Becoming Barnabas: The Example Of Encouragement (Part 2): What’s In A Name?

by on January 27, 2026 | Comment

Think of your most trusted confidant and ask yourself why you welcome his input. What causes you to trust his advice and be open to whatever he might say? What about that person makes you feel like even his hard feedback will be useful and should be heard?

We have to believe someone aims at our good. We need to know that she wants the best for us. We can handle whatever someone has to say when we are convinced that she has our back, wants to support us, and is trying to bring about good things for us. When we know someone wants to help, then we have an immediate trust in what she brings to our lives.

In this second installment of our study on the life of Barnabas, the question before us is what it takes to be the sort of person people would want to have as a confidant. What does it mean for me to have the sort of character and demeanor that invites people to trust me and want my input?

We learn Barnabas’s lessons more clearly if we consider his appearances from Acts together, reflecting on what they show us about him. Barnabas gives an example that should profoundly shape our life of discipleship. He was in the apostles’ company and became an important figure in several critical events in the early church. The character traits that earned him his nickname show his good reputation in the church, which resulted in his participating in important decisions and events.

Barnabas then shows us how to live life in a way that is pleasing to Christ and benefits Christ’s church. These snapshots of Barnabas’s life reveal to us how to be people who make contributions. Barnabas demonstrates how to be a person others trust, one whose input is desired.

This series assumes that it is good and noble to be an encourager. It is right and admirable to live so that we are known for our commitment to encourage others. Being an encourager can easily go against our natural impulses and instincts. It can certainly run against our default settings if we do not make decisions about how to conduct ourselves. Barnabas calls us to make conscious assessment of who we want to be and what it takes to be known that way.

In this second part of the series, we look at Barnabas’s first appearance in Acts 4:32–5:11. The main point is that encouragement includes supporting others.

Status

Acts 4:32–5:11 contains two distinct but related accounts. The first is about the early church having things in common to meet the needs of all believers. The second is about Ananias and Sapphira trying to deceive the church concerning how much money they contributed. It might not be clear how these two accounts are related, especially concerning our focus on Barnabas.

The connection is how drastically different Barnabas’s approach was when contrasted with Ananias and Sapphira.1 After all, Barnabas as well as Ananias and Sapphira sold land they owned and brought the proceeds to the church. We have the same circumstances in both stories but very different outcomes.

The first story helps us understand why Ananias and Sapphira committed the sin that resulted in their deaths. In Acts 4:32–37, the situation is the increasing blessing of Christians taking care of one another. All those who believed were willing to give some of what they had so that everyone in the church had at least what they needed.

Barnabas becomes the key example. He sold a field that belonged to him and brought the money from that sale to the apostles so that it could be used to care for the church’s members and needs. Within that setting, Barnabas was recognized for his servant’s heart.

By contrast, Ananias and Sapphira devised a plan to give to the church, but deceptively. Clearly, they lied about something, and Peter’s question in Acts 5:8 about how much the field cost suggests how. Especially in light of Peter’s statement in Acts 5:4, this couple’s sin was not that they did not give all their profits of the sale. Rather, it seems that they gave the church part of the money while telling the apostles that they were giving all the money. They wanted credit for doing more than they truly did. Likely, the motivation is that they saw people appreciate Barnabas for his contributions and wanted a piece of that action without making the same sort of personal sacrifices. Ananias and Sapphira wanted status for doing good things. Barnabas received status by doing good things.

Support

What does this contrast between Barnabas and Ananias and Sapphira teach us about the Christian life and the benefit of striving to be an encourager? As we continue to look at this text, it points us immediately to some practical lessons.

First, we see that Barnabas strove to do encouraging things, but the liars strove just to get the reputation. No conversation is recorded regarding Barnabas’s generosity. You can miss the event entirely if you have zoned out a little as you are reading. His gift that likely provided for lots of needs is presented in an understated way.

By contrast, Ananias and Sapphira’s quest for recognition is on full display and results in their deaths. Yet Barnabas comes away with a nickname that commends him to the whole church so that even today we know him by his spiritual contribution and example to the church’s early life.

What is the takeaway? Questing for recognition without the substance of a good reputation is a fruitless and faulty endeavor. For Ananias and Sapphira, it was even fatal. I have known people who tell me that I need to ask for their expertise. I have known people who insist that others listen to them in various matters. I have known people who strive for certain recognition and status. These people have always been burdensome, difficult, and a drain on time and emotional energy.

On the other hand, Barnabas did things that helped. His question was not, How can I get praise for helping? His question was, How can I help? It was in trying to help, not trying to be noticed, that Barnabas got his reputation. So Barnabas first teaches us to focus on making a contribution, not asking for credit for our contribution. If we strive for the name rather than to be helpful, we are likely to earn a bad name rather than a good one. This lesson even sets up the second payoff.

Second, earning the name “Son of Encouragement” means supporting people. Barnabas did that financially. Finances might be part of the contribution we need to make. If we see someone in church who has a particular need and we give them a financial gift to help them along, it will be incredibly encouraging. At several points in our marriage, my wife and I have had someone give us just this kind of gift; it really meant a great deal to us that someone noticed our need and thought to help, even though it cost that person.

We also should not limit our ways to support others to financial assistance or even focus entirely on that application. Rather, Barnabas recognized the needs that God’s people had and did what he could to meet them. A lot of times, people need support in ways other than financial. They may just need a friend. They may need a word of encouragement. They may need help in accomplishing a task or something like that.

The first insight we get into how Barnabas came to have his nickname is how he came alongside others. He had their back. People knew that he wanted the best for them because he had demonstrated his support for them in a practical way. Barnabas shows us to look for practical ways to support our brothers and sisters. Scripture commends him to us so that we would note his example as a thorough encourager.

Barnabas differed from Ananias and Sapphira in that he looked to contribute to others, but they wanted something from others. How much do we seek to receive from others compared to how much we invest in others? Let us look for those ways to invest and contribute to support people around us in the church and leave the recognition for God to handle.

Sacrifice

Barnabas’s practical example points us also to principles of the gospel. The Savior was less concerned about gaining a reputation than he was to support his people. After all, Jesus stepped down from glory and gave up his heavenly repute to step into humiliation. Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 53:2–3:

For he grew up before him like a young plant,

and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,

and no beauty that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces

he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Christ came knowing that he would be despised and would have no beauty or majesty. He would support his people in a greater way than anyone else has or will.

Christ takes the quality that we see in Barnabas to the supernatural level. Barnabas gave of himself and what he had to support God’s people. It cost him to support his fellow church members. And he gladly did it so that he could be an encouragement to them.

Christ puts that sacrifice to shame because he did not just give of himself. He gave himself. Westminster Shorter Catechism 25 explains, “Christ executes the office of a priest, in his once offering up of himself a sacrifice to satisfy divine justice, and reconcile us to God, and in making continual intercession for us.”2 Christ’s support for his people meant giving his whole life. It meant that God the Son had to take on a human nature so he could die for us. He gave us the majesty of heaven so that he could come under the law and provide a perfect record of righteousness and God could let you into his kingdom. He came down from heaven so that he could sacrifice his life in order to forgive your sin. He gave up all to give all to you.

Yet he took it all up again so that he could give all to you. Christ is risen. He rose to defeat death on your behalf. The biggest support he will give you is a hand as he helps you out of your grave on the last day.

Notes

  1. Dennis E. Johnson, The Message of Acts in the History of Redemption (P&R, 1997), 14n13.
  2. Chad Van Dixhoorn, ed., Creeds, Confessions, and Catechisms: A Reader’s Edition (Crossway, 2022), 416 (emphasis added).

©Harrison Perkins. All Rights Reserved.

You can find this whole series here.

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