division between Paul and Barnabas took place around A.D. 53. Within three years, by A.D. 56, Paul was laboring to establish the Body of Christ at Corinth, the chief city of Greece. Within another three years, in A.D. 59, he was writing his first letter back to the Corinthians, probably from Ephesus. In that first letter to the Corinthians, Paul makes a most unusual comment concerning himself and Barnabas: "Don't we have the right to food and drink? Don't we have the right to take a believing wife along with us, as do the other apostles and the Lord's brother and Cephas [Peter]? Or is it only I and Barnabas who must work for a living...if we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?" (9:4-6, 11). Apparently, something had happened-a reconciliation, a coming together, a falling into one another's arms in forgiveness and acceptance-for now Paul and Barnabas were apparently known to the Corinthians as "fellow laborers" together in the Kingdom of God! And the good news didn't stop there. The seemingly unstable youth, John Mark, over whom the whole controversy began, was addressed in 2 Timothy 4:11 by Paul in these words: "Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry." An NIV note places the writing of 2 Timothy around A.D. 66-67. But Paul, in writing to the Colossians (around A.D. 60) had apparently already been reconciled to Mark (See Colossians 4:10)!
Broken relationships are never of God. Satan's mathematics is always "subtraction" and "division." God's math is always "addition" and "multiplication"!
Perhaps that great passage in Paul's first letter to the Corinthians actually gives us the keys to this wonderful reconciliation that took place between Paul and Barnabas and then between Paul and John Mark. J.B. Phillips, as only he can, translates 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 in this way: "This love of which I speak is slow to lose patience-it looks for a way of being constructive...It is neither anxious to impress nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance...It is not touchy. It does not keep account of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen."
Godly conflict resolution, I do not believe, has ever come by an exhaustive sorting out who was right and who was wrong, who said this and who did that. Not that some issues may not need to be discussed, but after all is said and done, it is only when the love of God touches our wounded hearts that broken relationships can be healed, and somehow sorting out all the issues then may even seem unnecessary. The love of God is our greatest resource; and according to Paul in Romans 5:5, this amazing and redemptive love has been "Niagara-ed" (profusely poured out) into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us! We must, therefore, rise up and believe today for the miracle of God's love to prevail all across the Body of Christ-healing marriages, reconciling families, reuniting broken relationships within the Church and, then, being poured forth upon a shattered world, reconciling lost men and women to God! Amen!
