Dr. Paul Kyu-Jin Choi shows how Paul and Barnabas’ conflict in Acts 15 is less about Paul and Barnabas and more about what the Holy Sprit is doing.
This blog is part of the ongoing Learn, Pray, Join: Climate Justice: Conflict Transformation series.
Dr. Paul Kyu-Jin Choi is the ninth lead pastor at Village Church, a multicultural church in Portland/Beaverton, Oregon. Born in South Korea, Paul immigrated to New Zealand with his family at the age of 14. He has studied philosophy/theology in New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. He is currently studying at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Indiana. His academic research and interests include areas of missional hermeneutics, missional ecclesiology, multiculturalism, diaspora immigrant theology, spiritual direction, conflict transformation, biblical reconciliation and restorative justice.
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Acts 15:36-41 records the story of Paul and Barnabas having a serious conflict. Although some English translators did their best to soften the tone — the Darby Translation says, “There arose therefore very warm feeling, so that they separated from one another” — the original Greek states that it was a very severe conflict — one which could be described as ‘a blazing, horrible bitter row, irritation, incitement, contention or violent anger.’
Growing up, I heard preachers and Bible-teachers interpret this incident in various ways. Some used this story as an excuse to justify our own life experiences, providing comfort and peace for the conflicts in our own lives. They’d say, “Even these spiritual heroes went through these conflicts, and who are we that we’d pretend to be perfect in our character?” Some others, took a more positive approach. They’d say, “This was all God’s providence. They needed to part ways for more productive and efficient missions. As a result of this conflict, two high-performance teams were made.” But I often wondered if this is the God I know from the rest of the Bible. It sounded more like an interpretation of a person whose worldview is shaped by industrial revolution and a world of efficiency and productivity.
From this Lukan text, I believe we can learn two things. One, it is noteworthy that Luke is criticizing neither Paul nor Barnabas in this passage, nor in the stories to come. Our quick moral judgment might tempt us to feel that a sharp disagreement and contention exhibits a lack of morals and virtues. Our quick moral judgment might tempt us to feel that Barnabas was morally better, and Paul was less pastoral. Humanly speaking, that makes good sense. Who was Barnabas to Paul? Barnabas was the redeemer who brought Paul out from Tarsus to Antioch. When Paul was rejected by all, Barnabas was the one who wanted to give him a second chance. How ungrateful Paul must have been, when he did not want to give a second chance to John-Mark (Acts 15:37-38), a cousin to Barnabas. Paul’s task-oriented mindset is often criticized by the audience, in comparison to Barnabas’ people-oriented mindset.
However, we do not find any evidence from Luke — the presumed writer of the Book of Acts — that says that Paul, nor Barnabas, deserves the criticism. The following verses (Acts 15:40-41), in fact, state that Paul’s ministry immediately after this conflict was Spirit endorsed, resulting in “strengthening the churches” (v. 41). Barnabas sailed away to Cyprus after this conflict — not only to Cyprus, but right out of the narrative of Acts. Everything from chapters 16 onward is about Paul’s missionary journey. Does this evidence demonstrate that Paul was right and Barnabas was wrong? We must remember that Luke depicts both Paul and Barnabas very positively from the beginning to the end in the Book of Acts, without a single criticism.
He presents both of them as humble, faithful, Spiritually-mature, godly and consistent servants.
It seems Luke is actively choosing to refrain from giving moral judgment about who was right and who was wrong. In other words, he chooses to narrate the story ambiguously — without judgment — not necessarily because he does not know what to say about it, nor because he does not want to offend any of his co-workers, but because he knows that there are things in life that need to remain ambiguous.
Do we not experience such occasions, in which we must do our best not to be the judges, but leave the judgment only up to God, who understands all things? Modern intellectuals might hate the concept of ambiguity. We are so used to dichotomistic ways of thinking and judging. Perhaps we have been trained to do so in the process of being socialized. We are keen to know right or wrong, guilty and innocent, and good and evil — ever since Genesis 3, in which Adam and Eve took and ate the fruit from the self-knowledge of good and evil. But there are plenty of biblical teachings and messages on the value of living with ambiguities, especially from the wisdom writings of the Old Testament. It is OK to choose to remain ambiguous about right or wrong, says the Bible. I am not talking about moral pluralism nor agnosticism but the complexity of life and human limitation to understand all.
The second thing we could learn from this story is that the Holy Spirit is still the main character. In the immediately preceding story, Luke narrated how Jews and Gentiles came together with hospitable postures (Acts 15:1-35), which resulted in an amazing reconciliation. Luke’s intention to place Paul and Barnabas’ conflict story right after the Jerusalem Council account cannot be to dehumanize these spiritual heroes. Luke still wants the audience to remember that the Holy Spirit is the main character in the narrative, not Paul or Barnabas.
Therefore, a better question for the audience to ask about this passage is not whether Paul was right or wrong but, ”What is the Holy Spirit doing, even through this conflict?”
This question becomes the foundation for all spiritual imagination. The Holy Spirit, as Luke depicts throughout the book, works through human strengths and success and, also, through weaknesses and failures. While we do not need to justify the conflict, we must also acknowledge that the Spirit works, even through conflict situations, which become the ground for all Christian mediators’ spiritual imagination toward conflict transformation.
Disciples of Christ are to have holy imaginations. When we acknowledge the Holy Spirit to be the true main character of our lives, we can ask the best question that we can possibly ask about conflict situations: “What is the Holy Spirit doing, even through this conflict?”
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