Acts 16:40

40. They… departed The use of the third person indicates that Luke was left at Philippi. While Paul and Silas, as leaders, are assailed by the opposers, and shut in prison. Timothy and Luke retire to the house of Lydia. When the chiefs depart with Timothy, Luke is left at Philippi, as Silas and Timothy unquestionably are at Berea, Acts 16:14. That Luke was left to care for the Church for the ensuing six years we have already (Acts 16:10) shown reason to believe. His skill as a physician, his thorough knowledge of the Christ-history, his gentleness and holy character, would all combine to establish Christianity in Macedonia. Luke, Lydia, and the jailer may be well supposed to have largely contributed to make the Church of Philippi that loving and holy communion which Paul in his epistle describes it. When Paul, coming into Macedonia, visited Philippi, and thence wrote his second epistle, beyond all doubt the author of the third Gospel was the brother “whose praise is in the Gospel, throughout all the Churches,” by whose hand that epistle was sent. 2 Corinthians 8:18.

Departed Deliberately the apostles go out of the prison, pause to return their thanks and adieus to their hostess, Lydia, and then depart in peace, and in genuine, though unostentatious, triumph. In all this scene of suffering and trial Luke and Timothy, as mere attendants, are unmolested.

And now, on the dark shores of Europe the first candle is lighted! There may, indeed, already be the elements of a Church formed at Rome by accidental Christian comers, (probably dispersed, however, by imperial decree see note on Acts 18:2.) but as the landing of scattered old Northmen on the icy shores of Northern America does not invalidate the fame of Columbus as the discoverer of the continent, so the unknown beginnings at Rome cannot weaken the claim of Paul as the founder of Christian Europe. From Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians (which should always be read in connexion with this narrative) we learn that their candle did continue to burn most brightly.