Posts tagged love

Ever notice how Paul always seems to be on the outs with somebody? In Acts 11 Paul meets Barnabas and they get along like a house afire. For the next four chapters they’re the Butch and Sundance of the early church, winning souls and getting out of one scrape after another.

By the middle of Acts 15, they’re at cross purposes over the spiritual fitness of a young guy named John Mark, and “the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus.” (Acts 15:39 NKJV)

Wait, what?

Galatians 2 finds Paul recounting a sermonette he gave to Barnabas as well as Peter and James, the heads of the church who had known Jesus personally, giants of the faith whom Paul had just met. Paul gave them all grief for refusing to sit at the Gentile table for fear of some illustrious Jewish visitors. Then, he had the nerve to air that dirty laundry before the whole Galatian church.

There’s more. In 1 Timothy 2:19-20, Paul calls out Hymenaeus and Alexander for blasphemy. In 2 Timothy 2:17, Hymenaeus (again) and Philetus for “profane and idle babblings.” In 2 Timothy 1:15, Phygellus, Hermogenes, and “everyone from the province of Asia” for desertion (NLT), and in 4:10, Demas who “loves the things of this world” for the same. In 4:14-15, Paul says Alexander the coppersmith “did me much harm.” And, in Titus 1:10-16, Paul repeats some ugly gossip about Cretan brothers in the faith.

Yet Paul and Barnabas seem to have reconciled (Paul mentions Barnabas as a colleague in 1 Corinthians 9:6 and Colossians 4:10), as did Paul and John Mark (2 Timothy 4:11). In Philemon 10-18, Paul recounts his change of heart concerning Onesimus, who “once was unprofitable”, possibly a thief, but is now “my son”.

What’s the difference between Barnabas and Hymenaeus? Between Onesimus and Alexander the coppersmith?

For that matter, what about the guy who started all of this — Jesus? What about His treatment of the other thief on the cross, the one who kept mocking Him (Luke 23:39-43)? Where were the seventy times seven (Matthew 18:21-22) for that guy?

After Paul was sentenced to prison in Rome, “[W]e went toward Rome. And from there, when the brethren heard about us, they came to meet us as far as Appii Forum and Three Inns. When Paul saw them, he thanked God and took courage. Now when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard; but Paul was permitted to dwell by himself with the soldier who guarded him.

“Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him.” (Acts 28:14-16, 30-31 NKJV)

How does a guy who’s so uncompromising have so many friends? How does a guy who’s always breaking up with people get so much love?