Luke the Beloved Physician: Colossians 4:14
“14) Luke the beloved physician sends you his greetings, and also Demas.” Colossians 4:14
In this verse, Paul sends a greeting from Luke and Demas. Luke was the noted physician and historian who travel with Paul during the later part of the book of Acts. He wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. His introductions to both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts should be mandatory reading. (See Luke 1:1-4 and Acts 1:1-2)
He was a detailed researcher and scholar. Around 58% of the gospel of Luke is unique to that gospel. Notice Luke 1:3 says he investigated everything carefully and wrote it out in consecutive order. He did an excellent job of research and recording details and facts without injecting any personal spin. When reading the book of Acts, Luke suddenly injects himself into the story in Acts 21:2,3 and 6 by adding the word “we.” At that point he joined Paul and his team.
Luke had a reputation of being a physician. That is significant because he never once disputed or questioned a claim of healing either through the ministry of Jesus or the leaders of the early church. If fact, his detailed research punctuated the accuracy of every account. As a medical doctor, he was more than qualified to expose fraud, but that never happened.
Luke is the reason we know so much about the ministries of Peter and Paul and Gods working in the early church. Tragically, none of the other Apostles had a Luke with them as they spread South and East. The Apostle Thomas carried the gospel East as far as India where he was martyred, but we have no details of his travels or ministry.
One of my regrets of years of ministry and travel as an itinerant evangelist is that I never kept a journal. God has done so much, but at this point it is a blur of memories. I confess a bit of hypocrisy with this suggestion, but I encourage you to keep a journal. My daily writing has been primarily a Daily Bible Commentary. That has been a huge blessing, but much of our story has been lost. I am a sticker about living to my fullest in the “now”, but there are times it would be rewarding to look back just to rehearse Gods amazing faithfulness.
Daily Bible Commentary By Terry Baxter: Cofounder of GoServ Global
