Be a Barnabas

Sometimes, those little nuggets and hidden facts from the Bible really amaze you. And no its not trivia, but rather, a small little fact with really profound implications and of great teaching and encouragement value... Thanks Wing for sharing this!

And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles' feet. - Acts 4:36-37

The case of the Levite Barnabas

At the end of Acts Chap 4 verses 36-37, it talks about a Levite Joses whom the apostles surnamed Barnabas - a Levite.

Now a Levite is of the priestly class in Jewish society - they're the sons of Aaron. They were called by God to be His priests and were to have no land inheritance.

So this Levite, having had land to his name was probably a very comfortable and well to do priest who had slacked off and decided to get some earthly wealth and inheritence of his own by buying some land, rather than fulling depending on God.

But then, upon hearing about the gospel of Christ preached by the apostles, he gave up this land, sold it, and laid it at the apostles' feet for redistribution amongst those in the young church.

It must have been initially ironic and perhaps embarassing for Barnabas to go to the apostles and admit that he had land to sell in the first place! But its in true humility, repentance and turning from the old ways to Christ's call that he did it, and its truly of the Holy Spirit~

Even for this Levite who had gone worldly, upon conviction by the Holy Spirit of truth he took action to cease his worldly ways and return to the faithful service of God.

It's quite a wake-up call for myself and perhaps those who feel like me in some ways too.

We know what its all about, the saving grace, peace and true joy and happiness. And once we gloried and went on in it. But somehow being in the world dulls our fire and enthusiasm and somehow, 1 foot gets stuck back into some of the worldliness that surrounds and permeates us.

Admitting which parts of our lives is compromise of God's standards is hard. We don't want to see it, or admit it, or draw the line.

But hey, a persecutor of Christians like Saul could become a Paul, a lukewarm Levite could become a Barnabas. We must never give up.

:)