Acts 15:36-16:5
“The disagreement became so sharp that they parted company…” (Acts 15:39). That’s the way that Acts describes the falling out between Paul and his fellow evangelist Barnabas. Indeed, because of their inability to agree the two former partners headed off in entirely separate directions. This passage may sound all too familiar to our modern ears. Just about every week I hear reports of individual Christians or entire congregations “parting company” over “sharp disagreements.” Such news should sadden us all. Unity is one of the most powerful resources that God’s people can bring to bear in the world today and when that unity is threatened it diminishes all of us. Fingers are pointed and blame is assigned at the precise moment when hands should be offered in peace and forgiveness sought in humility.
But let’s not miss the bigger picture contained in Acts. Yes, Paul and Barnabas disagreed so strongly that they ceased to work together. But it did not keep either one of them from working, from doing the Lord’s will as each man understood it. At the end of the day it was, as it had always been, God’s church, the body of Christ as work in the world. And it appears that God chose to work through both Paul and Barnabas to convey the good news of the gospel. The two men may have differed with each other, but it was by no means a hindrance to God’s will.
Disagreements rise and fall, but God alone remains Sovereign over human history. Does parting company serve a purpose? I believe it can. There are times when the best thing to do is to simply step away from a situation. But that says more about us than it ever will about God. God is perfectly capable of working through the “other guy” as much as through us.
Imagine that!
Prayer: O God, forgive us when our inability to work together causes us to part ways but help us to understand that your will is done despite our own perspectives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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