People in Paul's Life
8 - Lydia
Today we are going to look at Lydia. She is the first of only three women we are going to look at in this series of studies. The only place we read about her is in Acts chapter 16 when Paul was on his second missionary journey. Paul had no intention of going to Philippi, but his plans had to be changed because he and his companions were prevented from going where they had originally planned to go by the intervention of the Holy Spirit. This change of plan brought them to Troas, a port on the coast of the Aegean Sea.
Once there, Paul had a vision in which he was called to go to Macedonia. They sailed from there to Neapolis and from there travelled inland to Philippi which was the principle city in Macedonia.
There was a small Jewish community living there, but mainly consisting of women. As there was no synagogue these women met for prayers by the side of the river. There was no synagogue because, according to Jewish law there had to be ten men to establish a synagogue. Paul had heard that the Jews in the city met for prayer at the riverside, so he and his companions went there to join with the worshippers.
Among the women Paul met there was Lydia. She was a business woman who seems to have been prosperous and possibly the head of her household. We are told she had originally come from Thyatira a city situated in Asia Minor; the country known today as Turkey. Thyatira was a city known for its textiles and dying of textiles. Lydia had moved from there to Philippi to carry out her trade there because we are told she was a dealer in purple cloth. Purple cloth was very expensive because it was difficult to make. The dye from the cloth came from a shellfish. The juice itself was white while it was in the veins of the fish, but when it was exposed to the sun it changed to a bright purple.
As the cloth was expensive to produce, Lydia’s customers would only be the rich people of the city. The beautiful cloth was mainly used by members of the royal families and other high ranking officials who were required to have a purple band around the edge of their togas, or robes. We don’t know if she was married or single or a widow, but she probably had people working for her in her business. She was, in fact like many people today. She worked for a living and was probably successful in her line of work due to the fact that she owned her own house.
Being from Thyatira, Lydia would be a Gentile, but had obviously converted to Judaism because we read that she worshipped God. Although she was born a Gentile, she had come to believe in God. But that wasn’t enough for God. James writes, “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that – and shudder.” (James 2 and verse 19) Many people worship God without having a true relationship with Him. Satan still has a certain hold on them although they might not realise it. Nicodemus worshipped God as a Pharisee, but he did not have a personal knowledge of Christ. Jesus told him he had to be “born again” or “born of the Spirit” in order to have eternal life which is what Christ had come to give people. Jesus told him that, although he was sincere in his worship, that wasn’t enough.
Lydia was very similar in the fact that she was successful like Nicodemus and, like him, was sincere. But she needed more. So what happened so that her life was changed?
The process began when Paul and his companions sat down with the ladies by the river and engaged them in conversation. We don’t read that Paul preached a sermon to them, although he might have done; they probably just introduced themselves to the women and chatted to them bringing in the gospel as they did so. Although many people come to know the Lord as their Saviour through the preaching of the word of God, many also come to know Him through one-to-one conversations and observing the lives of true believers. Through these conversations, Lydia’s heart was opened to receive the good news of Christ, but not by Paul. We read in Acts chapter 16 and verse 14, “The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul.” She believed Paul’s words and the Lord opened her heart to understand the word that Paul preached, and then to respond in the way the Lord wanted. This resulted in a wonderful change in her life. The Lord was able to take His rightful place in her heart. She had come to believe that Jesus had died for her sins, had risen from the grave and is now seated at the right hand of the Father interceding for us. She had come to Him realising that, although she was a respectable person, there was sin in her life that she needed to confess and have forgiven. She became the first Christian in Europe that we read about
As a result of this change we read that she and the members of her household were baptised. I don’t know if her family or servants were at the riverside with her when Paul was talking to her, or if she went home and brought them to him. Whatever happened, it appears that what had happened to Lydia had an impact on the lives of these other people who were associated with her and they were baptised with her. She and the others wanted to make a public declaration of the change in their lives by going through the water of baptism.
We are not told where or how this baptism took place, but the fact is she was baptised as an outward sign of the change that had taken place in her life. As Paul later puts it in Romans 6 and verse 4, she was, “buried with Him through baptism.” She was showing that she was a new person and that her old life had passed away.
Following this she told Paul and the others that if they considered her a believer in the Lord, she would like them to come and stay at her house. Evidently she had plenty of room to accommodate them all. There were four of them because with Paul there was Timothy, Silas and Luke. In fact she didn’t just invite them to stay with her, she begged them to. She had to persuade them to because I believe she wanted to know more about the Lord. She was, after all like a newborn baby who was hungry for the “pure spiritual milk” that we read about in Peter’s first epistle because she wanted her relationship with the Lord to grow.
What we can also learn from the life of Lydia is that it is possible to have a successful career without it hindering her relationship with the Lord and her service for Him. How many people today, while trying to further their career, have had a tendency to push the Lord into a small corner of their life? This wasn’t the case with Lydia. From what we read it appears that once she had come to know the Lord, He came first in her life, but she was still able to follow her occupation.
Following this we read of Paul continuing his ministry in Philippi and continuing to join the people by the river for prayer as part of his ministry.
However, he didn’t just speak to the religious people he came into contact with; he used every opportunity available to tell people about the Lord. This caused him and Silas to end up in prison for the night. This could have caused a problem in this new fellowship with their leader in prison, but the people still had Timothy and Luke with them.
I am sure that these new believers weren’t just sitting waiting and worrying; I can imagine them asking the two workers many questions about what their work involved. They would also be spending time praying for their friends in prison like the people who prayed at the home of John Mark that we looked at in Acts chapter 12 when we were studying John Mark.
Has your life changed through hearing the gospel and having your heart opened to receive it?