Career Move - Lydia - The One Year Women in Christian History Devotional

Acts 16:11-40

She was in sales, and business was good. No, we don’t have Lydia’s profit-loss statement, but all the signs are there. She came from Thyatira, a city in Asia Minor known for its purple dye. Throughout the Roman Empire, purple fabric was a luxury item, and Lydia was part of that industry. But when we meet her in Acts 16, she’s in Philippi, Macedonia, far from her hometown. Was she a field rep for the purple-dye industry, opening up the European market for her Thyatira-based company? Or was she an independent merchant, taking advantage of the latest fashion trends to build her own career? We can assume she was doing pretty well, since she owned a house in Philippi large enough to host visitors.

Lydia is described as a “God worshiper” (or God fearer), the term for a Gentile who attended Jewish services. Perhaps she had connected with the synagogue back home in Thyatira, and now, in Philippi, she had sought out others who would also pray to the God of the Jews.

As Paul shared his insights about Jesus the Messiah, Lydia was apparently the first to respond. You might say she “opened up the European market” for the gospel, since she’s usually considered the first Christian convert on that continent. Paul and his associates—Silas, Luke, and Timothy—were invited to stay at her home, giving them a base of operations during their stay in Philippi.

That’s all we know about this businesswoman—just a few verses in Acts 16. But we know a lot more about the church she started. After Paul preached that day, Lydia was the Philippian church. A short while later, a jailer and his family would trust in Christ, and perhaps a former fortune-teller, but how many others joined this church in the short time Paul and his team were there? Yet, a decade later, Paul would write a joy-filled epistle to this group.

Do you think Lydia might have applied her business acumen to the growing of a new church? When God gets ahold of our lives, he changes us, but he also uses our talents and experience in a whole new way.

You have been my partners in spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until now.

Philippians 1:5