And Are We Being Too Hard on John Mark?

(Also see previous post)

The other related point is that John Mark usually is painted as a quitter, because it says in Acts 13:13, "and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem." Of course, the fact that Paul didn't want to take him along on the next journey (Acts 15:36-40) seems to add a deeper tone of negative color to his decision.

Seems to. But once again, the premise is: We can't be sure.

The Bible's silence on John Mark's reason for returning to Jerusalem cannot be implied as condemnation. The Scriptures neither say "John was led of the spirit to return to Jerusalem" nor "John gave up the work of the spreading of the gospel." He is only mentioned twice again in Scripture: In Acts 15, where he may not have been present at the dispute; and in 2 Timothy 4:11, where Paul desires his company many years later. (If Col. 4:10 is referring to him also, then he was the nephew of Barnabas. This would also add some information about the dispute.)

Furthermore, it is possible—although the Bible is silent about this, too, so we should classify it as speculation—that John Mark had indeed quit, but later repented; and that Barnabas for this reason thought it good to bring him with them on a second missionary journey. Presumably he wanted to go with Barnabas and Saul (if he didn't, the dispute becomes foolish).

I already discussed that both Paul and Barnabas were strong-willed leaders. If John Mark was indeed Barnabas' nephew, that would also add another layer to the disagreement between Paul and Barnabas. [Aside: We who are Baptist have probably all seen disputes involving a pastor, one of his relatives, and someone else in the church—regardless of who was right in the dispute. Nepotism seems to be universal.]

In short, it seems reasonable that John Mark may have quit, but we cannot be certain; it is equally reasonable that if he did quit, he repented and wanted to go again; and if we know anything, it is that in later life he was a useful servant of God. The moral of the story: We need to be careful about condemning John Mark in this situation. Perhaps he was wrong. But we do not know...and as Christians, we must be careful about passing judgment when we are not in possession of adequate knowledge of the facts of the matter.

Didn't I say that once before?

"Repent ye, and believe the Gospel"—Mark 1:15

When I was reading John today, I thought about the verse (5:39) I just wrote an entry about...suspecting that the verb "search" was an imperative (a command; this a particular verb "mood" in Greek), I looked it up.

I was incorrect. "Search" in John 5:39 is not imperative, but indicative—Jesus was stating the fact that if they search the Scriptures, which they could freely do, they would see that the Scriptures testified that He was the Son of God.

Being curious, I investigated a little further, and came across this wise tidbit: In Mark 1:15, early in Jesus Christ's earthly ministry, he preaches a simple and clear message,

"The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: Repent ye, and believe the gospel."

These verbs, "repent" and "believe," are in the imperative mood. My Online Bible describes the imperative mood, using this verse as its example, in this way:

"The imperative mood corresponds to the English imperative, and expresses a command to the hearer to perform a certain action by the order and authority of the one commanding. Thus, Jesus’ phrase, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel" [Mark 1:15] is not at all an "invitation," but an absolute command requiring full obedience on the part of all hearers." [Greek lexicon entry #5794]

Although determining the imperative mood from the English text is not always obvious, we should all have the heart attitude that we are willing to give absolute obedience to the commands of the Scriptures—for that is what they are, and that is what we are required by our Creator to do.