Charles Ellicott Commentary Acts 16:10

"And when he had seen the vision, straightway we sought to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them." — Acts 16:10 (ASV)

Immediately we endeavoured . . .—The natural inference from the sudden appearance of the first person in a narrative previously in the third, is that the author became at this point an actor in the events which he records. (See Introduction to St. Luke’s Gospel.) The other hypothesis, that he incorporates a narrative written by Silas or Timothy, is not probable in itself and would naturally have involved an earlier change in the form of the narrative.

Accepting the received view, it seems to follow, as there is no mention of the conversion of the Evangelist, that St. Paul and St. Luke must have been already known to each other, probably either at Tarsus or Antioch, the fullness with which the history of the latter Church is given pointing to it as the scene of their previous intimacy.

On this assumption, the narrator must have left Antioch after the Council of Jerusalem, probably after the dispute between Paul and Barnabas, and traveled through the interior of Asia Minor—in part, perhaps, following the track of St. Paul’s earlier journey. He would have gathered materials for his history until he came to Troas, where he then carried on his work as an evangelist.

The manner in which St. Luke introduces himself (the Lord had called us) implies, it may be noted, that he too was a preacher of the gospel. Although there is no record here of any mission work done by St. Paul in Troas at this time, the language in 2 Corinthians 2:12, and even more so the facts of Acts 20:6, imply the existence of a Christian community there. We may, accordingly, view St. Luke as the founder of the Church of Troas, and this work could be placed among the “labours in the gospel” to which St. Paul refers in 2 Corinthians 8:18.

The phrase we endeavoured (literally, we sought) implies an immediate inquiry about which ship was sailing for any port in Macedonia. Such a call as the one given in the vision admitted of no delay. It came from the Lord Jesus, as the sequel to the vision given in the Temple (Acts 22:17–21), and therefore was to be obeyed at once.