Acts Profiles

LUKE

Acts 16:10-15

One of the essential qualities of a good doctor is compassion. People need to know that their doctor cares. Even if he or she doesn’t know what is wrong or isn’t sure what to do, real concern is always a doctor’s good medicine. Doctor Luke was a person of compassion.

Although we know few facts of his life, Luke has left us a strong impression of himself by what he wrote. In his Gospel, he emphasizes Jesus Christ’s compassion. He vividly recorded both the power demonstrated by Christ’s life and the care with which Christ treated people. Luke highlighted the relationships Jesus had with women. His writing in Acts is full of sharp verbal pictures of real people caught up in the greatest events of history.

Luke was also a doctor. He had a traveling medical practice as Paul’s companion. Since the gospel was often welcomed with whips and stones, the doctor was undoubtedly seldom without patients. It is even possible that Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” was some kind of physical ailment that needed Luke’s regular attention (see 2 Corinthians 12:7). Paul deeply appreciated Luke’s skills and faithfulness.

God also made special use of Luke as the historian of the early church. Repeatedly, the details of Luke’s descriptions have been proven accurate. The first words in his Gospel indicate his interest in the truth.

Luke’s compassion reflected his Lord’s. Luke’s skill as a doctor helped Paul. His passion for the facts as he recorded the life of Christ, the spread of the early church, and the lives of Christianity’s missionaries gives us dependable sources for the basis of our faith. He accomplished all this while staying out of the spotlight. Perhaps his greatest example is the challenge to greatness even when we are not the center of attention.

Strengths and accomplishments	A humble, faithful, and useful companion of Paul A well-educated and trained physician A careful and exact historian Writer of both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts
Lessons from his life	The words we leave behind will be a lasting picture of who we are Even the most successful person needs the personal care of others Excellence is shown by how we work when no one is noticing
Vital statistics	Where: Probably met Paul in Troas Occupations: Doctor, historian, traveling companion Contemporaries: Paul, Timothy, Silas, Peter
Key verses	“Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses, and ministers of the word; it seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed” (Luke 1:1-4).

Luke includes himself in the we sections of Acts 16–28. He is also mentioned in Luke 1:3; Acts 1:1; Colossians 4:14; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 1:24 (“Lucas”).