LYDIA

On Paul’s second missionary journey, he traveled a thousand miles, crossing modern-day Turkey on bad roads and finally stepping onto European soil. In Macedonia, modern-day Greece, Paul’s first convert to Christianity was a woman named Lydia.

Lydia was a “God-fearing woman … a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira” (Acts 16:14). She was God-fearing. That is, she was a worshipper of Jehovah-God, the God of the Hebrew people. She might have been a Jew, or more likely, a Gentile who converted to Judaism. Because there wasn’t a synagogue in Philippi, the small group of faithful folks met at the river’s edge for prayer and worship (Acts 16:13).

Lydia was an entrepreneur from Thyatira, about fifty miles northeast of Ephesus. Thyatira was famous for its expensive purple dyes. She had most likely relocated to Macedonia and gotten rich peddling her purple cloth to the wealthy inhabitants of the Roman Colony.

When Paul arrived at the prayer meeting, he and Luke, and probably Silas and Timothy, found only a tiny group of women (Acts 16:13).

One might expect that Luke, the historian, would record the mesmerizing effect of Paul’s compelling, convincing, and convicting dialogue. Something like… Paul was so smooth he could sell ice to Eskimos or sand to a Bedouin. He didn’t. Rather, Luke wrote: Lydia “was listening (and) the Lord opened her heart” (Acts 16:14). A preacher or evangelist isn’t a salesman, and it isn’t great salesmanship that is needed in the pulpit.

Paul and his companions shared the Good News, the Gospel of the Resurrected Redeemer, and “the Lord opened her heart.” Truly, it was by grace, and by grace alone, through faith, and faith alone, that Lydia was saved.

Lydia was never the same. She had been converted! Born-Again. Transformed by God’s great grace. Immediately she was baptized, demonstrating her new life in Christ. Afterward, she urged Paul and his team to use her home as their headquarters. “Come and stay at my house” (Acts 16:15).

I suspect that Paul was thinking about his first European convert and her gracious hospitality when he penned his letter. “I give thanks to my God for every remembrance of you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am sure of this, that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:3–6).

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).