What Happened To Paul?

    

Barnabas was a true believer. I have no doubt that he lived and died in faith. He sacrificed much and did much in the service of Christ and his church. But Barnabas was a man with weaknesses which satan used against him to destroy his ministry and his usefulness in the kingdom of God. His undue regard for family relations was ultimately the thing that ruined his ministry (Acts 15:36-39). His soft, pliable disposition allowed him to be influenced by the dissimulation into legalism at Antioch, when he knew it was wrong (Gal. 2:1, 11, 13).

     Paul was not like Barnabas, though they had been friends and fellow laborers for a long time. After Barnabas forsook him, Paul chose Silas and went on his way preaching the gospel. The departure of his friend must have given him great pain, but it did not interfere with his work in the least. After passing through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches, Paul and Silas went to Derbe and Lystra, to preach the gospel. The last time Paul had been in Lystra he was stoned, drug out of the city, and left for dead. But none of his afflictions and troubles moved him. He truly did not count his life dear unto himself (Acts 20:24). He had been called of God to do a work and was resolutely determined to let nothing keep him from it. He went back to Lystra and preached the gospel there again. His care for the souls of men and the church of God, and his love for Christ and zeal for his glory gave him boldness and determination.

     In the end, Paul was imprisoned and at last put to death as a common criminal. Forsaken by his friends, in the face of death Paul was alone. No man stood with him. But the Lord stood with him! In the face of immediate martyrdom, that faithful man wrote what Barnabas could never have written, "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing" (II Tim. 4:6-8).

 

Don Fortner