Acts 16: 11-15

Lydia is recognized as a leader and partner in the Christian church, and predates the modern women’s liberation movement by 2000 years. She lived about fifty years after the birth of Christ. Although she is not very well known nor often mentioned in the Bible she is a woman to whom the Christian Church owes a very great debt.

According to the l6th chapter of Acts we are told that she was the first person in Europe to be won to Christianity by the Apostle Paul - which is to say and to emphasize that the first Christian convert in all Europe was a woman.

Paul and his friends, Timothy, Silas and Luke, had just crossed over from Asia into Europe and went immediately to Philippi. Luke says in the same chapter of Acts: "From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days. On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. ‘If you consider me a believer in the Lord,’ she said, ‘come and stay at my house.’ And she persuaded us." Thus Paul and his companions stayed in Philippi at the house of Lydia.

There in her home Paul must have spent much time in prayer and in talking to Lydia and her friends, telling them about Jesus Christ and bringing them the message of the gospel. Later, while a prisoner in Rome, Paul wrote to the members of this early church a letter which we know today as the letter to the Philippians.

In this beautiful letter he says, "I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now." It is hard to imagine what it would be like to receive today a personal letter from Paul and to read these words, "rejoice in the Lord always. .... and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

And to read, "what is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you."

Later, after Paul had left Philippi, the Philippian church continued to grow and became a vital force in spreading Christianity.

Lydia will always remain among the immortal women of the world. Two thousand years ago she opened the doors of her heart to the Lord, the first to be baptized in Europe, and in whose house was founded the first Christian church in Europe.

Because of her great love for the early church and the great service she rendered to it, Lydia should be remembered by all Christians every where, for the faith she inspired will live and continue to grow forever in the hearts of true believers.

In Christ,


Floyd McPhee