Luke, the beloved physician; whether this Luke was the same with him that penned the Gospel and the Acts, because the apostle here gives him no higher a commendation, some doubt. But others, and the most, conclude that as Matthew from a publican became an apostle, and others from fishers of fishes, fishers of men, so Luke from a physician of the body became a physician of souls, and that this was the very person who was Paul's perpetual and individual companion in his travels, 2 Timothy 4:11 Philemon 1:24; considering from his style he was an excellent Grecian, (very fit for a physician), and made use of proper medical terms, Acts 15:39, Acts 17:16: and here the apostle calls him beloved, as he had done Tychicus, Colossians 4:7, and elsewhere his fellow labourer, who only of those that were not prisoners stuck to him, 2 Timothy 4:11. Some think it to be Luke whose praises are celebrated in the gospel, or evangelical churches, 2 Corinthians 8:18; others would have that to be Barnabas, or some other: his practising of physic was no more inconsistent with being an evangelist than Paul's tent-making with being an apostle, 2 Thessalonians 3:8. And Demas, greet you; he adds a third in this salutation from others, and that is Demas, who hitherto did persevere, and that as one of his fellow labourers, Philemon 1:24; though it should seem, afterwards, when the persecution grew hotter, he did for some worldly respect leave Paul, and depart unto Thessalonica, 2 Timothy 4:10.
Related Commentaries of Colossians 4:14
Colossians 4:14
14 Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you.