An interesting little love triangle as we approach the end of Peter’s letter in 1 Peter 5.12a.
By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him, I have written briefly to you,
By the way, if I wrote a five-page letter, I wouldn’t kid myself and call it brief, but I won’t go there.
I am more interested in Silvanus, the faithful brother, referred to as Silas in the MSV and other cool versions. He is the same guy, as best we can tell, who was sent out from Antioch to help put out the fires of the Circumcision Showdown [Acts 15].
Paul threw some pretty heavy stones at Peter [Ga 2.11-14] because of his hypocrisy on that very subject. And later, when Paul and Barnabas split [Acts 15.39] for not seeing eye to eye on giving another chance to a young man who had abruptly returned home with his tail between his legs from their first missionary endeavor. Paul took this Silas guy and went in one direction, leaving Barney to go in the other.
Paul, like many missionaries today (present company excluded), could be a beast to try to get along with. Paul always knew there were two ways of looking at issues—his way, and the wrong way.
Anyways, back to Barnabas, he didn’t go by his lonesome, he took his nephew, Mark, who was precisely the guy who P & B were quarreling about.
In the end, it seems Mark grew close to Peter. People who know stuff (rather than people like me who just muse about it), say that Peter was Mark’s primary source when he wrote his little book called “The Gospel of Mark.”
But here, Peter lets us know that two of his buddies who are with him want to say hello. The very two guys who went in opposite directions when Paul and Barnabas had their spat, Silas and Mark!
The lesson for us, says Musing Marcos, is that we can disagree on some of the smaller issues, but we have to see the big picture clearly enough to understand this:
We need to work together for what truly matters.