Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you. Colossians 4:14
Our text is one of three places in the Scriptures where the names of Luke and Demas are both mentioned together. They undoubtedly knew each other very well, and were probably very good friends. We are not told how well they got along, but they were both close companions and confidantes of the apostle Paul. In their work with him, they probably preached together and certainly spent much time together. What sets these two men apart is not how they worked together but in how they finished their work. Luke remained faithful; Demas fell away.
Luke’s devotion to His Lord and to his friend Paul is wonderful to examine. We are grateful today for Luke’s work in producing the Gospel account that bears his name, and for his recording of early Christianity in the book of the Acts. The beloved physician made it a point to learn all that he could about the life of the Lord Jesus so that he could write it under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. His Gospel, in its portrayal of Jesus Christ as the Son of Man, is important to our understanding of our Saviour. In the Acts, he gives us valuable instruction and information that is critical to us as Christians. In addition, Acts also shows us how faithfully Luke participated in the spread of the Gospel, along with Paul, enduring many of the same hardships and persecutions as the apostle. In our text, Luke is called the beloved physician; in Philemon 24, he is Paul’s fellowlabourer; in 2 Timothy 4:11, he is at Paul’s side when everyone else is gone. It is comforting to know that one of the last people who Paul saw before his life was taken was his beloved physician, the dear doctor who had remained at his side and who had been such a help and blessing to him for so many years. Luke is an inspiration to us, to be like him in faithfulness.
Like Luke, Demas is identified in Philemon 24 as a fellowlabourer with Paul. That is commendable. At that point in his service, he was profitable. He would have served Paul in many ways, and shared in his miseries, too. He could, and did, preach the Gospel, and no doubt helped in the edifying of the saints in Rome. Even in our text, he was still with Paul, still worthy to be mentioned as one who would send greetings to the Colossian Assembly. At this point, Paul would have called him a good man, still faithfully serving him and the Lord. But something changed between the time of the writing of the epistle to the Colossians (probably AD 64) and the writing of 2 Timothy (probably AD 67). During those three years, Demas lost his consuming interest in the things of God, and turned his attention to the things of the world. The expression in 2 Timothy 4:10 is ‘having loved this present world’. We don’t know what happened, and it should be our prayer that it would never happen to us. If a good man like Demas could lose his faithfulness, so could we.
Luke and Demas speak to us from almost two thousand years ago, in a reminder that God values faithfulness in service to Him. – Jim MacIntosh