“Luke, the beloved physician” (Col. 4:14).
“Why then is not the health of the daughter of My people recovered?” (Jer. 8:22).
Jeremiah laments the condition, or health, of the people of God. There was no physician there. In the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, the Lord proclaims that the “whole need not a physician; but they that are sick” (Luke 5:31). His people do not respond and consequently are lost as a nation. In Luke we find the Lord making the same pronouncement (Matt. 9:12; Mark 2:17; Luke 5:31). But Luke gives us a repentant remnant, those who recognize their condition. Beloved Luke brings that remnant into the assembly. In writing his second letter to Timothy (ch. 4:11), Paul said, “Only Luke is with me.” Oh what a comfort what Luke represents is to the Lord—a remnant healed!
H. Short