Becoming Barnabas: The Example Of Encouragement (Part 5): Encouragement In Conflict

by on June 24, 2026 | Comment

Pursuing any vocation costs something. To be a lawyer or physician, you invest years in school to learn the trade. Being a parent costs continually setting yourself aside for what someone else needs from you. Being a spouse costs giving up flexibility in your schedule to bind your life with someone else’s. Being a plumber, which seems like it might be a very exciting, creative, and well-paid endeavor based on my own home repairs, still requires one to deal with pipes that carry less-than-desirable material.

As we continue studying Barnabas’s life, Acts 15:22–41 teaches about one potential cost to the calling of encourager. We see how embracing this role of championing others does not mean that you will avoid disappointing or frustrating people. In fact, many people long for company in negativity—others will desire to hear you criticize the things that they dislike. If you refuse to join into their criticism, then you may find yourself subject to criticism too. The main point is that encouragement requires resilience.

Review

This is the fifth and final installment on the life of Barnabas. Joseph the Levite from Cyprus earned the nickname Barnabas, which means “son of encouragement.” We have seen that he lived in such a way as to warrant the identity of an encourager.

What lessons have we learned from him? The premise of this series is that Barnabas sets an example worth following. He brought a vitality to the church’s life that kept things moving. Is it not striking that it seems everyone knew him when he seemed to make no effort to be in the spotlight?

The kind of encouragement that we have considered in the life of Barnabas goes against the grain of our natural inclinations. In our first study, we considered how Barnabas took action to support his fellow church members. He did something to make a contribution to the life of Christians around him so that the church was encouraged. Often our default setting is to wait and watch for someone else to do something.

A popular song when I was in college was “Waiting on the World to Change.” It is a long complaint about politics, and in the chorus, the singer tells listeners that he will not do anything but just wait for change. The melody is catchy. I always found the words deeply annoying not only because I do not share the values espoused but even more because the singer’s disposition was so entitled, presuming that someone else should just do it for him. It is very easy to fall into the same mindset in church, though—someone else should act. We become good encouragers by acting when we see a need that we can meet.

In our second study, we saw the need to speak encouraging words to and about others. We have to say things in favor of others to support them. This pushes against our instincts too. If we benefit from someone or think highly of him, often we just hold on to what we appreciate internally. We easily feel very motivated to speak up about what we dislike. We feel less compelled to speak about our gratitude.

A deeper problem is if we do not speak encouragement because we do not feel gratitude for others, who they are, and what they do. Perhaps all we feel is the entitled sense that what we like should have happened and needs no commendation. Rather, only disapproval registers as significant in our hearts. We should train ourselves to recognize things to celebrate—and to celebrate them.

Third, we saw that encouragement may mean championing someone else to achieve great things even when it means he or she may get the recognition rather than us. To be an encourager, we need to be focused on the best thing happening, even if we are not the one who gets credit for doing it.

Now, we come to see how encouragement is the right thing to do even though it can cost at times.

Separation

The situation in Acts 15:22–41 is partly the sad end of Paul and Barnabas’s ministry together. They had been united as Barnabas contended for Paul to be accepted with the Jerusalem Christians. They had been together as Barnabas supported Paul as the more prominent preacher for their gospel efforts during their missionary journey. They worked for the same cause at the beginning of Acts 15 as they came into the Jerusalem council and contended together about the implications for including Gentiles in God’s covenant people as they had been justified by faith alone in Christ.

After that great event when the apostles and elders clarified faithful ways to direct the church to live in light of salvation, Paul had learned a lesson from Barnabas. He said in Acts 15:36, “Let us return and visit the brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are.” In other words, he wanted to go encourage them.

Barnabas was on board but wanted to take John, who is called Mark, with them on their second ministry trip. We last met John Mark in Acts 13:5: “When they arrived at Salamis, they proclaimed the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. And they had John to assist them.” The sticking point came in Acts 13:13: “Now Paul and his companions set sail from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia. And John left them and returned to Jerusalem.” For some reason, John Mark left their missionary endeavor.

Barnabas and Paul had a “sharp disagreement” about whether John Mark should accompany them on their next missionary trip. Paul opposed it because John Mark had abandoned them in Pamphylia in Acts 13:13. Barnabas wanted him to have another chance. We do not know exactly why John Mark left them, but the reason troubled Paul, making him reluctant to allow him back on the team. Perhaps the disagreement grew from Barnabas’s pastoral or personal concern running aground on Paul’s insistence that John Mark meet standards for missionary work.1

Either way, they went different directions. They could not reconcile their approach to John Mark in ministry, so they parted ways. In this case, Barnabas’s efforts at encouragement led to separation.

Stand

In that disagreement, what does Barnabas teach us about encouragement? It strikes me that Paul’s disappointment over John Mark’s previous abandonment resulted in the apostle’s opposing John Mark’s involvement in the ministry. It strikes me because in Acts 9, Paul was being excluded from the Jerusalem Christian circle because of his previous, objective, heinous failures in persecuting the church. Had Barnabas not spoken up for Paul, he would have struggled far more and far longer to gain acceptance in the church and to get his position in ministry.

I wonder if Paul forgot how Barnabas had to encourage him and speak for him to overcome far bigger issues from his past than it would seem were occurring with John Mark. We can learn the lesson from Paul about why we should be ready to encourage others even when they have shortcomings. We all have our failures. We hope that people will encourage us despite them. We know that we need people to give us grace. We also need to remember that our need for grace from others should prompt us to give it to others as well.

Acts 15 has certain grounded concerns about qualifications for ministry, and we can transpose this into a context that we can relate to; we see that life never seems to be much different from high school. We compliment those who can help us climb the social ladder and hope to receive favor from everyone around us. Then we neglect to extend favor and encouragement to others because, well, it does not further our place to lend support to them.

Barnabas teaches us something too, though. He shows us how the role of being the encourager is not weak or passive. It is not just about being nice. Barnabas, to encourage John Mark, had to stand his ground against the apostle Paul. Sometimes, we have to commit to being the encourager. Our activities of encouragement likely do not start unless we decide to pursue them. They also likely will not continue unless we decide to continue them.

We also must see that encouragement is about contending for those who need our support. It is not just being pleasant. Encouragement may be gentle for gentle moments. It may be firm for contentious moments. Either way, encouragement means taking a stand.

Session

Despite the hard aspects of this passage, we should not despair. Clearly, we see the human weaknesses even among the apostles in this passage. They knew that they were sinners, which is why they trusted Christ for salvation. Scripture also teaches us about how they reconciled.

In Colossians 4:10, we learn important finishes to this story. “Aristarchus my fellow prisoner greets you, and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (concerning whom you have received instructions—if he comes to you, welcome him).”2 First, John Mark was Barnabas’s cousin, which gives some perspective on why he ended up in ministry with Barnabas.

More importantly, we see that Mark later ministered with Paul again. Whatever differences they had, they overcame them. We have to wonder what role Barnabas may have played in that reconciliation too. Also, more importantly, we see how Paul commends Barnabas warmly to the Colossians. They need to welcome him well. So these men were able to reunite. Mark even went on to write the gospel with his name on it. We see how far encouragement can go.

The gospel principle that comes from this lesson from Barnabas again has to do with Christ’s intercession. We mentioned last time how in Greek, “encourage” and “advocate” are the same word. Paul explains this issue in Romans 8:31–34: “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

We call it Christ’s session as he works to intercede for us now in heaven. You have an accuser who wants to bring up all your failures and make you feel like Christ can never love you because of them. In reality, because of Christ, our accuser can never bring a charge against you in God’s court. Christ Jesus died to forgive and rose and ascended to defend everyone who believes in him. Christ is our advocate now. As Barnabas took his stand for Mark, Jesus will never cease to stand for you. We are not condemned because Jesus is risen and he is interceding.

Notes

  1. Eckhard J. Schnabel, Acts, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Zondervan, 2012), 662–63.
  2. Schnabel, Acts, 662.

©Harrison Perkins. All Rights Reserved.

You can find this whole series here.

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