March 7, 2025 - Good Morning! It’s Friday, March 7.
Today we look at the man who wrote the Book of Acts and the Gospel that bears his name - Luke. Many scholars believe that Luke was a Gentile. The Bible doesn’t offer conclusive proof of this, but if it’s true, then Luke is the only non-Jewish writer of the New Testament, of the entire Bible. We know that Luke was a physician and that this would have made him an educated man. And Luke was an historian and a writer. The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts are considered a set - volume 1 and volume 2, as it were. And together they make up 27.5% of the New Testament. It is often said that Paul wrote more of the New Testament than anyone else, and if we’re just counting books, he did. But if we’re counting words and pages, that honor goes to Luke.
Luke’s Gospel gives us the most complete description of the birth of Christ. In Luke 2:19 we’re reminded that “Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Some believe that Luke, the historian, personally interviewed the mother of Jesus. And the Book of Acts gives us the most complete description of the Early Church. Without it, we would be hard pressed to understand how the small, fragile group of believers that Jesus left on earth was transformed into the Church that we know today.
And Luke was a follower of Paul, and perhaps his personal physician. Knowing what we do about the injuries that Paul sustained during persecution, and the chronic health problems that beset him, the companionship of Luke was a special blessing. But Luke was more than a doctor, more than a companion. In 2 Timothy 4:10, shortly before his execution in Rome, Paul writes simple and profoundly - “only Luke is with me.”
Meet you back here on Monday,
David
cindertex50@yahoo.com
