There
are many scriptures that encourage God’s followers to be different
than the
world around them. Unfortunately,
sometimes
that instruction has been applied in a way that is not flattering
to God nor
his cause. On the other
hand, we have a
man named Barnabas. He was
different,
but in a good way. Acts
11:24 says that,
“[Barnabas] was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith”.
I
like
he is called a good man. Sadly,
the word
“good” has become sort of a bland compliment in our day. However, in the Bible it is a
great word that
carries the idea of being consistent. A
good person has nothing out of place in his or her character. They are like a piece of wood
that is solid
all the way through with no rot in the middle.
Barnabas is mentioned twenty-eight times in the Bible and
in almost every
case he is doing something positive and good.
The
verse then says that he was “Full of the Holy Spirit”. What does that mean? Well, I am not completely
sure, but at the
very minimum it must mean that there was something Godly about
him. He was not just a
nice person. Rather, he
had a different spirit that caused
him to live differently and it was immediately recognizable. While their may be some
debate about what
that looks like, it is safe to say that when God’s spirit lives in
us, someone
ought to notice.
Lastly,
he was full of faith. Faith
is another
one of those words that has lost its original meaning. In our time, we have boiled
faith down to
mean simply what one believes. However,
Biblical faith always led to action!
When we first meet
Barnabas, he is selling a field
and giving the money away (Acts 4:36-27).
Later, when the biggest enemy of the church converts to
Christianity,
Barnabas is the first to welcome and befriend him (Acts 9:27). He volunteers to go on long
trips to teach
the message of Christ (Acts 13). His
faith was not theoretical. It
made him
do something.
After
describing Barnabas, Acts 11:24 concludes by saying that, “A great
number of
people were brought to faith in the Lord”.
This
should not surprise us.
God can do great
things through
his people when they are different in a good way.
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