I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Acts 14-16

I want to look at the dispute between Paul and Barnabas over John Mark accompanying them on their second trip.  The more I think about this disagreement, the more I think that they were both right.  We do not know for sure, but Paul’s position seems to be that John Mark was too immature and did not have enough “stick it out”.  Barnabas, based on his earlier mentions in the Book of Acts, seems to have taken the position, “everybody deserves a second chance”.  We know from John Mark’s role in the Church later, including writing one of the four Gospels, that Barnabas was right to give him a second chance.  However, there is a good chance that part of what brought about the change in John Mark was Paul’s unwillingness to travel with him.  Further, this disagreement between Paul and Barnabas led to them each conducting separate trips to build the Church and encourage the Believers.  As a result, they reached more people for Christ than they would have if they had continued to work together.  God’s work was furthered by this disagreement between two men.