19. Barnabas: Son of Encouragement
Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means "son of encouragement"), (Acts 4:36). Along with Paul, Barnabas is perhaps the person who is shown as being closest to the stature of the Twelve Apostles in the Book of Acts. It is uncertain whether he was made an apostle, however, as he is never called such when mentioned by himself. He is also mentioned in contrast to the apostles: "Barnabas and the apostles;" and although Acts refers to Paul and Barnabas together as "apostles" in the plural, it is likely in those cases that the word is being used in its general sense of "messengers" or "missionaries" (the general meaning of "apostle" was translated missio in the Latin Bible), rather than as a formal title.
But Barnabas was clearly an important figure in the early Church. He is mentioned some 33 times in the New Testament – more than any other non-apostle, and more frequently than some of the Twelve Apostles themselves. We first meet him in Acts 4, where he is said to have sold a field and given the money to the Church (Acts 4:37), and where he is said to have been regularly called by the Aramaic name Barnabas – "son of encouragement" – rather than by his personal name, Joseph.
The name of Barnabas is also, of course, forever linked with that of Paul. It was Barnabas alone who risked befriending Paul and taking him to the apostles, when others thought Paul might be falsely claiming to have become a Christian in order to find and arrest more of them (Acts 9:27). When Paul eventually returned to his home area of Tarsus, it was Barnabas who brought him from there to join him in the work in Antioch (Acts
11:26A). The two men preached and taught together for a whole year during which Barnabas was clearly the leading Christian in Antioch and Paul still a relative newcomer (Acts 13:1).
We are told the Holy Spirit specifically chose the two leaders to be sent on the first missionary journey (Acts 13:2). But once the journey began, it is clear that Paul began to take the lead and is then mentioned before Barnabas on most occasions. The two men accomplished great work together, but we know that eventually they went separate ways over the disagreement regarding whether John Mark should accompany them (Acts 15:36-41). Later, Paul wrote that when he had to confront the apostle Peter for his failure to meet with Gentiles due to Jewish disfavor: "The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray" (Galatians 2:13); but it is clear that the wound between Paul and Barnabas was eventually healed (as we will see), and that Paul had the highest regard for his friend and earlier supporter and mentor.
But despite his considerable missionary accomplishments, together with Paul and on his own, it is the trait of encouragement that we see throughout Acts as the defining characteristic of the ministry of Barnabas. It was, after all, Barnabas' encouraging willingness to take John Mark on their joint missionary journey that had caused the split between Paul and himself, and if we look back to Acts 11, we see the trait again when the church in Jerusalem first sent Barnabas to Antioch:
When he arrived and saw what the grace of God had done, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. He was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith, and a great number of people were brought to the Lord (Acts 11:23-24).
In some ways these words were perhaps an obituary written for Barnabas after the fact, for Luke says here that Barnabas
"was" a good man. He is not mentioned again in Acts after chapter 15, and when Paul was a prisoner in Rome, he brought John Mark to him to help him (Colossians 4:10), which is usually presumed to indicate that Barnabas was by then no longer living.
But we should think on the lesson that Barnabas left us. He was not only a dedicated servant who accomplished much in the work of the Gospel, but his encouraging nature was clearly an example in how we can influence others for good through the traits we exhibit, if we are willing to do so.
Encouragement is also a gift of the Spirit of God (Romans 12:8), but it seems to be seldom given to those who are not already encouraging others. The story of Barnabas' life and work as a "son of encouragement" inspires us to ask ourselves how our own obituaries might be written in three or fewer words – do we have a positive trait that others would remember as being characteristic of us, and how might we strengthen and utilize it to the full?