There are numerous female personalities who are characterized favorably in Holy Scripture. Details of their lives fill all our hearts with delight and encouragement as we struggle with many of the same temptations and challenges they encountered. Whether Bible characters are male or female, we can always learn from examples of faith, courage, love, compassion, moral purity and dedicated, zealous service to our Lord and Master.
One such person of interest in early Christian history is a God-fearing lady of Thyatira by the name of Lydia. Paul, being accompanied by his missionary team in Philippi, made contact with this business lady, who was a seller of purple. Luke recorded how the place of their meeting was on a river bank as she and her companions, apparently having become proselytes of the Jewish faith, had come to worship God. Therefore, Lydia held important knowledge about the one true and living God Who created this magnificent universe and had given promise to bless all nations through the seed of faithful Abraham. No doubt it was through God’s providential working that the two were brought together to bring about such thrilling results.
Paul, Silas and Luke sat down and conversed with them about the manifestation of God’s grace through Jesus Christ, that Jesus of Nazareth was the fulfillment of the messianic prophecies. Lydia and her household came to learn that Jesus was Prophet, Priest and King, and that, as Priest, He has offered Himself for the sins of the world upon that old rugged cross at Calvary. While hearing Paul’s message of truth through the Spirit, the Lord opened her heart so that “she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul” (Acts 16:14).
On the one hand, Lydia heard about the wonderful things God had done on behalf of each of us as sinners and who are worthy of eternal destruction and death, how God, motivated by His love and grace, provided a means whereby we could be washed, sanctified and justified (1 Corinthians 6:11). The same apostle wrote to the Ephesians: “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).
Paul’s message additionally included some matters Lydia needed to “attend to” so she could be a recipient of God’s forgiveness of all her past sins. These matters were the expression of her faith in trusting God’s system of making men righteous. (Incidentally, God’s system of making men righteous is the only system that can accomplish this desired effect whereby one is saved and enters into a covenant relationship with God, Romans 10:1-3.)
Lydia used an interesting expression that relates to how she had favorably responded to Paul’s message, just as those who on Pentecost had “gladly received” the apostles’ message (Acts 2:41). She said, “If ye have judged me to be ‘faithful to the Lord,’ come into my house and abide there” (Acts 16:15). How did Lydia demonstrate to the group of missionaries that she was “faithful to the Lord”? Her loving and trusting obedience to the things that were spoken by Paul stood as undeniable proof to her faithfulness (vs. 14).
In Jesus’ authoritative commission to His disciples and apostles, Jesus said, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:19-20). The doctrine of Christ still today includes repentance and baptism unto the remission of sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; 22:16) at which time the believer is buried into Christ’s death (Romans 6:3-4) and is cleansed by the blood of the Lamb of God. This is the message preached by all the faithful evangelists per the Holy Spirit’s directive during the first century A.D. So, Lydia was faithful in attending to the things spoken by Paul and was promptly baptized into Jesus Christ (Acts 16:15).
Why not follow in the steps of the energetic servant of God by attending promptly unto the things that have been spoken by the Lord and the men of God recorded on the pages of the New Testament of our Lord and Savior, Jesus, the Christ? You will be forever glad you did!
