Paul explained that he suffered in the flesh lest the abundance of the

revelations granted to him should engender pride (2 Cor. 12:7).  Possibly,

too, he was saved from introspection, self -pity and hardening during his

perilous life, by the constant claims made upon his care, his love, and his

pity by his son Timothy.  God's gifts are not always in accord with our

estimate, and had Barnabas or Silas never left Paul, he might not have been

quite the same man of grace that we rejoice to know.  Barnabas gave the

apostle nerve, and Silas stimulated him to great boldness, but Timothy tugged

at his heartstrings, and his tears and his fears were as necessary for Paul,

as Paul's strength and grace were for his beloved son.

Who shall be named next in the list of Paul's companions?  We have read

the narrative of the Acts and have mentioned in the order in which they

appear, Ananias, the man who dared to say 'Brother Saul'; Barnabas, the man

who encouraged Saul; Silas, who stepped into the gap; and Timothy, who served

as a son.

The next companions to be named are Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:2).

But there is another, beloved and faithful to the end, who slips into the

narrative without being named.  He is Luke, 'the beloved physician'.  His

presence is known only by a sudden change of pronoun.  In Acts 16:6 -9 we

read: 'when they had gone', 'after they were come', but in verse 10,

'Immediately we endeavoured to go', 'assuredly gathering that the Lord had

called us for to preach the gospel unto them'.

When Paul found the doors shut both in Asia and Bithynia, he little

knew that those doors were shutting him up to his great ministry and causing

him to pass on to Troas to receive a guiding vision and meet one who was to

become a lifelong friend.  The unconsciously self -effacing manner in which

Luke enters into the narrative is charming, and, to one of Paul's

temperament, such a companion, ever at his side, quiet, gentle, ministering,

must have constituted a valuable gift from above.

The name, Luke, is a translation of Loukas, which is a contraction of

Loukanus, and favours the Gentile descent of Luke.  Probably he was a

freedman.  In the days of Paul, the work of a physician was done by the

higher class servant, and Luke would most probably have attended one of the

collegium archiatrorum, or 'colleges for physicians', where he would have

studied the writings of Hippocrates.  Only such slaves as had talent were

taught the artes ingenuae, the 'liberal arts', and in his writing Luke gives

every evidence of the culture and training thus acquired.  Tradition speaks

of Luke's skill as a painter.

Let us reflect for a moment on the loving service that such a man as

Luke could render to Paul the apostle and the prisoner of Jesus Christ.

There is every reason to believe that Paul suffered from acute ophthalmia.

He had been smitten with temporary blindness on the road to Damascus, and

like Jacob, when his name was changed to Israel, he may have carried the

effects with him for the remainder of his days.  Galatians 4:14,15 speaks of

some defect that made Paul a pitiable object, and the witness borne that the

Galatians would have 'plucked out their eyes and given them unto him' seems

pointless unless it was his eyes that were afflicted.  The reference to the

'large letters' or characters, with which he closed the epistle 'with his own

hand' (Gal. 6:11) strengthens this probability.