The Pulpit Commentary — Galatians — Section 21

leaven of truth, however frankly it may have been admitted into the soul, still requires time for the full modification of former habits of thought and feeling; and this, we may suppose, was the case with St. Barnabas; nay, perhaps, even with St. Peter himself. It was not St. Ba.rnnba.s, then, but St. Paul, who wa.s the first to propose their undertaking this work of visitation. And it may be further surmised that, when St. Buna.bas insisted upon their being a.gain accompanied by Mark, his doing so wa.s not altogether prompted by the p1utialities of kinsma.nship, a.s has been so commonly e•1pposed, but was quite as much due to the same secret bias of feeling in favour of the more Mosaistically minded of his brethren, a.s not long before had warped his behaviour when he "was carried away with Peter's dissimulation." St. Luke's narrative says nothing whatever of the relationship, but merely recites, as St. Paul's objection to Mark, that his conduct in their former journey had proved him not the fit ma.n to share in their work of evangelizing the Gentiles; for that, as soon as ever they had begun to throw themselves into that work in .Asia Minor, he had at once left them. What, in St: Paul's view, disqualified Mark for accompanying them. What was the precise reason for ]i!:ark's then leaving them is not stated, either here or in the fore- going passage in the history (Acts xiii. 13) which refers to this incident. Conjecture has ascr\bed it to deficiency in courage, or to unsteadiness of character, or even to home-sickness. When, however, we take into account the general complexion of Church affairs at this time, and the very determined manner in which St. Paul resisted St. Barnabas's proposal to take him with them, it seems more probable that the con- tention hinged upon the burning question of the hour-that question the right decision of which St. Paul regarded, and justly regarded, a.s a matter of most vital importance, namely, how the Church was practically to carry out the principle of the absolute indifferency of circumcision in respect to a Christian's status among his fellow-believers. The most probable solution seems to be that Mark had relinquished the enterprise of evangelizing Gentiles before, and in St. Paul's estimation was unfit to be a fellow. worker now with men going fofth on the highly responsible business of authoritatively organizing Gentile Churches, because, though no doubt accepting the truth that a man is justified by faith in Christ alone without conforming to the ceremonial Law, b4 nevertheless, like the vast majority of Jewish believers, had not as yet been able tc) wholly divest his mind of those feelings of antipathy to an uncircumcised person (lucpo/3unl,u, txo,,,,.,, .Acts xi. 3) which were inwrought as it were into the very texture or the Jewish character. If this was the case with Mark, there would be great cause to fear that, in moving about amongst Churches of which Gentiles formed the pre- dominant element, he might evince, as Barnabas himself his patron bad lately permitted himself to do, a more cordial sympathy with the Jewish or with Judaizing members than with their Gentile brethren standing upon their gospel liberty. It was not enough that the great principles of evangelical doctrine should be acknowledged or taught. .Apart from correct doctrinal teaching, it was of absolute necessity that those newly won disciples should be able to feel the presence, on the part of those co1Ding among them as shepherds or their souls, of II genuine hearty brotherly kindness towards themselves, a caring for their ~velfare and their enjoyment of Church fellowship, and their sensibilities evon, as great as for those of any high- caste Hebrew who might be found amongst them. This was what St. Paul saw to be required here; an acceptance, not constrained and reluctant, but cordial, thorough-going, and even joyous, of the maxim that in Christ Jesus there was neither Jew nor Gentile, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision; and the uncompromising manner in which, even to the rending asutider for a while of Bt ~ost precioUB friendship. ~~ insisted upuu 84L4'l'IAl!IS, d  xxxh •rRE EPISTLE TO THE GA'LA 'l'IANS.