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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 638. Chief among the Brethren
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Chief among the Brethren
Paul and Barnabas, however, detected the subtle work of the enemy. The gospel preached by Paul had nothing to do with the law or with circumcision. It was determined that they both, with certain other of them, should go up to Jerusalem to discuss the question. There Paul gained his point, and made a friend; for “it pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas, surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren.” They further commissioned these men to carry a message to the brethren of the Gentiles in Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. The letter was a most wonderful document, brief and extremely tactful.
These two disciples were possessed of that power of “prophecy” which was one of the forms in which the Holy Spirit made His presence known: and the Syrian Christians were “exhorted and confirmed” by the exercise of this miraculous gift. The minds of all were in great tranquillity when the time came for the return of these messengers “to the Apostles” at Jerusalem. Silas, however, as has been stated, either remained at Antioch or soon came back. He was destined, as we shall see, to become the companion of Paul, and to be at the beginning of the second missionary journey what Barnabas had been at the beginning of the first.
“Behold the holy man! Behold the Seer!
Him who hath spoken with the unseen Lord!”
He to his heart with large embrace had taken
The universal sorrow of mankind,
And, from that root, a shelter never shaken,
The tree of wisdom grew with sturdy rind.
He could interpret well the wondrous voices
Which to the calm and silent spirit come;
He knew that the One Soul no more rejoices
In the star's anthem than the insect's hum.
He in his heart was ever meek and humble,
And yet with kingly pomp his numbers ran,
As he foresaw how all things false should crumble
Before the free, uplifted soul of man:
And, when he was made full to overflowing
With all the loveliness of heaven and earth,
Out rushed his song, like molten iron glowing,
To show God sitting by the humblest hearth.
With calmest courage he was ever ready
To teach that action was the truth of thought,
And, with strong arm and purpose firm and steady,
And anchor for the drifting world he wrought.
So did he make the meanest man partaker
Of all his brother-gods unto him gave;
All souls did reverence him and name him Maker,
And when he died heaped temples on his grave.1 [Note: J. R. Lowell.]
2. As soon as the company arrived the multitude of Christians came together for a general meeting. The letter was then read and the result was great joy. It was a great consolation to them to receive such a loving message. But Judas and Silas had been enjoined to tell them “the same things by mouth.” They now discharged their commission. They were both prophets, and exhorted the brethren with many words. The gift of a prophet is here described. It is exhortation and speaking for the edification of God's people. Through these exhortations the assembly was confirmed, that is, more fully established. No doubt their chief exhortation must have been “to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” They abode in Antioch for some time and then, perhaps after another assembly gathering, they were permitted to return to the Apostles in Jerusalem in peace, or rather, with peace.
“To prophesy,” in the language of the Scripture, is “to speak the words of God,” as opposed to speaking our own words from our own devices. Prophecy, according to Paul, convinces, judges, makes manifest the secrets of the heart; and at last urges the hearer of it to give himself up to God, and acknowledge that what he hears has God's authority.1 [Note: T. Arnold, Sermons, 213.]