(Audio)
When he arrived and saw the grace of God,
he rejoiced and encouraged them all
to remain faithful to the Lord in firmness of heart,
for he was a good man, filled with the Holy Spirit and faith.
It is likely that, in Antioch Barnabas found that there was work that still needed to be done, areas where the peoples' faith needed more clarity, and places in their lives where sin and lies still needed to be overcome and replaced with truth and charity. All communities have such issues, especially new ones. But Barnabas didn't start with a diatribe against those things. His move wasn't first to decry the negative. Rather, he rejoiced and encouraged them in what they were getting right, and what was good, so that they could displace the negative by doubling down on faithfulness to the Lord in firmness of heart.
For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (see First Corinthians 3:11).
The foundation of Christ had been laid. Barnabas knew that the main thing was to build on this foundation. His encouragement and his joy drew the awareness of the Church in Antioch to this central reality that made all of the difference. Any building apart from that foundation was on shifting sands. Any project that neglected this truth wouldn't survive the winds and storms. Encouragement done well allowed people to let all that was not built on that foundation simply collapse on its own as the attention of the people focused on letting themselves be built up on solid ground.
So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the holy ones and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the capstone (see Ephesians 2:19-20).
"A large number of people was added to the Lord." How did that happen? It wasn't because they saw people excoriated for sinfulness. It was rather the emphasis on what Jesus had already done and how they could remain even more faithful to that grace in the future. Being thus faithful would mean turning from sin, but could not be imagined properly apart from the grace of Christ as the foundation.
Jesus commanded the people to be reconciled with their brothers, to avoid anger and harsh words, not merely as an avoidance of a negative reality, but as the protection of the unity his people are meant to have in him. He himself came to tear down the dividing wall between Gentile and Jew, slave and free, woman and man (see Galatians 3:28). Life built on him was to be synonymous with life in the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit is a Spirit of unity.
Indeed, the spirits of prophets are under the prophets’ control,
since he is not the God of disorder but of peace (see First Corinthians 14:32-33).
The commandments of Jesus are actually positive, and only negative to the degree that they show us how to protect the positive good he has in view. The good here in view is reconciliation with our brother. Nothing more superficial can be allowed to take precedence over this in our communities. Giving gifts is great, but can mask hearts closed to more dynamic workings of grace. Our relationships with one another reveal the foundations we're coming from, solid or otherwise.
Like Barnabas, may the LORD make us sons and daughters of encouragement so that we can build more and more on the foundation of our unity in Christ.
For he is our peace, he who made both one and broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh (see Ephesians 2:11).
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