39 And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other: and so Barnabas took Mark, and sailed unto Cyprus;

Allow me for the moment to identify this contention between Barnabas and Paul. Paul was being called of God to meet His purpose. Barnabas was being called of God to meet His purpose. Their error was in not recognizing that God was not calling the two together into one purpose. These men had worked together well. Paul in his identity, Barnabas in his identity were a team that functioned very well.

God’s purpose in your life may not mean that you are to continue in that which has worked well for you in the past. We all like success but our God challenges us to be all that He has purposed in us to His glory. Sometimes that means moving on into a new challenge.

Here Barnabas must now distinguish himself as not being Paul. Barnabas has a character upon which God has purpose to use to further His Kingdom to His glory. People grow in Christ and have to move on in obedience of faith. We should not cling to others to the point it causes contentions within the sight of the membership. We need to examine ourselves and acknowledge what God is calling us to do earnestly, without resentment, hardship or harsh words which we will have to eat later.

We are looking at Paul, Barnabas, John Mark and Silas. The differences in purpose for each man is mingled together. At this point I can only address this one thing about Barnabas which distinguishes him from Paul, being a discipler. Barnabas, because he was not the architect, had the patience as coworker to find it within himself to disciple John Mark.

38 But Paul thought not good to take him (John Mark) with them, who departed from them from Pamphylia, and went not with them to the work.

In this study it is impossible to point out the purposes in any one of our characters without involving the others. While each man has a purpose it is important to distinguish the individual’s purpose and relate to them one at a time so as not to confuse ourselves. If we see purpose we should not confuse another’s purpose as if it were our own.

Since Paul is our best known character here, it is easier to distinguish his purpose from the others. We have good history as to Paul’s purpose in the early church. In this case Paul might not have seen himself as the architect of the church, but we now know that higher purpose in Paul’s life. We have that church in which we operate.

Paul would often refer to workers and coworkers in Christ. Every architect needs workers. Those workers must have skills which can be relied upon to do that work of service. Paul had no patience for John Mark, he discarded him because John Mark had failed him.

I once served under a pastor of a brand new church. His attitude was that of Paul here. If you failed him, you were out of leadership. No grace was shown, no mercy. Any perceived mistake was met with rejection. He was building a church, he needed skilled workmen. His error was in perceived mistakes. If he had explained his design properly then his workers might have understood what was expected of them.

This attitude can lead to contention and this is exactly what happened in Acts 15 between Paul and Barnabas. We shall now look to Barnabas for God’s purpose in him.