Lydia-Business Woman and Church Planter

Lydia is the first businesswoman mentioned in the New Testament.  Her story never names a husband, so perhaps she was a widow who inherited the business.  However it happened, she was a respected woman who sold purple textiles to those who could afford it. 

Lydia’s purple dye business was probably one of the guilds in Thyatira where she originated. A guild was an organization of artisans, something like a labor union.  While her dye business was in Thyatira (in modern-day Turkey), she sold the cloth in Philippi (modern-day Greece).  She knew that Philippi was a good market for her purple cloth because it was inhabited by the wealthy Romans. 

Paul meets Lydia, but not because he wants to buy her cloth.  He’s looking for a Jewish prayer meeting on the Sabbath and finds her on the banks of the Ganites River in Philippi.  A group of women gathered there every sabbath to pray because there weren’t enough Jewish men to maintain a synagogue (it took 10 men). Like so many stories we are familiar with today, these women were the first worshippers in their families.

As Lydia listened, “ the Lord opened her heart.” (Acts 16:14) This was a divine appointment in every way.  She not only accepted Paul’s message about Jesus, but she was also ready to be baptized as a follower of him.  When Lydia made the first step, the rest of the women followed. 

Lydia is also known for her hospitality.  She didn’t just invite Paul home for dinner.  She gave him a guest room.  And she continued to invite everyone to meet at her house every week.

I’ve seen the rich houses from Ephesus.  The dining rooms of the wealthy were as big as my first floor.  It is easy to imagine the First Christian Church of Philippi as a house church meeting in Lydia’s dining room.  They had plenty of room to grow!

What made Lydia an unlikely hero in Philippi?

1.  She treated everyone equally.

Was she the richest woman in the group?  Most certainly, she was the only businesswoman.  However, she didn’t use her success for show.  Instead, she came as needy as the others to pray.

2.  She shared what she had. 

Maybe her house wasn’t the biggest in Philippi.  But she’s the one who offered her home every sabbath. She planted a church without ever going to a seminar to find out how.

3.  She was comfortable with all kinds of people.

When a jailor and his family and a young woman who was known in the community as being mentally disturbed joined their household of faith,  she welcomed them with the same hospitality she gave everyone else. 

This church thrived in Philippi until the Ottoman invasion in the late 1300’s.  Paul wrote his most positive letter to the Philippian church. It begins with gratitude for these people: “I thank God every time I remember you . . . “ (Philippians 1: 3)

God doesn’t just pick the wealthy to share what they have.  He wants all of us to be as open and welcoming as Lydia.  She wasn’t too busy to be available to God. 

And we shouldn’t be either.