Colossians 4:14

Luke Loucas, Lucas; Lucanusabbreviated. It is interesting to find the Second and Third Evangelists (see Colossians 4:8) in one small group around St Paul here. Cp. Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:11. Lucas had accompanied St Paul to Rome; so the "we" "us" &c., of Acts 27:28, implies. He is not named in Philippians, which is probably to be dated earlier than Colossians (see Philippiansin this Series, pp. 14, 15, and above, p. 22); he may have left Rome and returned between St Paul's arrival and the writing of this Epistle. He appears again in 2 Timothy 4:11 as the one personal attendant of the Apostle in his last imprisonment.

Tradition, vaguely supported at the best, says that he was born at Antioch in Syria; that he was one of the Seventy; that he was the anonymous disciple of the Walk to Emmaus; or, on the contrary, that he was a convert of St Paul's; that after his master's death he preached in Dalmatia, Gaul, Italy, and Macedonia; and that he died a martyr, in Achaia, or Bithynia, near the end of cent. 1. Lightfoot points out that he appears here as not"of the circumcision," and therefore as a Gentile; and that this is "fatal" to the tradition that he was one of the Seventy. He surely indicates this himself in the exordium of his Gospel (Colossians 1:2), implying that he was notan "eyewitness of the word." See generally Smith's Dict. of the Bible, art. Luke, and Dr F.W. Farrar's edition of St Luke in this Series, Introduction, ch. 2.

the beloved The adjective suggests a loveableman, tender and true; a character profoundly welcome to the life-worn heart of the Apostle. He uses it elsewhere of individuals, Romans 16:5; Romans 16:8-9; Romans 16:12; Ephesians 6:21; above, Colossians 1:7; Colossians 4:7; Col 4:9; 2 Timothy 1:2; Philemon 1:1-2; Philemon 1:16. Cp. 2 Peter 3:15; 3 John 1:1-2; 3 John 1:5; 3 John 1:11.

physician "Indications of medical knowledge have been traced both in the third Gospel and in the Acts" (cp. Farrar, cited above, p. 21, note). "It has been observed also that St Luke's first appearance in company with St Paul (Acts 16:10) nearly synchronizes with an attack of the Apostle's constitutional malady (Galatians 4:13-14), so that he may have joined him partly in a professional capacity. There is no ground for questioning the ancient belief (Irenæusiii. 14, 1 sq.) that the physician is also the Evangelist … St Paul's motive in specifying him as the physician may … have been … to emphasize his own obligations to his medical knowledge. The tradition that St Luke was a painter is quite late." (Lightfoot.)

It may be observed that, whatever were the laws of "the Gift of Healing," they threw no discredit, in St Paul's view, on the skill and knowledge of the trained physician.

"To [St Luke] to his allegiance, his ability, and his accurate preservation of facts we are alone indebted for the greater part of what we know of the Apostle of the Gentiles" (Farrar).

Demas Mentioned also Philemon 1:24; 2 Timothy 4:10. In the latter place he is contrasted with the faithful Luke: "Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world"; i.e., probably, preferring escape and life to the perils of association with Paul in his last crisis. The colourless mention of him here, just after "the beloved" Luke, suggests that already Demas was not all a Christian should be. Probably he "was a Thessalonian (2 Timothy 4:10) and … [probably] his name was Demetrius" (Lightfoot. The Bishop refers for more detail to his, alas, never-accomplished Introduction to Thessalonians).