“ warriors ” who just want people to recognize how wrong they are and own their stuff . We expect other people to behave in certain ways , and we ’ re shocked or disappointed when they don ’ t . Whatever solution you tend to play out in your imagination — other people coming to grips with their mistakes and confessing how wrong they were , or some great revelation that makes it all a huge misunderstanding — things probably aren ’ t going to happen that way . We ’ ll never find genuine reconciliation or experience genuine peace until we get past those unbiblical and unrealistic expectations .
Conflict is real , and Christians aren ’ t immune to it . Paul could testify to that himself . He and Barnabas had a strong relationship that went back to Paul ’ s earliest days as a believer , when only Barnabas trusted his conversion and helped him out . Years later , they were sent out together on a missionary journey — Paul with his gift of communicating the gospel and Barnabas , the “ son of encouragement ,” planting numerous churches and spreading the gospel far and wide . But when the time came for a second journey , they had “ such a sharp disagreement that they parted company ” ( Acts 15:39 ). Barnabas wanted to include a young believer named John Mark , who had quit on the first journey and went home , and Paul didn ’ t want to go through that again . So Paul took Silas because he felt like he could trust him , Barnabas took John Mark probably because he thought it would be good for him , and they went their separate ways .
We don ’ t know all the details of that story , but we know that for an encouraging , generous personality like Barnabas to part company with a high-powered , driven personality like Paul — after they had worked so closely , been so fruitful , and ministered to each other in times of great need — it had to be an extremely contentious situation . This wasn ’ t a case of two men weighing the pros and cons and deciding that perhaps it would be in their
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