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St. Paul having made a motion to Barnabas, in the foregoing verses, to visit and inspect the new-planted churches, Barnabas very readily compiled with the motion; but desired that he might take his nephew John Mark along with him. This St. Paul consented not unto; because he left them at Pamphylia, and did not accompany them constantly in preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. St. Paul was in the right; Mark's cowardice in leaving them when they undertook a tedious and hazardous journey to preach the gospel to the Gentiles, was a considerable objection against his present going with them, and weighed more than his consanguinity, or nearness of blood to Barnabas.
Accordingly, St. Paul insisted upon it, that he should not go now along with them: but this occasioned a very sharp and unhappy contention between them: insomuch, that these two great and good men parted asunder, Barnabas going to Cyprus, and St. Paul to Cilicia; but God overruled this evil for good, causing their separation to tend to the publication and farther spreading of the gospel.
Hence learn, 1. How industrious, yea, ambitious, the devil is to sow the seeds of discord and dissension amongst the members, but especially amongst the ministers, of Jesus Christ; and how ready he is to take all occasions to divide them. These holy men of God, these great apostles, whose hearts were united in the work of God, and went hand in hand together to plant and propagate the everlasting gospel, divide among themselves, and are parted by Satan's policy and their own passions.
Learn, 2. That the holiest and wisest of men are but men; men of like passions with other men; and, whilst, on this side of heaven, not wholly free from passionate infirmities. These two great apostles verified here by their actions, what they affirmed before in their words, We are men of like passions unto you. Act_14:15
Learn, 3. That natural affections are apt to oversway the wisest and best of men. Barnabas's great love to his kinsman here prevailed contrary to his judgment.
Learn, 4. That such is the wisdom, power, and goodness of God, that he knows how to bring good out of the greatest evil, and to overrule sin itself, and make it subservient to his own glory and his church's good.
The Lord was pleased to overrule these divisions and dissensions betwixt Paul and Barnabas, for enlarging the kingdom of Christ, and for spreading the gospel farther into several nations.
Observe, lastly, How this reflection upon John Mark's faint-heartedness in declining the hardships and the hazards of the ministry, made him for the future more vigilant and valiant in the cause of the gospel, which occasioned that kind salutation which St. Paul gives him, Col_4:10. Though sin be only evil, absolutely evil, absolutely evil, and infinitely evil, yet the wisdom and goodness of God sanctifies the miscarriages of his saints, rendering them more humble for the time passed, and more watchful and vigilant for time to come.
Thus it was with Mark here: he was humbled for his sin, and afterwards became profitable to St. Paul for the ministry, was his fellow-labourer, and the apostle gives a special charge to the Colossians to entertain him kindly whenever he should come unto them, Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas, when he comes unto you, receive him. Col_4:10