Carefully Investigated and Orderly

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF LUKE

CAREFULLY INVESTIGATED AND ORDERLY

Luke 1:1-4

1:1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

NIV

Back to the beginning again, to examine life lessons from the account of the gospel according to Luke. We should first notice Luke was not an eyewitness to the life of Jesus, yet we do know he traveled with Paul at times. We also know, as with all the word of God, each writer was inspired by the Spirit and thus the Spirit was indeed an eyewitness, so we can have assurance this is a most excellent account.  Here we have the introduction of this orderly account Luke writes to the most excellent Theophilus. Although some discussion has occurred over who this Theophilus is and because he name means, friend of God, it has been thought by some Luke was writing to all Christians who are friends with God, but because of the preceding title, most excellent and Theophilus is singular, it is thought by most he was a friend or disciple of Luke who received and preserved this letter. The reason of this importance is because we can see Luke wanting to make sure his friend, his disciple gets all the facts, all of them in a very organized well investigated way. The purpose is so that Theophilus, and of course us, may know with certainly of the things he and we believe.  This is our life lesson. As we read and examine all the words Luke was inspired to write under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we will have all the carefully investigated facts from the beginning about everything we believe. Because Jesus said that blessed are those who believe who have not seen, that is believe in faith, we actually though the words of Luke will see all we need in order to believe. We will see them with certainty everything we have been taught since we became a believer. We do not merely need to hear some preacher tell us what to believe, or what we should believe based on his insight into the word of God. We have all we need to know with certainty the things we believe. We also know that Luke lays this out in the most orderly account. That is not to say the other gospels are not orderly, but knowing Luke was a physician, a learned man, who studied for his profession, we would expect nothing less than a carefully investigated account. This too is a life lesson in that as we share our faith in Christ with others, it might serve us well to think through, with the inspiration of the Spirit, a well designed orderly account of our experience with Jesus. It would seem the operative word here is orderly or perhaps even better, carefully investigated.