Lydia, A Good Example

Acts 16:13-15 (HCSB)

"On the Sabbath day we went outside the city gate by the river, where we thought there was a place of prayer. We sate down and spoke to the women gathered there. A woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was spoken by Paul. After she and her household were baptized, she urged us, 'If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.' And she persuaded us."

This scripture was part of our Sunday School lesson yesterday, and there were many things that hit me as I read it. Some were pointed out to me in our study guide, but others are my own thoughts. I'll share both!

First, Paul and his companions were looking for a "place of prayer" by the river. Upon approaching the river, they came upon a group of women, of whom Lydia was a part. This passage does not say, but I wonder if the women were at the specified "place of prayer?" Luke (believed to be the author of Acts) wrote that Lydia "worshiped God", which meant that she was a Gentile woman who believed in the same God as the Hebrew people. So if it were the Sabbath day, and Paul was looking for a place to pray and found a "God-fearer" down by the river, it could be that this group of women were at the "place of prayer." Again, the Bible does not give the answer to this question, this was just a thought I had.

Second, Lydia was a "dealer in purple cloth" which meant she was a woman of means. (Purple cloth signified royalty or nobility, so she must have made some good money selling this color cloth to those who could wear it.) After believing in Christ and being baptized, she insisted on Paul and his companions to stay with her family. Talk about hospitality. She barely knew these men, but opened her home to them. Now I'm paranoid about taking strangers into my home, just like some of you might be. However, what happened to taking in the poor/orphaned/widowed and feeding/clothing/sheltering them? I'll write another post about this subject, but for now it is important to see that a woman, who could have gone about her merry way knowing Jesus as Lord, opened her home to complete strangers in order to give back a little to them.

Third, Vs 14b says that "the Lord opened her heart..." This is so important. We can not by any means of our own force someone to believe in God. God is the omnipotent; He is the one who opens the hearts of those to hear and believe the message presented to them. Our responsibility and joy is to share His message with all those around us. (We get the easy part.)

And finally, where are all the men?! The passage says that Paul and friends meet a group of women gathered there. I am no Biblical scholar, so if someone has the answer to this question I would love to hear it. It seems that all the husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, nephews, etc, are no where around. The women hear the wonderful message of the gospel without their male relatives. I have two thoughts about this. One, this may have been the "woman's" gathering place and the men were just around the riverbend. My other thought is, how like many of our churches today does this scenario sound like?

My husband is a wonderful man of God. I look to him as the authority in our home, and it is my joy and pleasure to do so. Yet there are so many men in our society that are not being the strong, spiritual leaders God set them to be. Again this will be another post, but my main point is this - women have the responsibility to set a good example for their husbands, fathers, sons, etc. We must pray for them, and we must show them how loving God is the most fabulous experience on earth. Men have a great burden placed on them as the leaders of their families; we as women must do what we can to help them carry that burden. Lydia "worshiped God"; we should follow her example, for our sake, our family's sake, our world's sake.