We are told in this passage that Barnabas, who "was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith " exhorted the believers at Antioch to cleave to the Lord with purpose of heart.
The Preacher of wisdom speaks to the same effect:'' Keep thy heart with all diligence (literally, above all that is kept); for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. 4:23).
What an all-important matter then, if the issues of life proceed from there. See to it my soul, as the dawn of another year arises, that no unholy thing lurk within thee to spoil the issues of thy life. See to it that the motives which marked thy Saviour's steps through this world mark also thine. His path was formed by what lay within His heart. So is it with every man-with every intelligent creature.
See those two fine ships weighing anchor. Side by side they are making all speed for the great Ocean. But they soon part. One is a " Liner " sailing under orders from shore, and her path is in earnest obedience to those orders. The other is a "Tramp" sailing as her commander thinks most expedient. One makes a straight course; the other a devious one. Both commit faults on the way, but the way of both is not alike.
Child of God, let Christ rule thee; let His truth command thee; make no reserve, cost what may; let the word of God search thee; it will judge thee at the end; let it judge thee now. Thy Father loves thee; His grace will never fail to meet whatever needs thy faithfulness may provoke; soon thy Lord will come and reward thee openly for all thou hast suffered secretly for His name's sake.
The Synagogue and The Temple
There were many synagogues, not only in the land of the Jews, but all over the world where they were scattered. There was, however, but one temple, built in the one place where Jehovah had put His Name-in Jerusalem.
The synagogues were (and are still) Jewish meeting-houses where both Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised, freely assembled to give and to receive instruction in the Holy Scriptures.
The Temple was very different. Instruction might be given there too, but only in its outer courts. It was the place of worship. None but Jews or circumcised Gentiles were allowed there, and even they were shut out if rendered unclean by some means or other. To it every Jew had to come from where-ever he might be, if he would have part in the feasts of Jehovah and the worship around His Ark. There He had put His name, and there must assemble all who loved it; there alone was the place of sacrifice- and there is no worship apart from sacrifice. The godly Jew might lift his heart to God in worship anywhere and at any time, but if he would have part in that worship of the congregation which Jehovah had established and which is so delightful to Him, he must come to the Temple. It could not be anywhere else.
The same difference is with us, Christians. Only with us the rallying center is not Jerusalem but Jesus. The Temple is not made up of dead but of living stones-of men born of God and indwelt by His Spirit. The sacrifices are not that of beasts but the one atoning sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. When such men, thus assembled to His Name, with the tokens of His sacrifice among them, not to be instructed but to remember Him, there is the temple of God and the congregational worship of His people. Not one unconverted man, or an unclean child of God has any part in this.
The Synagogue is when we come together for preaching, for teaching, for instruction in the Holy Scriptures. There every one is free to have a part, saved and unsaved, clean and unclean, all may come freely and have a share in what is ministered.
In the Temple all are priests, presenting their worship to God. In the Synagogue all who minister are Levites dispensing the things of God to the others who are learners.