Trusting Without Going Too Far

The Holy Spirit points out on two separate occasions that the members of the early church were incredibly generous in responding to each other’s needs (Acts 2:44-45; 4:34-35). The fact that it then goes on to highlight the generosity of a man named Joseph (who earned the nickname “Barnabas”) is worth noting (Acts 4:36-37). Just as Michael Jordan did in those dominant 1990’s Chicago Bulls basketball teams, Barnabas evidently shined brightly in a team full of stars.

Pausing over the details, we can see the picture the text paints which demonstrates why his generosity was so noteworthy. The text says that Barnabas was from Cyprus. Since the Gospel had not yet gone to Cyprus as of Acts 4 (it would only do this later after the persecution of Saul, cf. Acts 11:19), it’s reasonable to conclude that Barnabas had been converted on a trip to Jerusalem, perhaps on the day of Pentecost itself. Like the Pentecost converts, he had evidently determined to stay in Jerusalem so that he could continue “steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine” (Acts 2:42). This decision would have meant that he had to establish an entirely new life for himself in Jerusalem, including finding work and a new place to stay. His land in Cyprus would have served as both a tether to his old life and an emergency fund if things didn’t work in Jerusalem. By both selling it and giving away the money, he cut the tether and deprived himself of the security it provided. It’s no wonder that the apostles called him, “Barnabas,” literally, “the son of encouragement.” To the Jewish mind, “son of encouragement” would have meant something like, “one who is equal to encouragement,” or perhaps, “encouragement personified.”
 
There were probably other things that earned Barnabas his nickname besides his generosity. Though we aren’t told as much about Barnabas’ life as we might like to know, the story of his life that we are told is one littered with encouraging actions. When Saul (who would later be known to the world as Paul the apostle) first became a Christian, people had a hard time believing his conversion was real. He had been notorious both for being a Pharisee (Acts 23:6; 26:5; Philippians 3:5) and for being a great persecutor of the church (Acts 8:1-3; 9:1-2; 22:3-5; 26:9-11; 1 Corinthians 15:9; Galatians 1:13; Philippians 3:6; 1 Timothy 1:13). When soon after his conversion, Saul “tried to join the disciples,” the Bible says, “they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple” (Acts 9:26). The very next verse says though that “Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus” (Acts 9:27). Barnabas believed every detail of Saul’s story and recommended that Saul be extended full fellowship as a Christian brother.

Barnabas’ decision shows a great deal of trust. Had Saul been pretending, Barnabas might have been among the first to be arrested and perhaps even killed. Even if he somehow escaped this, he might have born the weight of knowing that he had personally brought persecution into the midst of the church. However, as an encourager in tune with the heart of a God who “is love” (1 John 4:8, 16), Barnabas knew that trusting Saul in full forgiveness of his past was the right thing to do. After all, as Saul himself would later write, love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (1 Corinthians 13:7).
Barnabas therefore shows us that two kinds of trust are incredibly important in the Christian life. One, we must trust God enough to be courageously generous with what he has given to us. Two, we must trust others, even if it comes at a risk or a potential cost. However, Barnabas also teaches us that trust can go too far.

Barnabas would eventually trust Saul so much that he would seek him out and enlist him in the work he had started doing with the church in Antioch. Through their efforts, the church at Antioch grew to the point that it was able to send the two of them out as missionaries. At some point either before they were sent out or, perhaps more likely, after they had returned from their first mission trip, Peter made a visit to Antioch. Everything went well until “certain men came from James,” and Peter, “fearing those who were of the circumcision,” “withdrew and separated himself” from the Gentile Christians in the church there (Galatians 2:12). “The circumcision” is rendered “the circumcision party” (ESV) or “the party of the circumcision” (NASB) by some translators in an effort to point out that it was not merely those circumcised but those who thought everyone, whether Jew or Gentile, needed to be circumcised in order to be faithful to God. These individuals pressured Gentile Christians to adopt Jewish customs (principally circumcision) and withdrew their fellowship from them if they did not do so.

Unlike Peter, Paul never lost sight of “the truth of the gospel” regarding this matter (Galatians 2:14). He knew that the Gospel had made it so, “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing” (1 Corinthians 7:19). He also knew that forcing people to be religiously circumcised in order to enjoy fellowship with Jewish Christians represented a partial return to the Old Law, i.e., the Law of Moses. He knew that God would not be pleased with this “pick and choose” mentality concerning the Old Law. Those who turned to part of it would have to turn to all, and in so doing it could be said of them, “You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace” (Galatians 5:4). Paul saw it all very clearly, so he went to Peter and “withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed” for both a breech in the fellowship of the church and for the potential his actions had to lead individuals away from grace.

The text says something different about Barnabas in all this: “And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy” (Galatians 2:13). So why was Barnabas, a missionary to the Gentiles who had perhaps spent years enjoying fellowship with them without requiring religious circumcision, now shunning those who weren’t circumcised? I would suggest: 1) it wasn’t because he was “of the circumcision” party; 2) it wasn’t because he feared those of that party like Peter did; 3) it certainly wasn’t because he harbored any prejudice towards Gentiles. The text says he “was carried away,” but this also does not mean that Barnabas was a “jump on the bandwagon” type of person. Remember, he was prepared to stand alone with Saul and believe his conversion story when everyone else was afraid. I would suggest the reason was trust; whether he trusted Peter, the ones who came from James, the other Christians who were caught up in this, or some or all of the above, he acted based on trust rather than “the truth of the Gospel” (Galatians 2:14).

When does trust take us too far? It is not when we take a step in faith that robs us of some degree of stability or security. It is not when we believe someone’s story about themselves. It is also not when trusting someone puts us at a disadvantage or potentially causes us to suffer loss, or when we forgive someone and give them a second chance. The story more commonly told regarding Barnabas involves him trusting a young man named John Mark after this man had previously disappointed him (Acts 12:25; 13:5, 13; 15:36-40). Giving John Mark a second chance seems to have made an eternal difference in his life (Colossians 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 1:24). No, trust only goes too far when it causes us to lose sight of “the truth of the Gospel” (Galatians 2:14).

May God help us to learn from Barnabas to be more trusting people. May He also help us not to trust anyone so much that we lose sight of what His Word says.  

-Patrick Swayne  
patrick@tftw.org