Colossians 4:14

Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas salute you.

'LUKE' -3065. Loukas loo-kas'; contracted from Latin Lucanus; Lucas,. Christian: -Lucas, Luke.

'THE BELOVED PHYSICIAN' -'our dear doctor' (TCNT); 'the doctor and dear friend' (Beck).

From the New Testament we learn that: (1) Luke joined Paul on his Second Journey (A.D. 49-53) (Acts 16:10 'we'). And stayed in Philippi for around. years. He will rejoin Paul, as Paul is heading to Jerusalem with the contribution for the poor saints (Acts 20:5 ff). (2) Luke may have stayed with Paul all the way from his arrest in Jerusalem, two-year imprisonment in Caesarea, voyage to Rome, and subsequent house arrest. All the "we" passages in Acts, includes Luke. (2) During these periods, and especially Paul's imprisonment in Rome, Luke may have written the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. More than one-fourth of the New Testament comes from his pen, and he is the only non-Jewish writer of. New Testament book. (3) He was. careful historian (Luke 1:1). (4) At the end of Paul's life, we find Luke by his side (2 Timothy 4:11)

Points to Note:

1. Contrary to the claims of some, Christianity doesn't have anything against 'modern' medicine (Matthew 9:12).

2. 'Luke and Paul had much in common. Both were educated men, men of culture. Both were big-hearted, broad-minded, sympathetic.' (Hendriksen p. 192)

3. It would seem reasonable, that Luke cared for some of the health problems that Paul may have acquired in his relentless effort to spread the gospel (2 Corinthians 11:23 ff)

4. Luke may also have given up. lucrative career to attend to the needs of Paul and preach the gospel.

5. The fact that Luke recorded the life of Christ and the spread of the gospel (The book of Acts), adds just another weight of evidence for the integrity of the New Testament. Luke,. doctor, wouldn't have been fooled by fake healings. He would have had. more analytical approach to what happened. And yet, he endorses the miracles of Jesus, His resurrection and the miracles performed by the apostles. Sometimes people forget that the bulk of the New Testament was written by two very unlikely individuals.. Gentile doctor and. former Pharisee and member of the Jewish High Council. In no way, can anyone reasonably claim that Paul and Luke were prejudiced. If anything, at least Paul had at one time been clearly prejudiced against Christianity!

'DEMAS' -1214. Demas day-mas'; probably for 1216; Demas,. Christian: -Demas.

In this letter and the letter to Philemon, he is spoken as. co-worker of Paul (Philemon 1:24). Yet, some. years later Paul will say of him, 'for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica' (2 Timothy 4:10). This Scripture has been the subject of much debate. How strong are we to take the word "deserted"? It appears to me that the whole issue rests on the qualifying phrase 'having loved this present world'. Which sounds. lot like 1 John 2:15 and James 4:4. This phrase isn't attached to other Christian teachers and preaches who were laboring in other parts of the world, and who were unable to be with Paul.

Bruce is probably close to the truth, when he says, 'which may imply that some temporal interest took him off at. time when the imprisoned apostle would have valued his continued presence.' (p. 182)

GREETINGS SENT TO THE BRETHREN IN LAODICEA: