community of goods. For many humble members of the church it was their best meal of the week. Gluttony and clannishness contradicted the whole spirit of such occasions.”

Tertullian, an early Christian writer, gives a description of the love feasts, recounting that the participants, before reclining to eat, offered prayer to God. They would eat and drink with moderation, only enough to satisfy hunger and thirst, remembering that even during the night they must worship God. Their conversation was as those who knew that the Lord was listening. Each sang a song, and the feast closed with prayer.

That these feasts were originally held with good intent is indicated by the word used to describe them. A·gaʹpe is the Greek word used for the highest form of love, love based on principle. It is the kind of love that the Bible says “God is.” (1 John 4:8) It is listed as a fruit of the spirit at Galatians 5:22 and described at length in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7.

NOT THE “LORD’S EVENING MEAL”

There does not appear to be any basis for connecting such love feasts with the Lord’s Evening Meal (Memorial), as some have done, saying that the love feasts took place either before or after the observance of the Memorial. The Lord’s Evening Meal is an anniversary taking place yearly on the same day, the fourteenth day of the lunar month Nisan, whereas the love feasts seem to have taken place often and not necessarily on a regular schedule. The apostle Paul condemns the making of an ordinary meal out of the Lord’s Evening Meal and adds: “Certainly you do have houses for eating and drinking, do you not? . . . If anyone is hungry, let him eat at home.” (1 Cor. 11:22, 34) This was an evening to be observed with seriousness and meditation on its significance and not an occasion for eating and drinking at the meeting place.

Neither are these love feasts the same as the “taking of meals” (“breaking of bread,” AV) mentioned at Acts 2:42, 46; 20:7. Bread in those times was usually made in thin cakes. Unleavened bread would be crisp as well. Bread was not cut, but broken, which gave rise to the phrase “breaking bread,” with reference oftentimes to the partaking of an ordinary meal.—Acts 2:46, AV, compare NW.

MISUSED BY SOME

As a literal meal, love feasts became subject to various abuses by those who did not have the proper spiritual outlook, and not being commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ or his apostles but being only a custom, they were later discontinued. Jude’s words indicate that some associated on these occasions with bad motives: “These are the rocks hidden below water in your love feasts while they feast with you, shepherds that feed themselves without fear.” (Jude 12) Peter indicates the infiltration of evildoers and those teaching false doctrine among true Christians, saying: “They consider luxurious living in the daytime a pleasure. They are spots and blemishes, indulging with unrestrained delight in their deceptive teachings while feasting together with you.” (2 Pet. 2:13) While Christians up to and including the present time have continued to have pleasurable fellowship and have helped one another materially as far as it is within their power, there is no basis for the revival of love feasts as a custom in the Christian congregation.—Jas. 1:27; 2:15.

LOVING-KINDNESS

See KINDNESS.

LOYALTY

Faithful adherence to a sovereign or government, or to a leader, a cause, or the like. It connotes devoted attachment, the feeling of devotion to something or someone, trueness to any person or persons to whom one owes fidelity.

In the Hebrew Scriptures, the adjective hha·sidhʹ is variously translated by the English words “loyal,” “kind,” “holy,” and similar terms. The noun hheʹsedh has reference to kindness, but contains more than the thought of tender regard or kindness stemming from love, though it includes such traits. It is kindness that lovingly attaches itself to an object until its purpose in connection with that object is realized. Such is the sort of kindness that God expresses toward his servants and that they express toward him. It therefore comes into the field of loyalty, a righteous, devoted, holy loyalty.

In the Greek Scriptures the noun ho·si·oʹtes and the adjective hoʹsi·os carry the thought of holiness, righteousness, reverence, being devout, pious; the careful observance of all duties toward God. It involves a right relation toward God.

There appear to be no English words that exactly express the full meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words, but “loyalty,” including, as it does, the thought of devotion and faithfulness, when used in connection with God and his service, serves to give a close approximation. The best way to determine the full meaning of the Bible terms in question is to examine their usage in the Bible.

JEHOVAH’S LOYALTY

Jehovah God the Most Holy One, devoted to righteousness as he is, and exercising unbreakable loving-kindness toward those who serve him, dealing in righteousness and trueness even with his enemies, is eminently dependable. It is said of him: “Great and wonderful are your works, Jehovah God, the Almighty. Righteous and true are your ways, King of eternity. Who will not really fear you, Jehovah, and glorify your name, because you alone are loyal?” (Rev. 15:3, 4) Loyalty to righteousness and justice as well as love for his people prompts him to act in judgment, about which an angel was moved to say: “You, the One who is and who was, the loyal One, are righteous, because you have rendered these decisions.”—Rev. 16:5; compare Psalm 145:17.

Jehovah is loyal to his covenants. (Deut. 7:9) Because of his covenant with his friend Abraham he exercised long-suffering and mercy for centuries toward the nation of Israel. (2 Ki. 13:23) Through his prophet Jeremiah he appealed to Israel: “‘Do return, O renegade Israel,’ is the utterance of Jehovah. ‘I shall not have my face drop angrily upon you people, for I am loyal.’” (Jer. 3:12) Those who are loyal to him can rely fully on him. David, in prayer, asked for God’s help and said: “With someone loyal you will act in loyalty; with the faultless, mighty one you will deal faultlessly.” (2 Sam. 22:26) In an appeal to the people, David asked them to turn away from what is bad and do what is good, “for,” he said, “Jehovah is a lover of justice, and he will not leave his loyal ones. To time indefinite they will certainly be guarded.”—Ps. 37:27, 28.

Those who are loyal to Jehovah can count on his closeness and his help to the very end of their faithful course, and can rest in full security, knowing that he will remember them no matter what situation arises. He guards their way. (Prov. 2:8) He guards their lives or souls. (Ps. 97:10) He counts the death of those loyal to him precious, for they have died, not merely as sinners dying on account of Adam’s sin; rather, theirs is a death of integrity in answer to Satan’s challenge of God’s sovereignty.—Ps. 116:15.

JESUS CHRIST

Jesus Christ when on earth was greatly strengthened in the knowledge that God had caused to be foretold of him that, as God’s chief “loyal one,” his soul would not be left in Sheol. (Ps. 16:10) On the day of Pentecost, 33 C.E., the apostle Peter applied this prophecy to Jesus, saying: “[David] saw beforehand and spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that neither was he forsaken in Hades nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God resurrected, of which fact we are all witnesses.” (Acts 2:25-28, 31, 32; compare Acts 13:32-37.) The Expositor’s Greek New Testament, in a comment on Acts 2:27, says that the Hebrew word hha·sidhʹ (used in Psalm 16:10) denotes not only one who is godly and pious, but also one who is the object of God’s loving-kindness.

LOYALTY REQUIRED BY GOD

Loyalty in his servants is required by Jehovah. They must copy him. (Eph. 5:1) The apostle Paul tells Christians that they “should put on the new personality which was created according to God’s will in true righteousness and loyalty.” (Eph. 4:24) In recommending prayer in the congregation, he says: “Therefore I desire that in every place the men carry on prayer, lifting up loyal hands, apart from wrath and debates.” (1 Tim. 2:8) Loyalty is one of the qualities essential in qualifying a man for appointment to the office of overseer in the congregation of God.—Titus 1:8; see KINDNESS.

LUCIUS

(Luʹcius) [illuminative].

1. A man of Cyrene who was associated with the Antioch, Syria, congregation when Paul set out from there on his first missionary journey.—Acts 13:1-3.

2. A Christian “relative” of Paul who was with him in Corinth during his third missionary tour when the apostle wrote his letter to the Romans. Lucius is a name of Latin origin. He joined in sending greetings to Christians in Rome.—Rom. 16:21.

LUD, LUDIM

(Luʹdim).

1. A son of Shem (Gen. 10:22; 1 Chron. 1:17) whose descendants were identified by Josephus (and others) with the Lydians of SW Asia Minor. (Antiquities of the Jews, Book I, chap. VI, par. 4) Assyrian inscriptions of the seventh century B.C.E. referred to the Lydians as Luddu.

2. A descendant of Ham through Mizraim. (Gen. 10:6, 13; 1 Chron. 1:8, 11) The people descended from this Hamitic Lud are evidently the “Ludim” noted for their proficiency with the bow who, together with Hamitic Put and Cush, were incorporated in Egyptian military forces. (Jer. 46:8, 9; compare Ezekiel 30:4, 5.) A similar allusion to the bow-drawing Lud at Isaiah 66:19 would seem to point to the Hamitic, rather than the Semitic, Lud as those included among nations far away from Israel. The Ludim who rendered military service for Tyre are more difficult to identify. (Ezek. 27:3, 10) Their being linked in the text with Put, however, may again point to the Hamitic Ludim.

The texts referred to would logically place the Hamitic Ludim in N Africa, but it is not possible to locate them more definitely. Some scholars situate them in the general vicinity of Libya, but do so on the basis of an arbitrary alteration of the spelling of the name to Lub instead of Lud.

LUGGAGE

The Hebrew term k^eliʹ, sometimes rendered “luggage” and “baggage,” has a broad application and pertains to “something finished, accomplished, prepared.” It can apply to luggage or baggage in a camp.

An army camp, travelers, those gathering to an assembly away from their homes, and so forth, would have with them the necessary items as luggage or baggage. (1 Sam. 10:21, 22; 17:22; 25:9-13) David established the rule in Israel that the men left behind to guard the baggage during military campaigns should share the spoils of victory equally with the fighting men.—1 Sam. 30:21-25.

Egypt was told to outfit herself for exile by making “baggage for exile,” her fall to Babylon being certain, as foretold through the prophet Jeremiah. (Jer. 46:13, 19) In broad daylight, as part of a symbolic enactment relating to Jerusalem’s coming exile to Babylon, Ezekiel brought “luggage for exile” out of his house.—Ezek. 12:1-4, 7-11.

LUHITH

(Luʹhith) [possibly, of tablets or planks].

A place mentioned in prophecies of doom against Moab. (Isa. 15:1, 5; Jer. 48:5) Some scholars believe that Luhith was a Moabite city located at the top of an ascent. Identified by Eusebius and Jerome with a place called Loueitha, Luhith has been linked with either modern Khirbet Mendint er Ras, about five miles (8 kilometers) E of the southern end of the Dead Sea, or nearby Khirbet Fas. Another view is that Luhith was not a city but merely the name of the ascent or slope to be used by the fleeing and weeping Moabite refugees.—Compare Numbers 34:4.

LUKE

[Gr., Lou·kasʹ, evidently a contracted and affectionate form of the Latin name Lucius or Lucanus].

A physician and faithful companion of the apostle Paul. He was the writer of the Gospel of Luke and of the Acts of Apostles. That Luke was well educated is apparent from his writings. Also, his background as a doctor is noticeable in his use of medical terms.—Luke 4:38; Acts 28:8.

Luke did not speak of himself as an eyewitness of the events in the life of Christ that are recorded in his Gospel account. (Luke 1:2) So, he apparently became a believer sometime after Pentecost of 33 C.E.

In the book of Acts, Luke is referred to in an indirect way by the use of the pronouns “we” and “us.” (Acts 16:10-17; 20:5–21:18; 27:1–28:16) He was with Paul at Troas on the apostle’s second missionary tour and accompanied him from there to Philippi, where he may have remained until Paul’s return on his third missionary journey. Luke accompanied Paul to Palestine at the end of that missionary tour (Acts 21:7, 8, 15) and, while the apostle was imprisoned for about two years at Caesarea, Luke probably wrote his Gospel account there (about 56-58 C.E.). He accompanied Paul on his trip to Rome for trial (Acts 27:1; 28:16), likely completing the book of Acts in Rome about 61 C.E., since it covers events down to that year but does not record the outcome of Paul’s appeal to Caesar.

Luke joined Paul in sending greetings to Christians at Colossae when Paul wrote to them from Rome (c. 60-61 C.E.) and the apostle identified him as “the beloved physician.” (Col. 4:14) In writing to Philemon from Rome (about 60-61 C.E.), Paul included greetings from Luke, referring to him as one of his “fellow workers.” (Philem. 24; AV, Lucas) That Luke stuck close to Paul and was with him shortly before the apostle’s martyrdom is evident from Paul’s remark, “Luke alone is with me.”—2 Tim. 4:11.

Some hold that Luke was a Gentile, basing this mainly on Colossians 4:11, 14. Because Paul first mentioned “those circumcised” (vs. 11) and later referred to Luke (vs. 14), the implication is drawn that Luke was not of the circumcision and hence was not a Jew. But this is by no means conclusive, and there is specific evidence against it at Romans 3:1, 2, where Paul shows that God entrusted his inspired utterances to the Jews. Luke is one of those to whom such inspired utterances were entrusted.

The Scriptures likewise furnish no basis for identifying Luke with the Lucius mentioned at Acts 13:1 or Paul’s “relative” of the same name referred to at Romans 16:21.

LUKE, GOOD NEWS ACCORDING TO

An account primarily relating the events of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Its purpose was to present an accurate record in logical order, verifying the certainty of what Theophilus had been taught orally. (Luke 1:3, 4) As suggested by its having a place in the Bible canon, this record was also to benefit many other persons, both Jews and non-Jews. Whereas topical arrangement appears to predominate at times, this Gospel follows a chronological order in general outline.

WRITER AND TIME WRITTEN

Although not named therein, the physician Luke (Col. 4:14) has generally been credited with the writership of this account. There is written evidence to this effect from as early as the second century C.E., the Gospel being attributed to Luke in the