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Are we useful in our roles of service to the Lord?

Oct. 26, 2008
Background Scripture: Acts 13
Devotional Reading: Matthew 28:16-20

A few months ago a pastor in Tennessee called and told me that some years ago he clipped and filed one of my columns from his local newspaper. He said he was leading a Bible study the next day and dug out my column because it was relevant to his Bible study.

As we talked, however, it was apparent that he had saved it as a negative illustration to the point he expected to make. Apparently, my column had been on Joshua and I had said that if there is any conflict between the revelation of God through Joshua and that of Jesus, I would always opt for the revelation through Jesus.

“Did you really mean to say that?” he asked me and I said that I did. “And you still believe that now?” and I affirmed that. “But,” he asked, “how could there be any difference or disagreement between them?”

Fellow Christians?

To make a 45-minute conversation short, my explanation did not please him, so finally I interjected, “Look, it doesn’t appear that you and I will agree on this. I guess we need to quit and simply affirm each other as brothers in Christ. Okay?”

There was a long pause before he said, “Okay.” I knew that was hard for him because he had already implied that Christian brotherhood required agreement on matters of the faith. He is far from being alone in that conviction. Acts and some of the New Testament epistles tell us that disagreement between Jesus’ followers occurred from the faith’s earliest days. In Acts 13:5, Luke tells us that when Barnabas and Paul went out on the First Missionary Journey, “… they had John to assist them.”

 There are a number of people named “John” in the New Testament, so which one is this? This is not John who was a member of the 12. Nor was he the “John” who wrote the Fourth Gospel, the epistles of John or the Book of Revelation. Like Paul and many other Jews of his day, this disciple had two names: a Jewish first name and a Greek second name: John Mark.

It was John Mark who was a close associate of Simon Peter (Acts 12:12-17), the cousin of Barnabas who accompanied him and Paul on part of their first missionary journey, and very probably was the writer of the Gospel According to Mark.

Useful to Christ

Although Luke merely tells us that when they got to Perga in Pamphylia, “And John left them and returned to Jerusalem” (13:13), B.H. Throckmorton and other scholars believe that John Mark left Paul and Barnabas because he was upset that Paul seemed to have edged out Barnabas as head of the mission.
Later, when Paul planned his second missionary journey, he refused to accept John Mark in the mission group, a decision that led eventually to a break between Paul and Barnabas. So this was a serious split in the early Christian movement.

But that is not the end of the story! In two of Paul’s later letters, Colossians 4:10 and Philemon 24, Paul’s mention of John Mark indicates that they have been reconciled and that John Mark is with him in his place of imprisonment (either Rome or Ephesus).

In 2 Timothy 4:11, Paul is represented as telling Timothy to bring John Mark, “for he is very useful in serving me.” We do not know what brought this about, but in light of the gospel that Paul preached and taught and the evangel that John Mark penned in his gospel, it is likely that they concluded they could not be remain divided and still be useful to the same Lord.

Is this just musty old church history? No, this is a glimpse of Christianity today, too, when followers of Jesus Christ seek to preserve their own theological integrity at the cost of great harm to the witness and unity of the Church of Jesus Christ.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.

10/22/2008