the beloved physician

Luke 4:18-19 "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord."


I love the gospels of St. Luke. In my younger days I read Dear and Glorious Physician at least four times. I loved reading about this man who, despite never having the privilege of walking with Christ, was willing to dedicate his life to learning and spreading the word about our Lord. I loved reading the words of this man who wrote about our God with such loving attention.

What an example he is for all of us. He is the only Gentile writer in the New Testament. We must remember that, when Luke was learning about Christ, assisting Paul and others, writing and teaching on his own, he was an outsider. In Luke’s time it was the Jews who were the keepers of the truths about Christ. Yet this Gentile is credited with giving us the single largest contribution to the New Testament.
His written gospel is the longest book in the NT and, when we add his second volume, the Acts of the Apostles, we have over one-quarter of the NT.

The Apostle, Luke

In Christian tradition, Luke is the author of the third Gospel and the Acts of the Apostles. He was a companion of the Apostle Paul, and the most literary of the New Testament writers. No history is given about his early life, we know him only from his writings and references about him in the letters of the Apostle Paul.

Tradition based on Gospel references has regarded him as a physician and a Gentile. (Colossians 4:14 "Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.")
He was a coworker of Paul and probably accompanied him on several missionary journeys.2 Timothy 4:11 "Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry."
(Luke was a close friend and companion of Paul on his travels.)
Philemon 1:24 "Marcus, Aristarchus, Demas, Lucas, my fellow labourers."

Luke wrote at a time when the new Church was being persecuted as a bunch of seditionists. His accounts focus on the Spiritual Jesus, The Everlasting God.

Luke traces the linage of Jesus back not to Abraham, the foreparent of Jews (as Matthew does), but to Adam, the foreparent of all humans, acknowledging all of us as being inheritors of the promise.
http://www.victorshepherd.on.ca/Sermons/Luke.htm

Each of the gospels is an important and beautiful piece of the tapestry of understanding left for us. Wrap yourself in this blanket of Our Lord.

May God Be a Blessing In Your Life!!!