Acts 16:14-15 14And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, a worshiper of God, was listening, whose heart the Lord opened to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, after coming to my house, stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
A sixth strategy for Paul and the team was to look for what God was doing in the listeners’ hearts. Luke describes in more detail one of the women who gathered at the riverside. Luke patterns his stories in Acts by highlighting at least one person from each major area who came to believe in Jesus. He highlights two in Philippi, first a woman and later a man. Lydia was from Thyatira, a city in the province of Asia. Asia was called “Lydia” before it became a Roman province, so the woman at the center of this story had inherited the name of her province. There is no mention of Paul passing through there on one of his missionary journeys. A church in this city is mentioned later in Revelation 2:18-28. Thyatira was famous for selling purple cloth. Lydia may have been a traveling merchant or had migrated and started a local business with the skills of her homeland. Purple goods were expensive and connected with royalty. This suggests that Lydia had some wealth or substantial resources from her business. The Philippians church was later known for its generosity (Philippians 4:15-18), and some of this may have come through Lydia.
Lydia was a worshipper of God, possibly a Gentile God-fearer like Cornelius. Luke does not specifically state that she was Jewish, though it was the Sabbath day when the women met for prayer. Verse 14 contains a significant thought of how God opened Lydia’s heart to what Paul said. God’s prevenient grace had prepared her heart and drawn her to that special encounter with Paul. It is important to keep praying for the unsaved because God can move in their hearts and prepare them for the gospel (1 Timothy 2:1-4). Lydia believed in the gospel and was baptized, along with her household, which would have included any family and servants. She must have either been the head of her household or had significant influence within it. As indicated with the story of Cornelius and later with the Philippian jailor, an entire household would come to believe and be baptized through the influence of its head. That situation is still true in many collective cultures today. Even in individualistic cultures, one person in a family can influence and witness to others in a powerful way. Lydia invited the four team members to her house to stay, another small indicator of Luke’s interest in early Christian hospitality. Lydia showed her faith by opening her home to those who were now her Christian brothers.