Luke: The Most Unique Writer In The Bible

There are several traits Luke possesses that make him unique from any other writer in the Bible.  Some of these traits are straightforward and easy to catch. Others are more hidden and subtle, yet they have great power in understanding the writer of the third gospel. When we unpack all of these traits, we see a man that we can relate to and whose story explains why Christ chose him.   Join us today as we begin our journey through the Gospel of Luke by first discovering who Luke really was.

Ruins of Troas, the city of Luke

They becomes We (Acts 16:10)
Luke wrote the third gospel, but he also wrote the Book of Acts.  Throughout the first 15 chapters, he writes from the third person perspective.  He was recording the things that he learned about but was not their to witness firsthand.  However, in Acts 16 the perspective changes from third person to first person.  The apostle Paul and his band of missionaries came to Troas (v. 8). This is where Luke began to see and experience the faith he wrote about firsthand (v. 10).  He joined the church and committed to pursuing a calling in Christ. 

How do we know that he joined the church at that point?  Because typically Paul went to places that had not experienced Christ yet.  Thus, there was a very small chance that Luke had already joined the church.  This was his moment of conversion and his next step from conversion was to follow Christ and His purpose for His life. 

At some point, we must go from being spectators and become participators.  From the moment of our salvation (and in some cases, before), we are called to get in the fight for God's Kingdom.  God doesn't bring us out of darkness and off the road of damnation to just be casual Christians.  He wants us to get involved and do what ever it takes to bring Christ to as many people as possible.  The question is, will we treat our conversion as turning point in our lives or just another milestone?  What can we do today to correct that issue if it has occurred that salvation has not led to involvement?

Depiction of Luke as a physician

Finding A Purpose For Our Talent (Colossians 4:14)
First, we should not just give up all of the talents and abilities we have accrued over time.  Luke was a physician before his conversion and he retained that status afterwards.  This was probably an advantage to Paul and the other members of his squad.  While they trusted and believed in the healing power of Christ, knowing that Christ had given them a physician to assist them when they had a malady was no doubt comforting. 

What talents or abilities do we possess at this point in time?  How can we use them for God's Kingdom?  Being a physician, Luke probably accrued a bedside manner that aided him in witnessing to people.  He probably was able to even use stories of how he couldn't heal someone, but Christ did.  There are a multitude of opportunities to witness through our talents.  Let us look at what we are good at and pray and seek for ways to turn it over to Christ.  When  we do, we'll begin that road to getting involved beyond salvation.

Depiction of a typical port city where Luke and Paul would have entered into on the missionary field

A fellow laborer (Philemon 1:24)
Much like Mark, we find that Luke was counted as fellow laborer of Paul's.  He was right there in the mix with the early church's most active missionary.  He was a companion and partaker in the work, the blessing and the suffering that Paul endured.  He didn't shy away when times got tough.  He didn't get too high when things were good.  He was steady and consistent.  We know this because when Paul was near to death he counted Luke as his most committed follower (2 Timothy 4:11)

The further we go with God and His purpose, the more committed we will become to his purposes.  The more we bless His Kingdom, the more blessed we will become in His Kingdom.  Their will be suffering, but the Bible promises us that their is blessing eve in suffering (Romans 5:3-5).  When we commit to all of these outcomes, we will find ourselves counted as one of Christ's close companions at the end.

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Depiction of the Good Samaritan, a parable only found in the Gospel of Luke.

A Gentile
The final thing to note from this section of scripture is the region where Luke lived.  It was on the northwestern most tip of what is now modern day Turkey.  It is in this area where the ancient city of Troy was believed to have existed.  It was also almost exclusively a Gentile populated region.  Paul mostly spoke and testified to Gentiles as well.  These two facts leads us to believe that Luke was a Gentile.  This is important for one major reason.  No other writer in the Bible is a Gentile.  All were Jews.  They were cut from the cloth of the first covenant.  Now, we have a man who could only be a product of the New Covenant.  Not only does Christ have him write one of the accounts of His life, He has Luke write the history of the early church.  Inside the Book of Acts we take much of the order and the practices of our church today.  God trusted this important manifesto in the hands of a Gentile. 

Many of us are Gentiles.  We are people that had no chance before Christ came, lived, died and was resurrected.  We were doomed to damnation.  However, Christ has made a way for us to find salvation.  From the story of Luke, though, we have even more offered to us than just salvation  We can get involved in the Kingdom of God and spreading the gospel.  Moreover, Christ will trust us with tasks and opportunities that we never thought would be possible based on our background.  Christ doesn't look at our background.  He is only concerned with who we can be at the forefront of His Kingdom. 

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