Lydia

Lydia was a seller of purple fabric from the city of Thyatira in Asia Minor, living and working in the Roman colony of Philippi in Macedonia. Purple dye was expensive, extracted from shellfish, and Lydia's trade in purple goods indicates she was a woman of significant means and social standing.

Though a Gentile, Lydia was a "worshipper of God"—one who believed in Israel's God but had not fully converted to Judaism. On the Sabbath, she gathered with other women by a riverside outside the city for prayer. There was no synagogue in Philippi, suggesting the Jewish community was very small.

Paul and his companions, guided to Macedonia by a vision, found this prayer group and sat down to speak with the women. Luke records with elegant simplicity: "The Lord opened her heart, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul." Lydia believed and was baptized, along with her entire household—servants, family members, and dependents.

Lydia immediately demonstrated the fruit of her faith through hospitality. She constrained Paul's team: "If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there." Her home became the meeting place for the Philippian church—the same church Paul would later write his most affectionate letter to. Lydia's conversion opened a door for the gospel in Europe that would transform Western civilization.