Acts 15:36 And some days after Paul said to Barnabas… Paul felt that he was not called to spend a peaceful though laborious life at Antioch, but that his true work was "far off among the Gentiles" (Acts 22:21). He knew that his campaigns were not ended; that as a soldier of Jesus Christ, he must not rest from his warfare, but must endure hardness, that he might please Him who had called him. As a careful physician he remembered that they, whose recovery from sin had begun, might be in danger of relapse, or to use another metaphor, he said, "Come, let us get up early to the vineyards: let us see if the vine flourish" (Song of Solomon 7:12). We notice here for the first time, a trace of that tender solicitude concerning his converts, that earnest longing to behold their faces, which appears in the letters which he wrote afterwards, as one of the most remarkable and attractive features of his character. Paul was the speaker, not Barnabas. The latter's feelings might not be so deep, nor his anxiety so urgent. Paul thought, doubtless, of the Pisidians and Lycaonians, as he thought afterwards at Athens and Corinth of the Thessalonians, from whom he had been lately taken (2 Thessalonians 2:17; 2 Thessalonians 3:10). He was "not ignorant of Satan's devices." He feared "lest by any means the tempter had tempted them, and his labour had been in vain" (1 Thessalonians 3:5). He "stood in doubt of them," and "desired to be present with them" once more (Song of Solomon 4:2). We are here reminded of the importance of continuing a religious work when once begun. We have had the institution of presbyters, and of councils, and now we have an example of that system of Church visitation, of the happy effects of which we have still some experience, when we see weak resolutions strengthened, and expiring faith rekindled, in confirmations at home, or in missionary settlements abroad. (J. S. Howson.) Parallel Verses KJV: And some days after Paul said unto Barnabas, Let us go again and visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word of the Lord, and see how they do. |
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