Friendship – Day 5
Barnabas and Paul – let’s agree to disagree
Um(Imi)bhalo weBhayibheli
IzEnzo 15
Ukwahlukana kukaPawulu noBarnaba
IzEnzo 15
Uhambo lwesibili lukaPawulu
This is what many people remember most about Paul and Barnabas – the argument that ended the friendship between two great men of Christ. How could this happen!
There is an unspoken and damaging expectation that Christians never get angry or fight. Paul and Barnabas remind us that conflict is inevitable among even the best of people. It only gets ugly when people handle it poorly. Could it be that when we are stirred up, we forget to ask God for help?
A little further along, we read that Barnabas and Paul each went their separate way but, most importantly, “commended by the believers to the grace of the Lord.” (Acts 15:40)
It is apparent that there was discussion and prayer among the believers. This is how our differences need to be worked out – in love and prayer, and with the support and prayer of the community of believers, not in secret or by ignoring the situation. The important thing is to keep focused on doing the will of Christ. That is what Paul and Barnabas both did. As a result, perhaps even more work was accomplished for the Lord, because of the manner in which their disagreement was handled. In any friendship, disagreements will happen, it is inevitable and Christians are not exempt from this. What matters is how we handle them.
