Lydia, a workplace minister
“One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a purple cloth merchant from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God.” (Acts 16:14).
In Philippi, Paul met a businesswoman named Lydia. She was an early church entrepreneur who traded in purple cloth, the most expensive cloth in the 1st century Middle East. Most accounts believe that this was Paul’s first known conversion. I find it interesting that his first known alter ego was a woman and an entrepreneur.
“We sat down and talked to the women who had gathered there. The Lord opened their hearts to respond to Paul’s message. When he and his household members were baptized, they invited us into their home” (Acts 16:13-15a).
This encounter with Lydia and her female colleagues ultimately opened the way to ministry in that area. God often worked among and through women in the early church. Lydia was an influential businesswoman, and the gospel was influencing all classes of society, as it does today.
Lydia was a manufacturer of beautiful cloth that was used primarily by members of imperial families and Roman senators, who were required to have a purple band around the edge of their toga or robe. Purple cloth was both valuable and expensive in first century culture. It was often worn as a sign of nobility or royalty. Lydia’s ministry will be to the upper class business community.
Evidence of his conversion was immediate. She told the men that if they considered her a believer in the Lord, she would like them to come and stay at her home. Apparently he had plenty of room to accommodate all four of them; Paul, Silas, Timothy and Luke were also with them. She kept requesting him and he accepted her invitation and stayed at her house.
Lydia’s heart was like the good soil described in the parable of the sower. When he heard God’s word, he accepted it gladly and obeyed the apostle’s words.
Who are those “Lydias” that God has placed in your sphere of influence? Pray that you will be a means of spreading the gospel to influential women entrepreneurs like Paul.
