On the Sabbath day we went outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.
Parallel Translations
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On the Sabbath day we went outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together.
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And on the saboth dayes we went out of the cite besydes a ryver where men were wont to praye and we sate doune and spake vnto the wemen which resorted thyther.
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And on the Sabbath day, we went out of the citie, besides a Riuer, where they were wont to pray: and we sate downe, and spake vnto the women, which were come together.
Cross-references (15)
Passages linked to Acts 16:13 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Acts 13:14 But they, passing on from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia. They went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down.
- Acts 21:5 When those days were over, we departed and went on our journey. They all, with wives and children, brought us on our way until we were out of the city. Kneeling down on the beach, we prayed.
- Colossians 1:23 if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which I, Paul, was made a servant.
- Matthew 5:1-2 Seeing the multitudes, he went up onto the mountain. When he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth and taught them, saying,
- Matthew 13:2 Great multitudes gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat, and sat, and all the multitude stood on the beach.
- Mark 16:15 He said to them, “Go into all the world, and preach the Good News to the whole creation.
- Luke 4:20-21 He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fastened on him. He began to tell them, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
- Luke 13:10 He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath day.
- John 8:2 Now very early in the morning, he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him. He sat down and taught them.
- Acts 13:42 So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.
- Acts 16:6 When they had gone through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.
- Acts 17:2 Paul, as was his custom, went in to them, and for three Sabbath days reasoned with them from the Scriptures,
- Acts 18:4 He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath and persuaded Jews and Greeks.
- Acts 20:7 On the first day of the week, when the disciples were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and continued his speech until midnight.
- Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 13. In the day of the Sabbaths. No doubt…
13. In the day of the Sabbaths. No doubt the Jews sought some place which was solitary and by the way, when they were disposed to pray, because their religion was then everywhere most odious. And God, by their example, meant to teach us what great account we ought to make of the profession of faith; that we do not forsake it either for fear of envy or of dangers. They had, indeed, in many places synagogues, but it was not lawful for them to assemble themselves publicly at Philippi, which was a free city of Rome. Therefore, they withdraw themselves into a secret corner, that they may pray to God where they could not be espied; and yet there were those who did grudge even at this, so that they might think that it might both cause trouble and danger, but they prefer the worship of God before their own quietness and commodity. Furthermore, we may gather by this word Sabbath, that Luke speaketh of the Jews. Secondly, forasmuch as he commendeth the godliness of Lydia, it must needs be that she was a Jewess, which matter needeth no long disputation, forasmuch as we know that it was an heinous offense for the Grecians and Romans to celebrate the Sabbath, or to take up Jewish rites. Now, we understand that the Jews made choice of the river’s bank, but because they shunned the company of men, and the sight of the people. If any man object, why did not every man pray in his house privately? The answer is ready, that this was a solemn rite of praying, to testify godliness; and that being far from the superstitions of the Gentiles, they might one exhort another to worship God alone, and that they might nourish the religion received of the fathers among themselves. As touching Paul and his fellows who were lately come, it is to be thought that they came thither not only to pray, but also because they hope to do some good. For it was a fit place for them to teach in, being far from noise; and it was meet that they should be more attentive to hear the word who came thither to pray. Luke putteth the day of the Sabbaths instead of the Sabbath; where, following Erasmus, I have translated it, There was wont to be prayer; the old interpreter hath, did seem. And the word [νομιζεσθαι] hath both significations among the Grecians. Yet this sense is more fit for this present place, that they did commonly use to have prayer there.
We spake to the women. Either that place was appointed for the assemblies of women, or else religion was cold among men, so that they came more slowly. Howsoever it be, we see that the holy men omit no occasion or opportunity, because they vouchsafed to offer the gospel even to women alone. Furthermore, forasmuch as it seemeth likely to me that men and women made their prayers there together, I suppose that Luke omitted the men either because they would not hear, or else because they profited nothing by hearing.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Where they were wont to assemble themselves.
Where they were wont to assemble themselves.
God beginneth his kingdom in Macedonia by the conversion of a woman, and so showeth that there is no [exception] of persons in the Gospel.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 12 And from thence to Philippi, which is the…
12 And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.
13 And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.
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Ver. 13. And on the sabbath] A day that God had sanctified to be a means to convey sanctity into the hearts of his hidden ones, as here of Lydia the purpurisse, {a} Eze 20:12. It is his exchequer day, his market day.
Where prayer was wont to be made] Or where was a public oratory. So the synagogues are called by Philo in his embassy to Gaius the emperor, minus invidioso nomine.
Unto the women which resorted] St Paul (it may seem) at first had no other hearers but a few women at Philippi. But afterwards they became a flourishing Church. Nec minor ab exordio, nec maior incrementis ulla, saith Eutropius concerning Rome; so may we say concerning the Church of Christ.
{a} A kind of red or purple colouring matter, used by the ancients. ŒD
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain In those places where there were not enough to…
In those places where there were not enough to build a synagogue, or could not obtain leave to do it, the Jews in those countries chose more private places to meet in, which usually were near rivers, or by the seaside, removed from the noise and observance of the multitude; and these places were called προσευχαι, from the prayers which were usually made there; and to one of these Paul and the rest went, taking that occasion to meet with them whom they might preach the word of life unto. The women are here named, as being more numerous in those oratories, or such as most willingly heard and attended unto what was spoken.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And on the sabbath,.... That is, as the Syriac…
And on the sabbath,.... That is, as the Syriac version renders it, "on the sabbath day"; the Jewish sabbath, the seventh day of the week; though the words may be rendered, "on a certain day of the week" agreeably to Act 20:7 where the first of the sabbath means the first day of the week; but be this as it will, on this day,
we went out of the city by a river side; perhaps the river Strymon, which was near; the Alexandrian copy and some others, and the Vulgate Latin version read,
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without the gate; and the Syriac version, "without the gates of the city"; all to the same sense: it looks as if there was no synagogue of the Jews in this place, or otherwise the apostle and his companions would have gone into that, according to their custom; and this the rather seems to be the case, since it is so particularly remarked, that at Thessalonica, the next place they stayed at there was one, Act 17:1 and the reason might be, because that Philippi being a Roman colony, the Jews were not suffered to have one in it; wherefore Paul and his company, whether on the Jewish sabbath, or on any other day of the week, took a walk out of the city; either for the sake of a walk, or rather to converse together, and consider what was to be done, or to look out for an opportunity to preach the Gospel; and they came to a place,
where prayer was wont to be made; or as the words may be rendered, "where was thought to be a place of prayer"; a "proseucha", an oratory, or a place built and made use of for prayer; that is, as they walked along, they saw a place, which in their opinion looked like a religious house, or a place for prayer, and so made up to it, where they found some persons assembled together on that account: this sense is confirmed by several versions; the Vulgate Latin version reads, "where there seemed to be prayer", and so reads Beza's most ancient copy; and the Syriac version is very express, "for there was seen" , "an house of prayer"; to which agrees the Arabic version, "we went out to a certain place, which was thought to be a place of prayer"; to which may be added the Ethiopic version, "and we thought there was prayer there"; and that the Jews had their oratories, or prayer houses, is certain; See Gill on Luk 6:12 and that these were without the cities, and in the fields, appears from a passage of Epiphanius (f), who says,
"there were anciently places of prayer, both among the Jews, "without the city", and among the Samaritans, there was a place of prayer at Sichem, which is now called Neapolis, "without the city", in the field, about two stones distance, in form of a theatre, open to the air, and without covering, built by the Samaritans, who in all things imitated the Jews:''
and if these were commonly built by fountains and rivers, and as some think, in imitation of Isaac, who went out into the field, "to meditate"; which the Chaldee paraphrase renders, "to pray"; and is also in the same place said to come, as the Jerusalem paraphrase renders it, "to a well", or "fountain", Gen 24:62 then this clause may be rendered, "where it was usual for a prayer house to be": and then the sense is, there being no synagogue in the city, the apostle and those with him went out of it, to the river side, to look out for a prayer house; where such places were wont to be built, and they accordingly found one:
and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither; who seem to have been Jewish women, who met here to attend public prayer, there being no religious worship of the true God in the city; and among these worshippers of God was Lydia, hereafter mentioned; and worship not being begun, the apostle and his companions sat down among them, and entered into some religious conversation with them, and took the opportunity of preaching the Gospel, which was what they wanted, and were seeking after.
(f) Contr. Haeres. Tom. 2. l. 3. Haeres. 80.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain We went out of the gate - The Jews…
We went out of the gate - The Jews usually held their religious assemblies (either by choice or constraint) at a distance from the heathens: by a river side - Which was also convenient for purifying themselves. Where prayer was wont to be made - Though it does not appear there was any house built there. We spake - At first in a familiar manner. Paul did not immediately begin to preach.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 13. By a river side, where prayer was…
Verse 13. By a river side, where prayer was wont to be made] ου Οὑ ενομιζετο προσευχη ειναι, where it was said there was a proseucha. The proseucha was a place of prayer, or a place used for worship, where there was no synagogue. It was a large building uncovered, with seats, as in an amphitheatre. Buildings of this sort the Jews had by the sea side, and by the sides of rivers. See this subject considered at large in Clarke's note on "Lu 6:12". It appears that the apostles had heard from some of the Gentiles, or from some of the Jews themselves, that there was a place of prayer by the river side; and they went out in quest of it, knowing that, as it was the Sabbath, they should find some Jews there.
Spake unto the women] Probably this was before the time of their public worship, and while they were waiting for the assembling of the people in general; and Paul improved the opportunity to speak concerning Christ and salvation to the women that resorted thither.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Act 16:13-15. On the sabbath we went out of…
Act 16:13-15. On the sabbath we went out of the city — The Jews usually held their religious assemblies (either by choice or constraint) at a distance from the heathen; by a river side — The river Strymon, which ran between Philippi and Neapolis; where prayer was wont to be made — That is, where the Jews and their proselytes were wont to assemble for prayer. The original expression, which is peculiar and much controverted, ου ενομιζετο προσευχη ειναι, may be rendered, Where a proseucha (or place for prayer) was by law allowed. And we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither — At first in a familiar manner; for Paul did not immediately begin to preach. It appears that most or all of the congregation were women; among whom there was one Lydia, a seller of purple, who worshipped the true God — After the Jewish manner; a native of Thyatira — Who had fixed her residence in Philippi, for the sake of commerce; whose heart the Lord opened — The word διηνοιξε, here used, properly refers to the opening of the eyes; and the heart, or mind, has its eyes, Eph 1:18. These are closed by nature; and to open them is the peculiar work of God. Lydia, it seems, was so strongly affected with what Paul said, that she embraced the gospel with the full assurance of faith, and with all her heart. And she was baptized — It seems, immediately upon her believing, and making a profession of her faith; and her household — Those of them that were infants (if any were such) in her right, as her children, the children of believing parents having a right to be admitted to that ordinance; and those that were grown up, through her influence and authority. She and her household were baptized, by the same rule whereby Abraham and his household were circumcised, because the zeal of the covenant belongs to the covenanters and their seed. As it is not probable, that in so many households and families as are said in the New Testament to have been baptized, there was no infant; so, neither is it likely that the Jews, who had so long been accustomed to circumcise their children, would not, when they embraced the gospel, devote them to God by baptism. She besought us — Earnestly entreated us. See how the souls of the faithful cleave to those by whom they are gained to God! saying, If ye have judged me faithful to the Lord — If you have considered me as being sincere in the profession I have made of believing in the Lord Jesus, and really regard me as a true Christian; come into my house and abide there — As long as you stay in this city. This she desired, 1st, To testify her gratitude to them, who had been God’s messengers, and the instruments of his grace to her; imparting the knowledge of salvation, and producing a blessed change in her heart and life. 2d, She desired an opportunity of receiving further instruction. If she could but have them a while in her family, she might hear their heavenly discourse daily, and not only at the place of prayer on sabbath days; in her own house, also, she might not only hear them, but might make inquiries, and receive satisfaction, on many important subjects; and might have them to pray with and for her and her family daily, and thereby bring down the divine blessing upon herself and them. And she constrained us — By her importunity. The expression implies that they were reluctant to accept her invitation, being unwilling to be, in any respect, burdensome to the families of their friends, and studying to make the gospel without charge, in order that the unbelievers might have no occasion given them of reproaching the preachers of it as designing, self-seeking men; and that the Christians might have no reason to complain of the expenses of their religion. Lydia’s pressing invitations, however, overcame their reluctancy, and they at last consented to her request, and abode at her house as long as they continued at Philippi, which was many days: see Act 16:12; Act 16:18. During this time they laid the foundation of a numerous church, gathered both from among the Jews and the Gentiles; a church which, after the apostle’s departure, increased so exceedingly, that, when he wrote his epistle to the Philippians, they had several bishops, or presbyters, and deacons, Php 1:1.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain And on the sabbath - There is no doubt…
And on the sabbath - There is no doubt that in this city there were Jews; In the time of the apostles they were scattered extensively throughout the known world.
By a river side - What river this was is not known. It is known, however, that the Jews were accustomed to provide water, or to build their synagogues and oratories near water, for the convenience of the numerous washings before and during their religious services.
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Where prayer - Where there was a place of prayer, or where prayer was commonly offered. The Greek will bear either, but the sense is the same. Places for prayer were erected by the Jews in the vicinity of cities and towns, and particularly where there were not Jewish families enough, or where they were forbidden by the magistrate to erect a synagogue. These proseuchoe, or places of prayer, were simple enclosures made of stones, in a grove or under a tree, where there would be a retired and convenient place for worship.
Was wont - Was accustomed to be offered, or where it was established by custom.
And spake unto the women ... - This was probably before the regular service of the place commenced.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain There was prayer.[1] The Greek word signifies either prayer…
There was prayer.[1] The Greek word signifies either prayer itself, or an oratory, or place to pray in. (Witham) --- Not every prayer is here understood, but that which was joined in the celebration of the sacred mysteries. (Estius, in different location.) See 1 Corinthians vii. and Acts vi.
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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]
Oratio, Greek: proseuche, preces, oratio & Oratorium.
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain on the sabbath day--the first after their arrival, as…
on the sabbath day--the first after their arrival, as the words imply.
we went out of the city--rather, as the true reading is, "outside of the (city) gate."
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by a river-side--one of the small streams which gave name to the place ere the city was founded by Philip of Macedon.
where prayer was wont to be made--or a prayer-meeting held. It is plain there was no synagogue at Philippi (contrast Act 17:1), the number of the Jews being small. The meeting appears to have consisted wholly of women, and these not all Jewish. The neighborhood of streams was preferred, on account of the ceremonial washings used on such occasions.
we sat down and spake unto the women, &c.--a humble congregation, and simple manner of preaching. But here and thus were gathered the first-fruits of Europe unto Christ, and they were of the female sex, of whose accession and services honorable mention will again and again be made.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain First Church in Europe—Philippi, Act_16:13-40.
First Church in Europe—Philippi, Act_16:13-40.
At Philippi Paul is on the great EGNATIA VIA, or Egnatian Way. This grand thoroughfare, the work of Rome, can be traced upon the map as starting from Cypsela on the Hebrus, and cutting across the entire extent of northern Macedonia, through the great cities of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Edessa, and terminating at Dyrrachium, on the western coast. Thence a ferriage over sea brought the traveller to Brundusium, on the coast of Italy, and thence the great Appian Way would bring him to the gates of Rome. The Egnatian Way was the nearest approximation the world had yet made to our great railway route across a continent, from New York to San Francisco.
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13. On the sabbath—It is not clear that this was the first Saturday-Sabbath after their arrival at Philippi. That depends on the number of the certain days of Act_16:12.
By a river side—Of the river Gangas or Gangatis, one of the tributaries of the Strymon, which is nineteen miles distant from Philippi.
Prayer—This may have been simply a customary locality of river side prayer, or there may have been a roofless enclosure, or there may have been a complete edifice. For each of these three were customary; and either would be designated by the same word, namely, a proseucha. (See note on Luk_6:12.) Biscoe says: “The seashore was esteemed by the Jews a place most pure, and, therefore, proper to offer up their prayers and thanksgivings to Almighty God. Philo tells us that the Jews of Alexandria, when Flaccus, the governor of Egypt, who had been their great enemy, was arrested by order of the emperor Caius, not being able to assemble at their synagogues, which had been taken from them, crowded out at the gates of the city early in the morning, went to the neighbouring shores, and, standing in a most pure place, with one accord lifted up their voices in praising God. Now (in Flac., p. 982, D.) Tertullian says that the Jews in his time, when they kept their great fasts, left their synagogues, and on every shore sent forth their prayers to heaven, (De Jejun. chap. 16;) and in another place, among the ceremonies used by the Jews, mentions orationes litorales, the prayers they made upon the shores. (Adv. Mat_1:13.) And long before Tertullian’s time there was a decree made at Halicarnassus in favour of the Jews, which, among other privileges, allows them to say their prayers near the shore, according to the custom of their country. (Jos., Ant., XIV, 10-23.) It is hence abundantly evident that it was common with the Jews to choose the shore as a place highly fitting to offer up their prayers.”
Women… resorted—The very fact of there being this proseucha, and not a synagogue, (to which Paul would have gone had there been one,) proves the fewness of Jews. The unpopularity of Jews is indicated in Act_16:20. Of Jews, how many soever there were, none but women were found at the place of prayer; and of those women, one was a foreigner and a proselyte, faithful, perhaps, when the birthright Jews were faithless. And to her the Gospel is to be an exceeding great reward.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 13–34. Preaching on the Sabbath at Philippi. Conversion and…
13–34. Preaching on the Sabbath at Philippi. Conversion and baptism of Lydia. A spirit of divination cast out by Paul. Anger of those who made gain thereby. Paul and Silas are seized, brought before the authorities, scourged and imprisoned, but the prison doors are opened by a miracle. Conversion and baptism of the jailor and his household
13. where prayer was wont to be made] Proseuche here and in Act_16:16 is the place of prayer, and, adopting the reading now most accepted, the English would be “where we supposed there was a place of prayer.” (So R. V.) The Jews had such proseuchai sometimes in buildings, sometimes in the open air, as was the case in this instance. The word is found in this sense in Josephus, De vita sua, 54. They are described by Philo (ed. Mang.) ii. 282. They were very numerous in Rome (see Mayor, Juvenal, iii. 296). Because of Jewish ceremonial washings they were, when in the open air, as often as might be, near a river-side or on the sea-shore. Cp. Ezr_8:15; Ezr_8:21. And no doubt the language of Psa_137:1, “By the rivers of Babylon we sat down” applies to a similar state of things.
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we sat down] The attitude adopted by Jewish teachers.
unto the women which resorted thither] Better (as R. V.), “which were come together.” The Greek refers to those gathered together on this particular occasion only. Considering the little regard which the Jews had for women as persons to be conversed with and taught, it is noteworthy how large a part women play both in the Gospel History and in the Acts. It was one effect of Christianity to place woman in her true position.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (13) By a river side, where prayer was wont…
(13) By a river side, where prayer was wont to be made.—Better, where an oratory (i.e., a place of prayer) was established. The word, which was the Greek equivalent for the Hebrew “house of prayer” (Mat_21:13), is used in this sense by Josephus (Vit. p. 54), (see Note on Luk_6:12), and was current among the Jews at Rome. Where they had no synagogue, and in a military station like Philippi there was not likely to be one, the Jews frequented the river-banks, which made ablutions easy, and often succeeded in getting a piece of ground assigned for that purpose outside the walls of the city. Juvenal (Sat. iii. 11-13) notes this as one of the instances of the decay of the old faith of Rome:
“The groves and streams which once were sacred ground
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Are now let out td Jews.”
The local meaning is seen in another line from the same writer (Sat. iii. 296):
“Ede, ubi consistas, in quâ te quæro, proseuchâ?”
[“Say where thou dwell’st, and in what place of prayer
I am to seek thee?”]
The oratories, or proseuchæ, thus formed, were commonly circular, and without a roof. The practice continued in the time of Tertullian, who speaks of the “orationes litorales” of the Jews (ad Nat. i. 13). The river, in this instance, was the Gangites. Finding no synagogue in the city, and hearing of the oratory, the company of preachers went out to it to take their part in the Sabbath services, and to preach Christ to any Jews they might find there.
We sat down, and spake unto the women.—The fact that there were only women shows the almost entire absence of a Jewish population. Possibly, too, the decree of Claudius, expelling the Jews from Rome (Act_18:2), was enforced, as stated above, in the colonia, which was as a part of Rome, and as Jewesses would not be likely to have settled there without their husbands or brothers, it is probable that the women whom St. Paul found assembled were, like Lydia, proselytes who desired to remain faithful to their new faith, even in the absence of any settled provision for their instruction. Women thus placed would naturally welcome the presence of strangers who, probably, wore the garb of a Rabbi, and who showed when they sat down (see Note on Act_13:14) that they were about to preach. We note that here also the narrator speaks of himself as teaching. (See Note on Act_16:10.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Sabbath day for sabbath, A.V.; we went forth without…
Sabbath day for sabbath, A.V.; we went forth without the gate for we went out of the city, A.V. and T.R. (pulhv for polewv); we supposed there Was a place of prayer for prayer was wont to be made, A.V.; were come together for resorted thither, A.V. By a river side. By the river side is the natural way of expressing it in English. The river is not the Strymon, which is a day"s journey distant from Philippi, but probably a small stream called the Gangas or Gangites, which is crossed by the Via Eguatia, about a mile out of Philippi. The neighborhood of water, either near a stream or on the seashore, was usually preferred by the Jews as a place for prayer, as affording facility for ablutions (see Josephus, "Ant. Jud:," 14:10, 23; and other passages quoted by Alford). The phrase, ou ejnomizeto proseuch einai, should be rendered, not as in the R.V, but more nearly as the A.V, where a prayer-meeting (of the Jews) was accustomed to be held; i.e. this particular spot was the usual place where such Jews or proselytes as happened to be at Philippi met for prayer. It also appears from Epiphanius ("Hear.," 80, quoted by Alford) that the Jews usually had their proseucai, whether buildings, or open spaces, exw polewv, outside the city. The wayside crosses are of the nature of proseucai.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain And on the Sabbath we went out of the…
Act_16:13
And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by a river side where prayer was wont to be made.
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The duty of Christs servants when from home
This may be gathered from what the apostles did not do, and what they did when they reached Philippi.
I. Negatively. They did not--
1. Give up going to prayer meeting because they were away from their home church.
2. Go to prayer meeting and wait and wait for someone else to say something.
3. Need a fifty-thousand-dollar church, and the presence of a fashionable congregation to call out their best efforts.
II. Positively.
1. They found a few women gathered in a little chapel by the river side--then and there they saw that work for Christ was to be done.
2. They did Christs work, and forthwith one soul at least was won for the Master.
3. When all Christs servants do their duty as unhesitatingly, what joy there will be among the angels of God, over repentant souls turning heavenward! (S. S. Times.)
The place of prayer
The place of prayer is a place of power. Miracles are done in it. When the disciples were praying, the Holy Spirit descended. When the Church was praying at John Marks house, Peter was let out of prison by an angel. When the Church prays now, there is answer in India and China and Africa, While Christians pray there is fresh anointing from on high; they become strong in the Lord and the power of His might. The hour we spend in communing with God is the most strengthening in the week. More prayers and less words. Less with men, and more with God. We get the victory in the prayer room where no eye sees but Gods, and all hearts are one before Him. The prayer circle is a place of instruction. Prayer is a great teacher. The word of truth is unfolded there; mysteries are explained; promises are fulfilled; deliverances are wrought. What God teaches in prayer is pure truth; what we learn on our knees we never unlearn. The place of prayer is a place of rest after toil, of comfort in perplexity and trouble. It is good to draw near to God. Draw nigh unto Me and I will draw nigh unto you. The gates to the mercy seat are many, and, like those to the golden city, stand open day and night, that every soul may enter in. It is a place of fellowship, Next to the joy of heaven is the gladness of hearts gathered together in prayer. It is a place for conversion of souls. Of how many it shall be written: They were born there. It is a place for replenishing the daily losses of the heart, and enthroning God again at the seat of the soul. A Christian is always helped in his association with other Christians. Single coals do not hold fire, but gathered together there is glow.
The proseuche
The names proseuche and synagogue were sometimes confounded; though at other times the distinction between them is observed. This distinction consists in the first word being used of the place of assembly, and the latter of the assembly itself. But however frequently these names were interchanged, they seem on the whole to have been used to designate different buildings, the first a temporary and tentative place of worship, the second a regular and acknowledged edifice, much as among ourselves a mission chapel is distinguished from a parish church. Wheresoever, from the paucity of their numbers, the Jews were not able to establish a synagogue, which required a certain number of men competent to bear the offices necessary to constitute a synagogue, there near a stream, as seems to have been the almost invariable practice in heathen countries, a proseuche was established--a humble dwelling partly covered, in part open to the sky, which in after times might give place to a grander edifice, and was not exclusively devoted to worship as the synagogue was. Thus at Thessalonica and Antioch and elsewhere we find synagogues mentioned; at Philippi, where there is no appearance of any Jewish colony, there is only a place for prayer. (W. Denton, M. A.)
The gospel in Europe
I. The first gospel preaching in europe.
1. The season--the Sabbath. On this day the religious sentiment would be more active than on other days. Ministers should study mental moods. There are days and circumstances suited for religious impressions. There are tides in the affairs of spiritual as well as secular concerns.
2. The scene. They retired from the hum and bustle of the city into the solitudes and sublimities of nature. By a river side. Few objects in nature are more beautiful and suggestive than a river. Emblem of life, ever changing; emblem of the universe, flowing on forever. The Jews were accustomed to have their proseuche built near water, that they might attend to the various ablutions connected with their religious rites. To Christianity all places are alike sacred. God is a Spirit.
3. The style. They did not stand erect in the attitude of orators, they sat down, mingled with the people. They did not deliver set discourses, but spake, talked. What did they talk about? The beauties of nature? the immortality of the soul? the providence of the Eternal? If they referred to these, Christ and His Cross were, we may rest assured, their grand theme.
II. The first gospel hearers in Europe. Who were they? Poets, statesmen, philosophers, heroes, kings? No! Women. Why women and not men? Perhaps because the men came at another hour, or because the women had a special service for themselves. Did wives meet there to pray for their husbands, and sisters for their brothers, etc.? All we know is, that women are always more religiously disposed than men. Note--
1. That the gospel is universally appreciable. Had the apostles felt that the truth required culture, logic, philosophic acumen, they would have gone first, not only to men, but to men of the higher type. But they felt that the gospel, being a revelation of facts, character, love, all that was required was the common intuitions and sympathies of a womans nature.
2. That the gospel honours the female character. All religions but that of the Bible degrade women; and though, as in the more civilised parts of the world, she may be petted, she is still a slave to man. The gospel honours woman. The Saviour was born of a woman. Women were amongst His followers. He showed Himself to women after His resurrection, and the apostles now preached in Europe first to women. Woman is under special obligation to the gospel.
3. That the gospel has a regard to social influence. Woman has a greater influence on the race than man has. When she acts worthily of her nature, her influence as sister, wife, mother, is regal.
III. The first gospel convert in Europe. A certain woman named Lydia, etc. Observe--
1. Her secular calling. A seller of purple. Purple was a colour got from a shellfish, and of great cost and richness. It was chiefly worn by the wealthy and great. This woman was in trade.
2. Her religious character. Which worshipped God, i.e., she was a proselyte; a formal worshipper of the God of Abraham.
3. Her spiritual change.
(1) Its subject. The heart. This, notwithstanding her religious profession, had been closed. The spirit of truth had not entered it. Avarice, prejudice, habit, shut up the heart.
(2) Its cause. The Lord opened it. Not by a miracle, not irrespective of means, but by certain influences. Sabbath day associations, natural scenery, the presence and speeches of the apostles, etc., disposed her to listen to what Paul had to say.
(3) Its proof.
(a) Teachableness. She attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. As a thirsty soul she drank in the new truths.
(b) Profession. She avowed symbolically the necessity of a cleansing influence for herself and household.
(c) Gratitude. If ye have judged me, etc. (D. Thomas, D. D.)
The gospel in Europe
1. Here the Lord of salvation is on His way to us, bending His steps westward. Just suppose that Paul and Silas had been ordered the other way. Then very likely these lands of ours would have been the Asia and the Africa that now are.
2. They had been staying in Philippi for certain days, as you might be sojourning in London. Paul was not a devout worshipper in Jerusalem, but a Philippian in Philippi. Had Paul been as loose in his observance of the Sabbath as some people, this story would not have been written. Forget not the ways of worship in which you were brought up when you are sojourning in London. Remember that perhaps you were brought here to open some door which, but for your arrival, would have remained shut.
3. Lord, says the Psalmist, I have loved the habitation of Thy house, etc. Can we say that? Is the love of worship so strong in us that when the day comes round our heart wakens up with strong desire to engage in the dear and familiar round? What a scene is presented to us! The city away back there, with its sin, bustle, and gaiety. They turn their backs on the city, and go out here to this quiet place by the river side. What a picture after all of all congregations! Where are we today? Along the river of time we glide, but on the Sabbath we reach a little quiet creek, and Gods own hand thrusts our boat in here; and while the river goes speeding away on to the sea, we disembark, and quietly, for a little time, while our boat rocks idly in this little bay, we rest ourselves. We land, and we sit down, and lo! Gods servant comes among us, and speaks of things that belong to the kingdom of Jesus Christ; and our hearts are opened for us, so that we attend to the things that are said to us, and receive blessings thereby.
4. How unlike the Lords Forward. Movements are to some of which we hear. No big bills, no beating of the drum. Maybe the Lord would like us to take a leaf out of His book, and whether we do things in a quiet or public way, to make sure that we are aiming at individuals. If Europe ever is to be saved, it is to be saved man by man, woman by woman, family by family. That is Gods programme. How quiet. People, perhaps, taking a stroll by the river side would cast a wondering eye upon that little group, little knowing what was there. Who hath despised the day of small things? No wise man; but fools do it continually--and that is a folly that we London ministers and workers are apt to be guilty of. We come to some meeting, and there are only a few women, and the very look on our face says, The meeting is a failure. None of the men of the district! This is not the class of people we wanted to gut at. One might have said, Paul you are off the track. You are swinging about aimlessly. Paul did not think so, but he sat down and spoke unto the women who resorted thither. I am not saying a word against big crowds. It is impossible to convert empty benches, and I never want to see dead wood. Often a bad use is made of Christ speaking to the woman at the well, for He so spoke that she went and raised the town about Him. God has much people in this city, but He gets at the multitude through quickened individuals. God bless the women who give us meetings! for sometimes if it were not for Lydia we should have no meeting at all. Do you understand that, you men? It is not that you are engaged. It is simply that you will not come. It is not that you stay at home. You go out, but you do not come this way. Still, accepting the situation as it is, if there are only a few women, let us, like Paul, say to ourselves, This is Gods opportunity, and this is my work.
5. Notice the condition of the heart of this worshipper. She was a devout woman according to her light. She knew after some dim and distant fashion the God of Israel. It is not enough to be religious after the ordinary fashion. Even Lydia needs to have her shut heart opened. But still we have to notice that she was there, and she was using the light which she had; and by using the light which she had she came to more. Notice how the preacher is suppressed, and the sermon, and how the hearer is lifted up into prominence.
6. Attention, humanly speaking, is the avenue by which Christ comes into the human soul. It is a small thing, but I am afraid a rare thing. Even supposing that you had that great apostle, still conversions would be scanty if the audience did not attend. And it is not so easy as we are apt to imagine. It needs the power of the Holy Spirit to enable Paul to preach, and it needs the same power to enable the hearer to hear. Although your face is to me, where is your mind just now? Thinking of the state of things at home, of something that was in your business yesterday, of something that is to be in your business tomorrow? Ah, how many of us are like the wayside hearers! You are unconverted, not because of a poor preacher here, but because of a mighty poor listener down there. Hear, says the prophet, and your soul shall live.
7. Then see how this simple narrative brings out the mystery of conversion. Her heart was opened by the Lord. I cannot explain it. I can only point you to the fact, but what a blessed fact it is! If my heart has been opened, it was Divinely done. Oh, what a strange thing is the heart of man! Not long ago, in sport, a man handed me a purse with money in it, and I felt it, and I heard it jingle. He said, Open it; and in spite of my doing my utmost, I could not, it was too cunningly contrived. Such is the heart of man. It is worth the opening. Hand it up to God, and say, O God, do for me what Thou didst for Lydia. He will. I think I see the Lord Jesus doing what I did out in the country one day. I came to a little cottage, and I went round, but the shutters were up, and I went round to the door, but the door was fastened. However, it did open; and you know the uncertain, cautious way in which you push open the door of an empty house and peer into the darkness. But I went in. So Christ today is coming to your heart, and He knows all the springs and locks in it, and He is opening it, and He is looking in. What a place! everything dark and desolate and dirty, for it has been God-forsaken ever since you were born. May He come in--at whose girdle hang the keys of all hearts.
8. And when she was baptized, and her household, etc. First the heart, and then the home. She kept them; she fed them; she bore all charges for them at the very beginning. Remember Lydia at once became a contributor to the Sustentation Fund! (J. McNeill.)
Missionary sermon
That simple account is the first record of the preaching of the gospel in Europe. We are standing at the well head of a great river. The little silver thread, over which a shepherd might step without asking it to stay its progress, broadens out into a great expanse, and the Christendom of a civilised world is developed from those simple words spoken that Saturday morning. Thus gently and unobtrusively stole into Europe the great words which were to shatter and remould its institutions, and to be the starling point of its liberties.
I. The apparent insignificance and real greatness of Christian work. It was the biggest thing that was done in the world that day when Paul talked to that handful of women. Well now, the same temptation, to judge of acts by their external aspect, and to underrate their value, besets us all in our Christian work. The greatness of an action depends on three things--its motive, its sphere, and its consequences. Anything that is done for God is great. You take a pebble and plunge it into a stream and all the veins become visible, which you failed to detect as it lay on the shore, and so it is with Christian work, cast it into the stream of holy motive--let it be done for God and it is sanctified and ennobled. And so it is as to the relative greatness of the sphere of our actions; what is done for material well-being and physical life is distinctly at the bottom. What is done for the understanding is higher, and if the lightest word of a great thinker is more than all material magnificence, then decisively, by the very same reasoning, we must exalt above the mere thinkers words the words and deeds which touch the heart, and that sway the will, that cleanse and invigorate, and instruct, and invest with sovereign power the life and conscience; and the preaching of Christs name is that which does all these things. Therefore high above all other forms of Christian benevolence and munificence is this setting forth of the name that Paul spake by the riverside that morning. But deeds are classified according to their consequences. The longer they last, the wider they reach, the deeper they go--the greater the act which sets them in motion. Go and ask about the length of time the consequences of that sublime mornings discourse will endure. When all the flaring gas lamps and rush lights are out, they that be wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.
II. The law of growth in Christs kingdom. The seed sown at first was but little, and though eighteen centuries have passed, and it has grown to a kingdom, it is obviously a long way from the term of its growth. So I may draw one or two lessons upon which I would touch for a moment or two. First: That the law of Christs kingdom is found in minute and unobtrusive beginnings--noise and prominence are no parts of its power, and have little part in accomplishing the great things that are done for Him. The noisiest things are generally the little things, and the quiet things are the strong ones. Look how Jesus Christ stole into the world, into a corner of a remote little province, and went about silently doing good, and passed out of it again, and the world knew Him not. And so dont let us be ashamed of little beginnings. They are in the line of Gods way of working, and side by side with that there is the other thought, slow progress is unobtrusive and steadfast. The length which any organism takes to come to its maturity is the measure of its duration, and the man outlasts a million generations of moths, and the oak waves its unchanging branches alive many, many generations of reeds that spring and wither at its careless feet; and if eighteen centuries have but begun the development of the forces which were set loose in Europe for the first time that morning, how long is it going to be before decay sets in upon that which has taken so long to grow? A long, long duration must belong to that kingdom, the consolidation of which has been the work of all these centuries, and that must be an unsetting day, of which these years are but as a watch in the morning twilight. God works leisurely and invisibly. Treading most closely in the footsteps of Him who waited over a thousand years to send His own Son with that small beginning and slow advance, they commenced their work of the founding and building of the kingdom of Christ.
III. The simplicity of the forces to which Christ entrusts the progress of His kingdom. It seemed a most unequal contest into which the apostle and his little band had gone, led by the vision which they interpreted as the Divine monition. Think of the opposition, the antagonisms that were ready against them. There was Greece over the hills with its proud philosophies. There was Rome all active, ready to change its toleration for active persecution. They had to meet storms of heathenish idolatry, round which the superstitious dread of untold centuries gathered, and which was ever menacing with consummate obstinacy. They had to confront ordered systems of able philosophic teachers with their unlettered message. Did Cartes, landing on an unknown shore, with an unsubdued and barren beach in front and his burning ships behind, embark on a more apparently desperate venture than these men? And what were the weapons that made them victorious? First and foremost the message that they preached, the plain gospel--to which the heart and conscience of men will respond, when it is put before them as Christ meant it to be--the message, That God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing unto them their trespasses. That was Pauls gospel, as he tells us, and that was the weapon with which he fought, which was, the power of God unto salvation. With this most beneficent intention they fronted the universe with one word, and with that word they took the world; and you and I have it, and if we will be faithful and will use it, we shall have the same issues and results as they. Their power in the next place came from the earnestness with which they preached the truth. Convictions are contagious. You may reason with a man until Doomsday, and if you hammer an iceberg to powder it will be ice still, but melt it, as you can by having your own soul aglow with love and loyalty to Jesus Christ, and you can turn it from ice to sweet water. The last element of power is the presence of the abiding and indwelling Christ. The Word, mighty as it is, is vain without the mighty power and inspiration of the Spirit. As we read that verse lower down, what do we find? Whose heart the Lord opened, that she should attend to the things that were spoken of Paul. In the measure in which we are true to Him, and yield ourselves in glad surrender to His power and presence, we carry Jesus Christ with us, and He works through us, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, which are indeed the acts of the risen Christ in the apostles. The gospel is as much the power of God unto Salvation today as it ever was, and the earnestness of our personal conviction is as deep as ever, and the presence and power of the indwelling Spirit of Christ is as real as ever, and the closer we keep to Christ and the more exclusively and unreservedly we trust Him the more assured will be our results. Gods Church has no need of wealth. Jewels on the hilt of a sword are often in the way of getting a good grip of it, and the gilded scabbard adds nothing to the keenness of its edge. The Church has no need of worldly help. David was almost throttled in Sauls armour, he was better without it. Let us then get the old proved weapons which have been tried through many generations; we have more reason to trust them than Paul had, for we have eighteen centuries of experience to fall back upon, which he had not; and if we cleave to them, as I pray God we may, we shall find that the weapons of our warfare, not being carnal, but spiritual, are mighty through God to the pulling down of the strongholds of sin and Satan. And so I venture to commend to your sympathies the claims of the Foreign Missionary enterprise. I am sure of this, that no Church is in a healthy condition that does not lend a helping hand in the great work of foreign missions. The lamp that is placed in the window gives no less light in the room because its rays are illuminating the darkness outside. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)
The gospel in Europe
1. In verse 12 we read of certain days--days which needed not to be named--the ordinary process of time. But in verse 13 we read of the Sabbath--the day that has a name; the one day into which all other days flow as streamlets and rivers flow into the sea. There is none like it. You need not bolster up the Sabbath by argument. Its Divine authority is written in the heart, and we shall see it to be so when once awakened and inspired by the Holy Ghost. The Sabbath must be its own argument.
2. And on the Sabbath we went out of the city by the riverside. Church hunting! A journey that was allowed. To leave home thus on Sunday is to seek the greater home. You cannot stop at home on the Sabbath day. That were insult to the very home you profess to love. To leave it is to seek it; to go from it is to get at it. We must go out on the Sabbath day, if the Spirit of Christ be in us, in order to help to complete the family gathering. Let us not be led away by the foolish fantasy that a man can read the Bible at home, or have a Church at home, in some sense which dispenses with the common joy of kindred sympathy and soul. Christianity does not isolate men, but brings men together in sacred, sympathetic brotherhood. We know what it is in strange places to seek the particular Church we know and love on the Sabbath day.
3. Where prayer was wont to be made. How singular is the cause of reputation or fame! There are famous battlefields to which men make pilgrimages. How can a man be in Belgium without feeling some constraint towards Waterloo? That is natural. There are men who would make long pilgrimages to see where John Bunyan was born. The land through which the apostles passed was full of historic interest, but they cared little for the histories which have beginnings and endings; they lived in the nobler history which continues through the everlasting duration. They sought the place where soul battles had been fought. You might have known whither the men were moving; they were praying as they were going. We must keep up the spiritual frame.
4. The women which resorted thither. Have men forsaken religion and left the women to keep it up? Do women keep up the Church? It may be; but it is a fools gibe! The woman does keep up the Church--God bless her! But she keeps up more. Oh, thou blatant, mocking fool, to taunt the very saviour of society! There be those who say that the men have given up Church. Yes, but only in the same proportion in which they have given up love, purity, patience, home!
5. And a certain woman named Lydia. This is like the days and the Sabbath. What subtle little harmonies there are in this inspired book! How part balances part! As there are days that may be mentioned in the plural number, so there are men and women who may be mentioned in their plurality; but as there is one day which is always named alone, so there are individuals who head every catalogue; names which have whole lines to themselves. Look at the case of Lydia.
I. She was a business woman--a seller of purple. So, then, women of business may be women of prayer. We ought to have more women of business. It is one thing for a woman to be a slave, and another for a woman to work and to love her work. He, or she, who loves work, makes all the week a kind of introductory Sabbath to the great religious rest. I would that all women were Lydias in this respect of having something definite to do every day and doing it, and finding in industry a balance to piety.
II. She was a religious woman; she worshipped God. It is one thing to be religious and another to be Christianised. Religion is a general term; Christianity is a specific form of religion. It is not enough for you and me to be religious, we must take upon us by the mighty ministry of the Holy Ghost a particular form, and that particular form is Christianity. In this respect Christianity is a heart opening; a heart enlargement.
III. When she became the subject of Christian influence, at once she would have a Church in the house--If ye have judged me, etc. In that suggestion there is a whole philosophy. That was impulse Divine. When the two travellers felt their hearts burn within them, by reason of the converse of the third Man, they said, Abide with us. Lydia would have a fellowship at once. Souls that are kindred must never leave one another. Christians must abide together. In the olden time they that feared God met often one with another, etc. (J. Parker, D. D.)
And spoke unto the women that resorted thither.--
Paul and the women of Philippi
I. The circumstances.
1. It was upon the Sabbath day.
2. It was by the river side. A river may remind us of the Spirit, by whose influence we are enabled to drink of the streams which make glad the city of God.
3. It was a place where prayer was accustomed to be made.
II. The position. They sat down.
III. The operation (verse 14).
1. Something implied.
(1) Ignorance.
(2) Prejudice.
2. Something described.
(1) Before conversion.
(a) Conviction.
(b) Perception.
(c) Willingness.
(2) After conversion.
(a) Consciousness.
(b) Longings.
(c) Enlargement. (Dr. Andrews.)
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple.--
The conversion of Lydia
I. The character of Lydia, previous to the apostles arrival. This will, in a considerable degree, account for that absence of intense feeling by which her conversion was distinguished. You are not now invited to look on the rough Roman soldier, or the dissolute vagrant. But Lydia stands before you, marked by the mildness of her sex, the native pliancy of the Asiatic character, and the respectability of her standing in society. For you find that she was a woman of Thyatira, a Lydian city, and a respectable householder in Philippi. And her employment, as a seller of purple, was calculated to produce a certain degree of morality and gentleness; for trade has a tendency to repress open profligacy, and to remove moroseness of temper. And the peculiar branch of commerce, which engaged Lydias attention would tend, by bringing her into contact with her superiors, to foster a submissive and obliging disposition. But the most important fact of her early history is her proselytism to the Jewish faith--she worshipped God. It cannot hence be inferred that she was really pious, for in chap. 13 we find that those individuals at Antioch, characterised by the same term, and called in our Bibles devout women, were among the violent persecutors of Paul and Barnabas. Many of these proselytes were, doubtless, like the Jews themselves, but professors of the tenets of Judaism. Yet the religious profession of Lydia will prove that she was to a certain extent instructed in the writings of the Old Testament; and the narrative shows her to have been an attendant in assemblies for Divine worship. And this knowledge, and this attention to the rites of religion, would give an aspect to her mind, very different from that of her depraved neighbours. The ruggedness of the heathen character would be thus worn away, and the law, as the forerunner of the gospel, would have prepared the way of the Lord, and made straight in the desert a highway for our God. Lydia then, at this period, although unchanged by the Holy Spirit, may be described as moral, amiable, industrious, domestic, and instructed in the leading principles of religion.
II. The scene of her conversion. And in this there is much to harmonise with the characteristic of her conversion itself. Lydia is not roused beneath the strong arches of a prison, by an earthquake, like the savage jailer. But time, and place, and employment, all tell of tranquillity.
III. The manner of the Divine operation. We have not time now to enlarge on the sentiment, that an immediate Divine influence is necessary for the conversion of a soul, although this is sufficiently established by the present history. It is God which worketh in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure; and then listen to the language of Jesus Christ, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. But we have here to advert particularly to the gentle manner in which the Spirit affected the mind of Lydia. This is implied in the word opened. The hearers of Peter, on the day of Pentecost, were pricked to the heart. The hearts of others are represented as broken. Indeed, the convinced soul sometimes reminds us of a city taken by storm: the bars of iron are cut asunder--the gates are battered down--the assailants pour in like a torrent. But the heart of Lydia was opened like the gate of Peters prison. Now, there are two circumstances recorded in the narrative that will illustrate the mildness of the Divine agency.
1. The first is that the preaching of the gospel was the instrument of Lydias conversion. The Spirit in His saving influences always affects the mind by bringing it into contact with truth; and, indeed, with that portion of truth which He has been pleased to communicate to man in the Scriptures. Of His own will begat He us by the word of truth. This is the sun of the moral world. The law of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. But light does not always strike the eye from the same point: sometimes the sun pours on it his direct effulgence; at others, the rays reach it through all the varieties of reflection. And thus the truth is not always communicated to the mind in the same manner. It impresses one man amid the silence of meditation; another, while perusing the Bible; it smites a third in the rebuke of an enemy; it came to Paul in a voice from heaven. But the more common manner of conveying to the mind the truths of revelation is by the preaching of the gospel.
2. The other circumstance to which we allude is that the operations of the Spirit did not interfere with the calm exercise of Lydias mental powers. The influences of the Spirit, indeed, never supersede the employment of the intellectual faculties; for then man would cease to be responsible. But in the early stages of some conversions, there is but little calmness in the employment of these. The feelings are too much agitated to allow of close attention to the various bearings of truth. Imminent peril occupies too large a space in the field of vision to permit the presence of other objects. But such was not Lydias case. She attended unto the things which were spoken by Paul. Her heart was engaged with his discourse. While Lydia heard that Christ was bruised for our transgressions, she felt that she was a transgressor. True, she had been industrious, amiable, moral. But now she perceived that religion required much more than outward decency. She began to feel the meaning of the Psalmists prayer; Create in me, O God, a clean heart. She saw that the anxieties of business, and the cares of a family, had interfered with supreme love to God. And Lydia received the testimony of God. She saw its extent, embracing time and eternity; the character of man, and the nature of God--and she received it all.
IV. The subsequent conduct of Lydia, as according with the gentleness which we have noticed as predominant in her history. She was not called, like the apostle to whose language she had listened, to raise her voice in the public assembly, or to expose her life in perilous journeys. But there was a little congregation to whom she could introduce the word of truth--her household. It is evident that Lydia discharged her duty to her family, for they too were baptized. And mild as Lydia appears in the centre of her family, regarded by its members as the instrument of their own conversion, she is not seen in a light less amiable, when performing towards the apostles the rites of Christian hospitality. Mark with what urgency she pleads with Paul, her father in Christ, to come, with his companions, beneath her roof; till, constrained by her grateful importunity, these holy men became her guests. And so closely was Christian friendship cemented by their brief intercourse, that we find Paul and Silas, as soon as they were released from prison, hastening to the house of Lydia, to share with their anxious hostess the joy of their deliverance. And her considerate regard to the temporal wants of the apostles was not limited to the transient attentions of hospitality. Read the Epistle to the Church at Philippi and you will find that, at the introduction of the gospel into Macedonia, this Christian society alone ministered to the necessities of the apostle. Twice at Thessalonica and once at Corinth did this Church aid, by its pecuniary contributions, the mission of Paul among the heathen. And from whom do you suppose this liberality originated, but from Lydia, the first fruits and centre of the Philippian Church? Such is a rapid sketch of Lydias conversion. And surely it is not less illustrious for being distinguished by a placidity which among men would be esteemed incompatible with the production of a mighty effect. The operations of God must not be estimated by a human standard. Feebleness is restless, omnipotence is calm. Look on its noblest works. When the sun was formed, was there the accumulation of materials, or the toil of labourers, or the clang of machinery? No. God said, Let there be light, and the glorious orb existed, blazed, and threw abroad its infant rays amid the songs of the sons of God. And how was that more marvellous work, the spirit of man, produced? God breathed into the beauteous clay the breath of life, and man became a living soul; and the eye beaming with intelligence opened upon the tranquillity of Paradise. And then, think of the incarnation of the Son of God. No earthquake shakes the mountains--no trumpet summons the nations--no chariot of fire cleaves the air; but the glory of a single angelic messenger shines around a group of shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem. In the application of this subject we might observe--
1. That the conversion of the moral and the amiable is frequently attended with comparatively small degrees of mental excitation. This consideration may console those who resemble Lydia in their character and in the manner of their conversion.
2. That a calm entrance upon the Christian life will not necessarily interfere with decision and activity in the Church of God. In the full prospect of persecution Lydia professed her faith, and identified herself with the cause of Christianity.
3. That attention to the public ordinances of religion should ever accompany dependence on the Spirit of God; nor should we absent ourselves from a service because thinly attended, or inferior to others in excitement.
4. Finally, we observe, that natural excellence of character will not render conversion unnecessary. If it would, why was it needful that the Lord should open the heart of Lydia? (T. C. Everett.)
Lydia
The ordinary blessings of life are distributed with great inequality; indeed, we often find that the worst characters enjoy the largest portion of them. The reason is this--they are not essential to mans happiness. Whatever is necessary to the happiness of all is placed within the reach of all. True religion is, however, necessary to our dignity and to our happiness; and, therefore, it is placed within the reach of every person, and, especially, within the reach of the poor. There are many striking illustrations of this. One is now before us. The sacred historian makes no mention of Philip or his warlike son--he says nothing of Augustus, or of Brutus; but he mentions with peculiar honour an humble individual from Thyatira. Let us notice--
I. The industry of Lydia--she was a seller of purple.
1. A dog which had been eating a Conchilis or Purpura, and whose lips had been deeply tinged with a purple colour, gave occasion to the discovery of this elegant and costly dye. At one time it was more valuable than gold, and articles of dress dyed by it were worn only by sovereign princes; but in the days of Roman luxury they were used by the noble and wealthy in general; hence it is said of the rich man that he was clothed in purple and fine linen.
2. Lydia was employed in preparing and selling this. As idleness is quite opposed to the virtue and happiness of man, it is necessary that all persons should follow some employment. Even those who are placed in independent circumstances should not be idle, but should employ their time, talents, and influence in doing good to others. What a noble example does the life of the benevolent Howard furnish to persons placed in such circumstances as these! Such, however, as have, by their own exertions, to provide for their personal and family wants should be diligent in their calling, whatever it may be.
3. And whatever else we attend to or neglect, we should attend to the soul. For what is a man profited, etc. There are many persons who plead that they are placed in such circumstances that it is out of their power to attend to the one thing needful, but this is a vain excuse; for we shall find that there have been persons in all ages distinguished for piety, who have been placed in circumstances the most unfavourable to religion.
II. Lydias piety.
1. She worshipped God; that is, the true God, according to the practice of the Jews.
2. Such was the power of principle with Lydia, that neither the fear of man, nor the love of lucre would lead her to desecrate the day which the Lord had sanctified. How far does her conduct surpass that of those who enjoy superior advantages! How shamefully is the Sabbath desecrated. If, in reference to an individual, drunkenness be an inlet to every other crime, in reference to a community, Sabbath breaking is an inlet to every other evil.
3. Witness the advantages that resulted to Lydia from the course of conduct which she pursued. She went to the house of prayer, and there received the end of her faith, even the salvation of her soul. It is a great principle in the Divine administration, that God honours them that honour Him.
III. The change which Lydia experienced.
1. The Jews used the term, heart, to describe the understanding, the will, and the affections. Now Lydia listened to the doctrinal statements of St. Paul, and she so listened as to understand them; when understood they commended themselves so that she embraced them with her will, and cherished them in her affections. Thus her heart was opened--she believed and received the Saviour with all His fulness of evangelical blessing.
2. Now it is not to St. Pauls preaching, but to the influence of the Spirit, that this great change is attributed. Paul might have preached till the present hour, and Lydia would have remained what she was unless the Spirit had accompanied the ministrations of the apostle, and rendered the word effectual.
3. It is more difficult to accomplish the redemption of a fallen human spirit than it was to create this vast universe. For when God proceeded to employ His high attributes in the work of creation there was nothing to impede the operations of His hand. But when God proceeds to accomplish the great work of spiritual regeneration in the heart of man, his pride, his passions, his prejudices, hid deep-rooted depravity, oppose that influence. How necessary, then, that we should pray for the Holy Spirit, without whom all human means are in vain!
IV. The evidence furnished by Lydia of the reality and extent of this gracious change.
1. She was baptized. Man is a sentient being, and, therefore, it is necessary that he should receive instruction through the medium of his senses. Under every dispensation God has accommodated Himself to this. Although the ceremonies of the law have been abrogated, still God condescends to our weakness in the two sacraments. Now, baptism is an initiatory and dedicatory ordinance. By means of this we are introduced into the Christian Church and devoted to the service of God. It is also emblematical of regeneration; and as we can enter into the visible Church only by the sacrament of baptism, so we can enter into the real Church only by regeneration. Now, Lydia, having embraced the Christian faith, manifested not merely confidence in Christ as her Saviour--not merely respect for Him as her Prophet, but subjection to His authority as her King, by submitting to the rite of baptism.
2. She was baptized and her household--that is, we apprehend, all the members of her household who were under fourteen years of age; for this appears to have been the Jewish practice in reference to the admission of proselytes into the Jewish Church.
3. She also received the messengers of mercy in her dwelling. This was a proof of her gratitude. But it was also a proof of her sincerity. At that time a profession of Christianity exposed those who made it to various privations and sufferings. (R. Alder, D. D.)
Lydia
I. Her employment. She was not idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. Trade is respectable, and nothing is so disgraceful as beggary and shabby gentility. The Jews always give their children a calling; and said that he who brings up a son without a trade teaches him to steal. Seneca declared, I had rather be sick than be idle. And truly has Dr. Watts said, Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.
II. The place of her extraction. Thyatira was a great way from Philippi. How few die where they were born; or even settle where they were brought up. The events leading to their removal often seem very casual; and they are so as to the individuals themselves; but they are Divinely known and arranged. The Lord fixes the bounds of their habitation, and with regard to His own people, the disposals of His Providence are in subserviency to the designs of His grace. The man says, I will go into such a city, and buy, and sell, and get gain; and he goes; and he finds there, though he never looked after it, the pearl of great price. Many, when they look back on life, will know that, had it not been for such or such an occurrence, they would have remained in places where they might have been corrupted and destroyed.
III. Her character. She worshipped God. She is, therefore, very distinguishable from the jailer. The grace of God is infinitely free: and accordingly, we sometimes find it operating on individuals the most unlikely; and even publicans and harlots enter into the kingdom of God before Scribes and Pharisees. So when the apostle, writing to the Corinthians, enumerates a dreadful catalogue of sinners, he adds, and such were some of you; some, but not all. Some talk as if they had a kind of advantage in having been converted from a state of profligacy. But sin is a bad business, and it is a mercy to have been preserved from it: and one peculiar advantage arises from having been moral before we became spiritual, namely, the avoiding of the injuries which sin does to others, by influence and example.
IV. Her attendance. She heard us. What induced her to be there we know not; but she could say, I being in the way, the Lord led me. It is well to be at the pool, waiting for the troubling of the water. Whatever brings persons under the preaching of the Word is to be viewed with thankfulness, for faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Sin entered by the ear, and so does grace. Listening to the devil we fell, hearkening unto God we rise. Hear, and your soul shall live.
V. The change she experienced. Whose heart the Lord opened.
1. Her heart therefore had been shut. Shut, as ice shuts up the water that it cannot flow--as the miser shuts up his compassion from the poor--as a door is shut to keep the house from the entrance of the owner. This is our Saviours own image: Behold, I stand at the door and knock, etc.
2. The Lord opened her heart. Our state is such as to require the Almighty to work in us, both to will and to do. Every saved sinner is His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works. An operation is required, to effect which is above the power of education, example, and moral suasion. But nothing is too hard for the Lord. The heart is under His dominion and agency; and what He has promised, He is able also to perform.
VI. The evidences she gave of the reality of her conversion.
1. Her regard to the Divine teachings. She attended, etc.
2. Her readiness to dedicate herself entirely to the Lord in a profession of His name. She was baptized, and her household. A profession of religion, without the reality, is nothing; but we are not only to be Christians, but to appear such. With the heart, indeed, man believeth unto righteousness; but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Experience is necessary; but our light is to shine before men, etc. And you will observe, she did this immediately, without reserve, and relatively as well as personally; devoting her whole family in the same rite; and thus saying, with Joshua, As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
3. The pressing solicitation she gave to the apostles. Evincing--
(1) A desire for spiritual improvement, and to have her house further blessed.
(2) Liberality. She was willing to minister to the necessities of the saints; and given to hospitality.
(3) Affection for Gods servants. Like begets like, and attracts like. By this we know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love this brethren.
(4) Pious fortitude. To perceive this you must remember that at this time Christians were a sect everywhere spoken against. (W. Jay.)
Lydia
I. Her state and character before conversion.
1. A proselyte who maintained in the idolatrous city of her adoption a devout attachment to the worship of God. There can be no doubt of the reality of her devotion, for not only did she observe the Sabbath, but, having no other opportunity for attending the ordinances of public worship, she went out of the city, etc. While engaged in prayer the blessing came--a striking proof of its efficacy. God does indeed sometimes surprise a prayerless sinner, as in the case of the jailer, but there is no promise except to prayer, and that promise is unlimited and sure. Ask and ye shall receive, etc.
2. While pious according to her light, her heart was nevertheless closed against the truth as it is in Jesus.
(1) Such is the natural state of every man.
(a) The understanding is shut against the light of the gospel.
(b) The conscience is seared as with a hot iron.
(c) The heart is hardened.
(2) There are many obstacles to the entrance of truth. There is the bar of--
(a) Ignorance. Many hear the Word but understand it not.
(b) Unbelief, which rejects the testimony of God.
(c) Enmity, for the carnal mind is enmity against God.
(d) Presumption or pride. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God.
(e) Discouragement and despair. Thou saidst, There is no hope; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.
(f) Unwillingness. Ye will not come to Me that ye might have life.
(g) Worldly-mindedness. The cares of the world … choke the Word.
(h) Sloth.
(i) Vicious passions and depraved habits.
3. But how could the heart of such a woman be closed? The answer is that Lydias case is not a solitary one. Devout and honourable women opposed Paul, and Paul himself and Nicodemus were at first proof against the gospel.
II. The means by which her conversion was effected.
1. There was a direct Divine operation in her heart, which consisted in opening--
(1) The understanding to discern the light of Gods truth.
(2) The conscience, to feel its convincing power.
(3) The affections to receive its sanctifying influence.
2. Means were employed. The Lord opened her heart to attend, etc. It is by the truth that the great change is wrought; and hence we are born of the Spirit, but also not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, even by the Word of God.
III. Lessons. Note--
1. The care with which God provided for the instruction of sincere Jewish inquirers.
2. The efficacy of prayer as a means of spiritual advancement.
3. The necessity of a spiritual change in many sincere religious professors.
4. The relative functions of the Word and Spirit, and the duty of combining the use of means with dependence on the Divine blessing.
5. The different feelings of those whose heart the Lord opens towards His ministers, and those of the ungodly multitude. (J. Buchanan, D. D.)
Lydias conversion
1. Philippi is famous as the spot where the worlds future trembled in the balance when Octavius met Brutus and Cassius in terrible conflict. The two republican generals here ended their stormy career and universal empire crouched at the feet of Caesar. As long as time endures, Philippi will be remembered as one of the greatest names in history. But when time shall have passed away Philippi will still have a name as the place where the first herald of the Cross cried, Europe for Jesus, and won his first victory in our quarter of the world. More fraught with blessings to the human race was that conquest of a womans heart, than all the laurels which Octavius had reaped upon the bloody field.
2. The introduction of Christianity into Europe is a very humble affair. It was an open-air service by the riverside. Happy augury of the results of open-air preaching in after times! Let us look at Lydias conversion--
I. In itself.
1. It was brought about by providential circumstances.
(1) She was a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, famous for its dyeing trade, which had flourished there ever since the days of Homer, and situated in that part of the country into which Paul was forbidden to preach; therefore, had Lydia been at home, she could not have heard the truth. But providence brings her to Philippi at the right time. Here is the first link of the chain.
(2) But how is Paul to be brought there? He must be shut out of Bithynia, and he must be silenced in his journey through Mysia, etc. In this case God rules and overrules all things to bring that woman and that apostle to the same spot, and everything in Gods providence is working together for the salvation of the elect.
2. There was not only providence, but there was also grace preparing the soul. The woman knew many truths which were excellent stepping stones to a knowledge of Jesus. She was a proselyte of the gate, and therefore well acquainted with the oracles of God. As in the case of the Ethiopian eunuch, the Scriptures she had read had prepared her mind: the ground had been ploughed ready for the good seed; it was not a hard rock as in the jailers ease.
3. Her conversion took place in the use of the means. On the Sabbath she went to the gathering of her people. Although God calls men when they are not hearing the Word, yet usually we must expect that being in the way, God will meet with them. It is somewhat extraordinary that the first convert in Europe was converted at a very small prayer meeting. Wherever we are, let us not forget the assembling Of ourselves together as the manner of some is. Do not say only a prayer meeting! God loves to put honour upon prayer.
4. It was assuredly a work of grace.
(1) She did not open her own heart, Her prayers did not do it; Paul did not do it. God alone can put the key into the door and open it, and get admittance for Himself. He is the hearts master as He is the hearts maker, and conversion in every case is the Lords work alone.
(2) Yet--for one truth must always march arm in arm with another--although the Lord opened the heart, Pauls words were the instrument of her conversion. The heart may be opened, and willing to receive, but then if truth enter not, what would be the use of an open door?
5. It was distinctly perceptible by the signs which followed. As soon as she had believed in Jesus she put on, together with her household, the profession of her faith in Christ Jesus.
II. By way of contrast.
1. In the case of the jailer, we see nothing like a previous preparation for the reception of the Word; he was coarse, rough, brutal. The earthquake comes, etc. In Lydias case there was much which went to prepare the way for the grace of God.
2. She was in the way where the grace of God was likely to meet with her. But the jailer is not in a place where the gospel is at all likely to come. His occupation was not that which would foster any religious ideas. But in a moment, at Gods voice, the current of his thoughts changes its direction, and flows where it had never gone before.
3. In Lydias case there was no earthquake; it was a still, small voice. The jailer sprang in, and cams trembling; but we find nothing about Lydias being overwhelmed with the terrors of conscience; she was gently led by the finger of the eternal Father. Grace came to her as the shower which first begins as a mist, and then thickens into a heavy dew, and then becomes a gentle sprinkling, and afterwards empties the clouds upon the soil. To the jailer it was like an April storm beginning with big drops, and dashing into a torrent in a few moments: to the jailer it was as though the sun should rise in an instant, and turn the thickest night into full blaze of noon. Do not expect all to be converted in the same way. Our God is the God of variety.
III. The comparison between the two. In both cases--
1. Providence co-worked with grace. Providence brings Lydia to Philippi, and shakes the prison.
2. There was a distinct work of God.
3. The Word of God is essential for the jailer as to Lydia, They spake the word of the Lord, etc.
4. The same signs followed. The same love to the brethren, consecration of the substance, obedience to the Divine command, Arise, and be baptized.
IV. As a model of multitudes of conversions. We have a summary of the work of the Holy Spirit here.
1. The Lord removed prejudice.
2. Her desires were awakened
3. Her understanding was enlightened.
4. Her affections were excited.
5. And then came faith; she believed the whole of the record.
6. Faith being given, all the graces followed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Lydias conversion
I. Conversion is heart work.
1. The subject. The heart is the seat of spiritual feeling, conviction, and desire (Act_2:27). It is the real test of character, of what a man is in Gods estimation (Pro_23:7). It is that part of us in which are bred all the moral and immoral qualities which make us good or bad in the sight of God (Pro_4:33). It has the power to exercise faith (Rom_16:10).
2. The Agent--The Lord. It was the fulfilment of the promise (Eze_36:25-27). God is the chief, and to a great extent the sole, active Agent in this work. Along with this there is a converse truth (Psa_27:8). The work of conversion is completed by God working, and man working; but neither working apart from the other effectually.
3. The instrumental means: whilst Paul spake the Word, the Lord opened Lydias heart.
II. The immediate and permanent results of conversion.
1. There was a beautiful humility which manifested itself in a desire to submit her conversion to the test of the judgment of others. If ye have judged me to be faithful. Over-confidence in a young convert is neither pleasing nor hopeful (1Co_10:12).
2. She exhibited her gratitude to God in kindness to His servants. Come into my house and abide there.
3. She made a public profession of her faith. She was baptized and her household. The family of a believer should be a Christian household. Personal decision is a great matter, but the head must be alone. (A. B. Gardiner.)
The first European convert
Honest, industrious people, when converted, become noble and useful Christians. This first European convert was of such a character as to be especially susceptible to gospel influences.
I. Her character. She was industrious, reliable, conscientious, generous, devout. Observe--
1. Her name--Lydia. As no mention is made of her husband, probably she was a widow. Learn how right relationship to Jesus Christ gives immortality to the humblest name.
2. Her native place--Thyatira, in Asia Minors situated about midway between Pergamos and Sardia; it is still a town of some size, though now in the hands of the Turks. She was not a Jew but a Gentile proselyte, having given up the worship of idols for that of the true God. Learn what great blessings may grow out of a little prayer meeting, and the wisdom of laying down the yard stick and closing the store in order to be present.
II. Her conversion. It was brought about--
1. By human instrumentality, us--Paul and Silas. Probably, an informal meeting, and that both preachers not only prayed but conversed publicly and personally with those present.
2. Contact with the truth--Heard us. It is the truth that saves--Truth shall make you free. Revelation brings life. The preacher can communicate power only through His message. Discourses and essays on ethics, science, and politics may interest and instruct, but it is only the Divine message that can save from the guilt, dominion, and consequences of sin. Heard us. It used to be almost literally true that faith cometh only by hearing. Books and the ability to read them were very scarce in ancient times, so that much of mens knowledge of this world, and especially of the world to come, was gathered through the ear. Heard us. Even now faith cometh chiefly by hearing. But in the case of Lydia the message came through the ear. Heard us.
3. By prompt action--She attended unto the things which were spoken. She was an admirable hearer. She laid hold of the truth, and thus the truth laid hold of her. Then she at once began to practise the truth she had just heard. She did not modify it by theorising or waste its force by delay. She attended to the things spoken.
4. Through Divine interposition. Whose heart the Lord opened. Why did He not open her head? God wanted this woman to feel as well as understand. There are some truths which first enter the intellect and then sink into the heart, but the profound, life-giving truths of Christianity enter the heart first and then rise to the intellect. They first give life and then light. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. Not the light was the life, but the life was the light of men. A man must be born before he can see; he must be alive before he can know. First life, then light. The opening of the heart was--
(1) Gradual. Gradual in that she so honestly followed the light she had. God had so opened her heart before this that all the idols of heathenism left in it a great aching void. In common with the best spirits of her age she felt paganism to be a failure and a sham, and longed for something more solid and satisfying. She therefore embraced Judaism, and so we find her at prayer meeting, still going on to know the Lord.
(2) Complete, in that God personally helped her to apprehend and personally appropriate the broader, grander, life-giving truths of the gospel. (Thomas Kelly.)
The conversion of Lydia
I. Lydia was listening. Great stress is laid in the Bible on hearing. Faith cometh by hearing. Books and readers were rare. Faith then came to the majority by hearing only. Now faith comes by reading as well as by hearing.
II. Lydia listened attentively. Some people never apply what they hear, they leave that to the preacher. Others apply to other people, never to themselves. If you lay hold of the truth, the truth will lay hold of you. Wherefore the Holy Scriptures lay much emphasis on close attention. Incline your ear, hear and your soul shall live. When you feel deeply interested in a subject, you stretch the neck and incline the ear that you may catch every syllable. Without this eager attention you will not be able to clearly discern the Divine Voice. When Elijah was hiding in the cave there came a great and strong wind, etc.; but the Lord was not in the wind, etc. And after the fire a voice, so still and small that Elijah was obliged to come out of the cave and listen with all his might. And what is the gospel? A storm? An earthquake? Fire? No. The still small voice of Divine Love. Love never speaks loud.
III. She listened attentively with her heart. The mind is generally divided into intellect and heart. There are truths which appeal only to the intellect, the truths of mathematics, e.g. But religious truths must be interpreted through the heart rather than through the head. We read of the thoughts of the heart. In creation we see the thoughts of Gods intellect; in the gospel the thoughts of His heart. And to properly understand the great heart of God we must bring to the work the little heart of man. There is a class of truths which first enter the intellect and then sink into the heart; but the truths of Christianity first enter the heart and gradually rise into the intellect.
IV. Lydia was listening attentively with her heart opened. Two things are necessary to salvation.
1. An open Bible. Paul expounded the Kingdom of God. The prophecies were tightly closed against the spiritual perception of the disciples; but Christ opened unto them the Scriptures, and they were astonished at the wealth of their meaning. And that is the proper function of the ministry.
2. An open heart to receive the open Bible. St. Paul was sowing good seed; but to secure a plentiful harvest it was necessary to open hearts to receive the seed. The words of the Old Testament which are oftenest quoted in the New are, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: for this peoples heart is waxed gross, etc. They are quoted six times in the first six books of the New Testament. Why? To teach us the extreme danger of shutting our hearts against the things spoken of Paul and other inspired writers. Physicians often speak of The fatty degeneration of the heart, an unhealthy accumulation of fat interfering with its vital functions, and often terminating in sudden death. And the Jews suffered from a like spiritual malady. They had lost all sensitiveness to spiritual things; and in this lamentable grossness of the heart is to be found the ultimate cause of their rejection of the Saviour. And so now The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God. O fools, and slow of heart to believe. It is the fashion nowadays to offer graceful apologies for the infidel; but the Bible always calls him a fool. His infidelity has its origin in a closed heart.
V. Lydia was listening attentively with her heart opened wide, that, it appears, is the literal translation, and it implies--
1. That there was a profound need. The young bird in the nest in early spring, when hunger sets in, opens its little beak wide. And when the soul becomes vividly conscious of its great need, it opens its beak as best it can--every faculty opens its mouth wide and eagerly cries to heaven for food. A man of Macedonia stood before Paul and prayed him, saying, Come over and help us. There is in the cry a painful consciousness of deep want. Paul came; and lo! the first soul he met was wide open crying to heaven for satisfaction.
2. That the Lord had made ample provision to supply the need. He would have never opened Lydias heart wide unless He had something to put into it. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. I took my little children to the British Channel. They were very diligent filling their little buckets; but after filling them over and over again, the ocean still remained, ready to fill a million buckets more. And you are welcome to bring the cups of your nature and fill them to overflowing with the Water of Life; but after filling you over and over again, the boundless ocean of the Infinite Godhead will still remain, ready to fill millions more.
VI. Lydia listened attentively with her heart opened wide by the Lord. This opening was--
1. Gradual. It was not a consequence of the preaching, but something prior to and simultaneous with it. Lydia was in all probability brought up in heathenism. But in common with many of the best of the age, she yearned for something more satisfying. Whilst yet in paganism, the Lord opened her heart too wide for the idols of the Gentiles to fill. She therefore embraced Judaism. The Judaism of that age, it is true, was very formal and corrupt; but Judaism at its worst was immeasurably superior to paganism at its best. And in Judaism Lydia found a kind of rest for her weary soul. But the Lord continued to work within her. She, it seems, was a widow. Mention is made of her family, and of her business, but none of her husband. Deeply feeling her loss, she often groans under the anxiety of business, and is glad when the Sabbath comes round that she may attend the Prayer Meeting by the riverside. Nevertheless she is acutely conscious of a great void, and when Paul turned and began to speak of Jesus, His tender sympathy and never failing succour, she perceived at once that He was what she needed--a Husband of the soul. The heart, before opened, was now occupied--the great void was now filled.
2. Gentle. Further on, we read of the conversion of the jailer. His conversion was the work of a brief hour; but it was a very terrible hour. But a gentler method was adopted to convert Lydia. This morning about six oclock a great battle was fought in this neighbourhood, more important by far than either Waterloo or Sedan--a battle between the forces of Light and the powers of Darkness. But did the clash of weapons awake any of you? No; not one. The victory was won gently and silently. That is precisely the way in which Lydia was converted, it was a victory not of lightnings but of light. The prophet compares the Word of God to a hammer breaking in pieces the rock. Such was the case with the jailer. But the same prophet compares the Divine Word to fire melting the wax. This is how Lydia was converted, by warmth, not by force. It was only right that the swarthy jailer should be hammered a little--he had hammered many in his day; but it would be a great pity to terrify the little widow. And those two methods still continue.
3. Thorough, as is evidenced by her subsequent conduct.
(1) She was baptized. Christianity was the third religion she had professed; her neighbours might bring a charge of inconsistency. But mans supreme duty is not to be consistent with himself, but consistent with his God--not to be consistent with his past, but consistent with the light which he at the time enjoys. Lydia repeatedly changed her religion; but each change was in the direction of light.
(2) She was baptized and her household. This, I believe, is the first instance in which it is recorded that the baptism of the parent was followed by the baptism of the family. Why? Because family religion is a characteristic of European as compared with Asiatic Christianity. And there is something remarkable that Christianity, on its introduction to Europe, was first offered to, and believed in by a woman, a prophecy of the subsequent career of the gospel upon our continent. A man first sought it, but a woman first received it. How to help the men of Macedonia? By improving and refining the women of Macedonia. (J. Cynddylan Jones, D. D.)
Tile conversion of Lydia
Though the Lords people are thinly scattered, and sometimes throughout large cities, yet they have a way of finding one another out. True religion is a magnet to draw their hearts together. Considering the text as descriptive of true conversion, it is--
I. A Divine work. It is said of the skill of the husbandman in opening the clods, etc., that his God doth instruct him. How much more in breaking up the fallow ground of the sinners heart, and sowing the seed of the kingdom! The heart is naturally shut: sin is shut in and Christ shut out. Prejudice, perverseness, and enmity are the bars and bolts that keep it shut. Ministers may knock at the door, but it is God alone that can open it.
II. Gods first work. Impressions and convictions are common, but the opening of the heart is the effect of special grace and the commencement of true religion. Previous to this the soul is dead in trespasses and sins; and now it is that the Lord passes by and says, Live! Christ in the gospel lays the foundation of a sinners hope; but it must be Christ in you that gives existence to the hope of glory.
III. An instantaneous work. In our apprehension it may be gradual, like Christs opening the eyes of the blind man, who first saw men as trees walking, and afterwards, upon a fresh touch from His hand, all things clearly; but in itself the change is quick.
IV. A work effected in a way perfectly consistent with human liberty. God opens the heart by engaging and inclining it to that which is good. The power is His, but the act is our own. Men are not driven but drawn. Divine influence is not compulsive, but attractive. God does not open the heart as man would open a passage into a strongly-fortified place, by planting a battery against it; but by putting in His hand by the hole of the door, and then our bowels are moved for Him (Son_5:4-5; Hos_2:14; Rom_3:20).
V. An internal work. It is true, the ears are opened to instruction, the mouth in prayer and praise, the hands in acts of justice and benevolence, and the eyes to sea the odious nature of sin and the transcendent glory of the Saviour; but the opening of the heart is previous to all this, and is the cause of all these openings. Gods first and principal work is to win the heart: the sinners first and principal work is to give the heart to Him.
VI. Though the work itself is invisible, yet its effects are not so. Grace cannot be seen but by its fruits. Where the heart is changed the conduct will be changed. New duties will result from new principles. Three blessed effects of Gods opening the heart of Lydia are here mentioned.
1. She attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.
2. She manifested her regard to the commands of our Saviour by being immediately baptized.
3. No sooner had she received Christ into her heart than she received His friends into her house; one door being opened, the other did not remain shut.
VII. An abiding work. When the heart is once opened Christ takes possession of it, and says in effect, This is My rest: here will I dwell forever, for I have desired it (Heb_13:5).
VIII. A necessary work. As we cannot be saved without the death of Christ, so neither without the work of the Spirit. More particularly--
1. Satan; that unclean spirit had usurped the dominion of our hearts, and it is necessary to deprive him of his power.
2. Our souls must be cleansed, and this is done by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
3. The heart must be opened in order to its being beautified and adorned with every grace.
4. By all these means the Lord makes us a fit habitation for Himself. (B. Beddome, M. A.)
The hindrances to a cordial reception of gospel truth
We are to inquire--
I. What were the things which were spoken of Paul. It will not be uninteresting, and I hope not uninstructive, to take a review of the doctrine of the gospel, which may be comprised under these three heads: the ruin of all mankind; redemption and salvation by Christ Jesus; and regeneration by the Holy Ghost.
II. What are the hindrances to a cordial reception of the truths of the gospel?
1. Pride in the human heart is a great obstacle. This evil disposition works not only in the vilest of mankind, but in those who are in their outward conduct blameless, in the moral and decent.
2. Prejudice is another powerful obstacle. Would you not have thought that the Jews of old would have believed in the Saviour, and have been instructed by Him in the way to heaven, seeing He performed so many miracles as proofs of His mission before their eyes? But they did not receive His words. And why did they not? They expected a triumphant Messiah.
3. The love of sin is another very great obstacle in the way of cordially receiving the truths of the gospel.
4. Lastly, the love of the world is another great obstacle. We do not say that Lydia was a lover of sin and of the world; because it is said she worshipped God; but there can be no doubt that her heart was full of Jewish prejudices against the religion of Christ; and in that state she would have continued had not her heart been opened so that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul.
III. This brings me to inquire, in the third place, by whom and by what means these hindrances are removed and the consequence of their removal? Can man of himself remove them? No; for the Scriptures, from one end to another, declare that he has no power to do so. Whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul. The means which the Lord uses are many. He opens the heart; that is, He instills into it a longing desire to be instructed in those Divine and saving truths of the gospel. There is one truth which our text sets before us that I would wish to impress upon your minds: it is this--that we ought not to forsake the assembling of ourselves in the house of God, from an idea that we can get as much good at home. If Lydia had not gone to the house of prayer on the day she was converted, she would not then, and perhaps never at all, have heard; and therefore would have lost the inestimable blessing which the Lord bestowed upon her in the use of the means of grace. (W. J. Kirkness, M. A.)
The power of the Holy Spirit exemplified in the conversion of Lydia
I. From these words we may infer this truth--that the heart of man is naturally closed against the gospel. Not only is the understanding darkened, not only is the will opposed to the truth, but the heart is shut against it. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, etc. The gospel is addressed to our ears year after year; truths, in the reception of which our happiness both for time and eternity is involved, are brought before us again and again; we may, perhaps, go so far as to assent to them; they inform our understanding, but they go no farther; the heart is not affected by them; and all the power or reasoning of men is utterly unable to cause them to produce the desired effect. If this were not the case, how different would be the effect produced even by a single sermon! One consideration only of the love of Christ in dying for us would have such a constraining influence on our lives, that we should henceforth most readily yield ourselves to His service. But, though the heart of man is naturally closed against the gospel, and though no human power can open it, yet we may observe--
II. That a Divine power is able to open it. It was that which was exerted in opening the heart of Lydia, or St. Paul had preached in vain. The work of conversion depends not on human eloquence, but it is altogether the effect of a Divine operation on the soul. The means too, which the Holy Spirit uses in influencing the heart, are as various as the ways in which He opens it: God is never at a loss for instruments to carry forward His designs either of providence or grace. He can make the most unlikely instruments effectual for the accomplishment of His plans, and out of evil itself can bring forth good. But, though He is not limited to the use of means, yet there are certain ordinances which He has appointed as the special channels for conveying His grace to the soul. Prayer, either public or private, is one of these ordinances. But, though this power be Gods alone, it is exerted in a way perfectly consistent with human liberty; men are not driven, but drawn; not forced against their will, but made willing. Divine influence is not compulsive, but attractive.
III. The effects produced on Lydia when the Lord had opened her heart. She attended to the things which were spoken of Paul. She not only gave attendance on his preaching, but gave attention to it. To those whose hearts have been opened by Divine grace to attend to the things which belong to their everlasting peace, I would address the word of exhortation. Consider, how great a debt of gratitude you owe to distinguishing grace! (E. C. Wells, M. A.)
Heard us.
Hearing and keeping the Word of God
I. How we ought to hear it.
1. Collectedly, away from the distractions of the world; Lydia went out of the city.
2. With a heart consecrated by prayer: Lydia went to prayer.
3. With an eager expectation of what the Lord will give: the Lord opened her heart.
II. How we ought to keep it.
1. Not resting satisfied with a mere temporary impression, but walking with the Lord in true fellowship of life: Lydia was baptized.
2. Endeavouring to convey to others our newly acquired faith: with Lydia, her house is baptized.
3. Labouring to pay our debt of gratitude to the Lord by self-sacrificing love to our neighbour: Lydia constrained her benefactors to come to her house. (Lisco.)
Whose heart the Lord opened.--
Divine influence opening human hearts
I stood one evening last summer watching the pure white flowers on a vine encircling the verandah. I had been told that the buds that hung with closed petals all day, every evening near sunset unfolded and sent out a peculiar fragrance. The miracle was more than I had anticipated. A feeling of silent awe possessed me as I saw bud after bud, as if under the touch of invisible hand, slowly fold back its leaves until the vine was filled with perfect blossoms, most beautiful and sweet.
And I said, If the finger of God laid upon these, His flowers, can do this in a way beyond the power of human study to explain, cannot the same Divine touch, in ways we know not of, do as much for human hearts? It was in the quiet of the evening, when the garish light of the summer sun had softened to twilight, when the bird songs had ceased, and shadows were creeping over the fields, that this miracle of the flowers was wrought. Who can tell why they did not open earlier in the day? The shower of the morning and the sunshine of the afternoon had nourished the vine and made everything ready for the consummation, but it did not appear until evening, and who can describe the beauty and fragrance then of the revelation? Shall the flowers teach us a lesson of patient waiting and holy trust for the coming blessing? There are hearts for whom we long have prayed seemingly closed as yet to every influence of the blessed Spirit. But let us be patient. Perhaps we must wait until evening. It may be these hearts for whose unfolding we pray will open late; or they may open in the twilight of sorrow and disappointment, when the songs cease and shadows stretch over the path long before the day of life is done. True, the parallel is not perfect. The flowers never resisted the gentle influences of air and sun and rain; hearts may resist the Holy Ghost and remain, perhaps, closed against Him. And yet from these sweet blossoms we may surely learn a lesson of patient faith. The silent forces are at work; the God who cares for the flowers of the field is surely caring for these for whose perfected life in Him we pray. Let us wait and watch with Him, nor be surprised nor impatient if it requires years of discipline to bring a sinful soul, where by the Divine touch it can be transformed into a glorious, ransomed spirit. (John Hall, D. D.)
Lydias heart opened
I. The central faculty on which the great change is wrought.
1. The heart is the generic term in which we include the entire phenomena of the animal and spiritual man. Metaphysically it concentrates all that belongs to the physical, emotional, and intellectual nature. In its Scriptural import the heart is the normal status that conditions mans relations to God. What it is that the man is. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.
2. The heart, therefore, is the power in man that most needs to be changed.
(1) Tendencies, idiosyncrasies, and even moral aberrations may be arrested and mastered by culture. The heart never outgrows its inherent depravity. The painted savage and the erudite sage are scions of the same stock. Born in sin, we must be born again.
(2) Then, further, under a momentary or selfish motive man will surrender to God his most costly possessions, while he withholds his heart. Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples.
(3) To change the heart, then, is not merely to amend the life; for the life, as in the case of the rich young ruler, may be superficially correct while the heart is utterly false. For the same reason it cannot be any mere intellectual change, such as a new mode of thinking about God, or His claims; nor yet in the quickened sensibility of the conscience in its outward reverence for truth; all of which are perfectly congruous with the alienation of the heart from God.
3. The new birth is the coming into life of that which previously did not exist. Redemption through Christ is, potentially, the recreation of the lost Divine order in the soul--the re-entrance of God into man, and His enthronement over the will and in the affections as the one supreme Lord.
4. All men need this change, and must experience it just because they are men. There is no difference in the sin which vitiates and condemns, and man must plead no exemption on the ground of birth or training, lest he shut himself out of the kingdom of God.
II. The method of this change. Note--
1. Its supernatural source. Regeneration is a work wrought by Divine power on the individual soul. It may be simulated, but it cannot be fabricated by any art of man.
(1) There are two theories against which this doctrine is a dignified protest, viz.--
(a) That man is an embryo saint to begin with. A germ of all goodness is folded up within us waiting only favouring circumstances to bloom into a godly life.
(b) That religious life depends on education. There is in us all a capacity of becoming good, and the business of education is to cultivate that: the fruit-bearing tree may never produce fruit, but that is an accident; so a man may be virtually good, but never actually from defective training.
(2) But these theories deal with ideal human nature and not with human nature as it is.
(a) So far from having the germ of a holy nature, the Scriptures declare that we are born in sin, a declaration corroborated by consciousness. Any growth, therefore, is a growth in evil. Under the most benign parental influences this noxious weed has sprung up as if native to the soil.
(b) Education is a grand power, but it cannot correlate with the forces of Omnipotence. All mere unfolding of latent faculties deals with the animal and the intellectual only; it creates neither faculty nor disposition.
2. Its various methods. The Lord opened the heart of Lydia. The work was done silently as the young spring bud is opened by the morning sun. In the case of the jailer the same work is done in tumult. To have dealt with his petrified sensibilities as with the sweet serenities of Lydias womanly nature would have been to try at chiselling the marble with sunbeams. To the masculine mind the gospel will appeal successfully chiefly as it appeals to the intellect, and so works out its results through the logic. To the feminine and finer mind it will appeal successfully chiefly as it appeals to the sympathies, the moral susceptibilities, the delicate aesthetics of human nature.
3. Its immediate fruits. Lydia--
(1) Attended, etc. If listless, or only curious before, she is awake now.
(2) Took upon herself and her home the profession of the Christian faith. A waste of power meets us here. Not a few estimable people decline to embody their belief in Christian fellowship. If Lydia had gone back to Thyatira resolved to keep the matter secret, trusting to the loyalty of conscience, and the integrity of her feelings, the chances are that she would have failed. We cannot stand alone in the perilous struggle of a religious career; and if we could, we cannot honour Christ if we decline to take up the Cross. And least of all can we help to sustain the burden God has laid on our fellow men as trustees for the worlds salvation, if we withhold from them the sympathy and patronage of our professional support. The Church faints, not because bankrupt in her resources, but because men refuse to consecrate to her service that which is already her own. (J. Burton.)
The ideal reformation
I. This is a reformation effected in the centre of existence. This was not a reformation on parchment, but a reformation of the springs of activity. If the heart is changed all the emotions, purposes, and activities of life will be changed.
II. This is a reformation that originated in Divine agency. The Lord opened.
III. This is a reformation that brought the soul into the highest discipleship. She attended unto the things that were spoken of Paul. She became a pupil in the school of Christ. (Homilist.)
Gradual conversion
Suppose it now midnight, and the sun with the antipodes: he doth not presently mount up to the height of our heaven, and make it noonday; but first it is twilight, then the day dawns, and the sun rises, and yet looks with weaker eyes before he shines out in his full glory. We do not sweat with summer today, and be shaken with the fury of the winter tomorrow; but it comes on with soft paces. Now, it is most true that Christ is able, in a moment, of sinners on earth to make men saints in heaven, as He wrought upon the dying malefactor. Some may make sudden leaps, and of furious sinners become zealous professors in a trice. Of such we may be charitably jealous; holiness shoots not up, like Jonahs gourd, in a night. God is the God of order, not of confusion; and nature is not suffered to run out of one extreme into another but by a medium. That ordinary way whereby men walk from the state of sin to the state of glory is the state of grace. So our conversion is by soft and scarcely sensible beginnings, albeit no part after part, degree by degree in every part, by gentle seekings in of goodness in every degree, by growing up to maturity and ripeness. (T. Adams.)
The imperceptible operations of grace
The grandest operations both in nature and in grace are the most silent and imperceptible. The shallow brook babbles in its passage and is heard by everyone, but the coming on of the seasons is silent and unseen. The storm rages and alarms, but its fury is soon exhausted and its effects are partial and soon remedied; but the dew, though gentle and unheard, is immense in quantity and the very life of large portions of the earth. And these are pictures of the operations of grace in the Church and in the soul. (R. Cecil.)
Lydias heart opened
It was opened like the gates of a canal lock. It is by water coming in secretly below, and gradually swelling up within, that at length the folding doors allow themselves to be opened; as long as the water presses from above and without, the pressure tends to shut the gates more firmly, rather than to open them. The lock keeps itself empty, and resists the offer of the water to come in. But when by secret channels the interior is nearly filled, then the resistance ceases, and the gates are thrown wide. Ah, many an empty heart resists the offer of mercy from God; the offer of that mercy rather shuts the gate more firmly! But when, secretly, some grace finds its way in and more follows, and the empty space gradually fills, then the enmity disappears, and the whole soul opens out to Christ. (W. Arnot, D. D.)
Lydias heart opened
I. Open heart. The Lord opened her heart in the ordinary way, no doubt, by the unseen work of the Holy Spirit. He had been opening it all along, while she had been serving Him by keeping close up to the light as fast as it was revealed to her. The Holy Ghost is always in advance of us when we are trying to find our way out into clear duty.
II. Open heart invariably brings open mind. The entrance of the Divine Word gives light. So Lydia attended unto what the apostle told her. The Holy Spirit continued His work. Lydia appears to have surrendered her convictions instantly without cavil.
III. Open mind brought open mouth. Out of the abundance of her heart her mouth spoke. Lydia unhesitatingly made public acknowledgment of the faith she now accepted. She lost no time in foolish self-searching after what some call special evidences. She knew she believed in Jesus Christ, and she was ready to say so.
IV. Open hand brought open house. The Daughter of Tyre was there with her gift. Hospitality was the form of immediate usefulness Lydia chose. It was not within her reach perhaps to do magnificent things, but she did what she could. Conclusion:
1. These, then, were the evidences of grace which the Holy Spirit gave instantly to this Thyatiran woman. There was nothing subtle or mysterious in them; anybody could have them! anybody could know them if he had them.
2. And, with these before us, it is easy to learn what growth in grace is--it is increase in openness of heart, mind, mouth, hand, and house--growth in the same simple life which is begun. And more grace is lust glory; and more glory is heaven. (C. S. Robinson, D. D.)
The heart opened
Though labouring from his childhood under extreme shortsightedness, Ampere, the celebrated French philosopher, was unconscious of this defect till awakened to a sense of it by the following circumstance. When travelling, at the age of eighteen, in one of the most beautiful parts of France, he chanced to take up the eyeglass of a fellow traveller, and he burst into tears of wonder and delight at the first discovery thus suddenly made to him of the beauty and magnificence of nature. Before, when he heard others speak with enthusiasm of the loveliness of some particular scenery, he could not understand what they meant, and thought they must be under some strange delusion. But now he felt as if he had suddenly been endowed with a new sense, and could say, like the blind man in the gospel narrative after he had been restored to sight, One thing I know: that whereas I was blind, now I see. This incident affords a striking illustration of the brief but emphatic description given of the conversion of Lydia, whose heart the Lord opened.
The great preliminary
I. Lydias heart was closed, which means that there is a natural indisposition to the things of God.
1. An indisposition not incompatible with much that is lovely and of good report. Not implying, as a matter of course, habits of sin or a spirit of frivolity. These things may be or may not be. Inclinations vary: what is one mans pleasure would be anothers pain. Under the moral mans respectability, under the amiable mans affection, under the outwardly religious mans worship, there may lurk a repugnance to God; a fixed determination not to come to close quarters with that sword of the Spirit which must pierce and wound before it can be safe to heal. Christ knocks at the door, but they will not rise for Him, nor let Him in. They do not open to Him because they are enlightened enough to know His terms, and honest enough with themselves to decide against them.
2. And without this definite reason for disliking Christ, there are other influences at work in keeping the door of the heart closed against Him.
(1) In one there is a spirit of levity which makes all serious reflection irksome: he would fain enjoy himself while he can: when I have a convenient season, in other words, when sorrow comes, or sickness, or the near prospect of death, then I will call for Thee.
(2) And without any resolution of this kind, there is in the heart a strength of practical procrastination which is enough of itself to keep the heart closed against Christ: the very absence of resolution against Him assists the practical exclusion. A man is so nearly a Christian that he writes himself not far from the kingdom, able at any moment by a single step to cross into it. Thus he too has a closed heart; a heart closed by the very idea of its openness.
(3) Then there is the case of those who are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. There are some who, with a real desire to be saved, can never grasp the simplicity of Christs salvation. By a medley of things true and false, an inversion of important truths, a mixture of conditions with the gospel of free grace, they have been so perplexed that the work of faith has been impossible: they stand afar off, wishing and waiting, instead of taking the kingdom of God, as our Lord says, by force, and pressing into it with a resolute conviction. Oh for a voice to sound in the depths of that soul--The gospel is this: not that if you will do something God will do the rest; but that, even as you are, God loves you, and that the work of your salvation is already done for you in Christ. Take God at His word: believe Him when He says that He has laid all your sins upon Christ: try the experiment of coming to Him on that basis; and to you the promise shall be fulfilled in the very act of stretching out the hand, the strength will be given: in the reception of the glad tidings the stony heart will be taken away, and a heart of flesh shall replace it: out of the gospel, not before it, will spring repentance and reconciliation: and the heart closed against all else will yield to the inward summons of an atonement already made and a peace already purchased.
II. Lydias heart was opened. This opening is ascribed to the Lord, acting through the instrumentality of Him whom He promised to send from the Father. The methods of this opening are various as Gods agencies and Gods attributes. In the case before us, the first hearing sufficed. And it has been so with others. More often, perhaps, the opening is gradual. These hearts are very obstinate. If God gave but one chance who could be saved? But He who will do anything for our salvation, except that one thing which would vitiate it altogether, namely, a compulsion of conversion; that God is patient with us, and tries many means: sometimes a sudden influx of blessing has brought with it a softening of the heart and a turning of the whole man to give thanks and to glorify his Benefactor: sometimes the discipline of life in its sterner aspect has wrought reflection, and sorrow for sin, and earnest calling upon God. These things are all various. But, amidst them all, one thing varies not. There is a Divine Spirit who works the great change wherever it is wrought; who alone touches the very spring of being, and quickens the dead soul into newness of life. (Dean Vaughan.)
That she attended to the things which were spoken of Paul.--
The attention demanded by the gospel
It must be--
I. Candid. The preacher of the gospel should not be prejudged. Let him be fairly heard, and let his doctrine be impartially weighed in the balance of the sanctuary. The people of Berea are commended on this account.
II. Serious. The word presents to our minds the most serious subjects in the world. Death and judgment, heaven and hell, are serious things.
III. Devout. Too many persons in hearing look no farther than to men, and to the words of men; and if they are pleased, it is with the sentiments, the voice, or the manner of the preacher; but we should hear the Word of God as the Word of God, and if we do so it will be with reverence of soul.
IV. Diligent. It is not a trifling matter which it represents to us; it is for our life, and therefore should be regarded with the utmost vigour and energy of our souls.
V. Believing. It is the testimony of Jehovah and demands the fullest credit. The Word cannot profit our souls unless it be mixed with faith (Heb_4:2). It is proposed for the obedience of faith (Rom_16:26), and, when it is obeyed, it becomes the power of God to our salvation.
VI. Joyful. The gospel is glad tidings; it proclaims pardon; and if this be really believed, it must excite joy. It did so in all the first converts to Christianity (Act_8:6-8; Act_16:34; 1Th_1:6).
VII. Practical. And where it is truly received it cannot fail of working by love. A true believer is a doer of the Word (Jam_1:22). (G. Burder.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 13–15. Went out … by a river side. The…
13–15. Went out … by a river side. The Gangas, a small river which flows by the city. Where prayer was wont to be made. Where there was a praying place. There seems to have been no synagogue, but a few pious Jews, women at least in great part, met on the river banks, out of the city, for prayer. We … spake unto the women. Either Jewish women, or proselytes to the Jewish faith.
Lydia. The name is Greek. She was probably a convert to Judaism. A seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira. Thyatira, afterwards one of the seven churches of Asia, was beyond the Ægean Sea, hundreds of miles away. It was on the borders of Lydia, which was famous for its purple cloths. She was at this distant place for purposes of trade. Thyatira was a Macedonian colony, and Lydia probably had acquaintances or kinsmen in Macedonia itself. Whose heart the Lord opened. How, it is not stated. Possibly some of his providences especially fitted her for the reception of the gospel.
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And when she was baptized. In the apostolic period baptism always at once followed acceptance of the gospel. And her household. Some have held that this implies the baptism of infants. It rather implies that her servants and friends also accepted the gospel. There is no ground for the inference that she was even married, or had children. Meyer (Acts, p. 311), himself a German Lutheran, says: “If, in the Jewish and Gentile families which were converted to Christ there were children, their baptism is to be assumed in those cases, when they were so far advanced that they could and did confess their faith on Jesus as the Messiah; for this was the universal, absolutely necessary qualification for the reception of baptism.… Therefore the baptism of the children of Christians, of which no trace is found in the New Testament is not to be held as an apostolic ordinance.” Olshausen and Neander, also Pedobaptists, take the same view. Lydia's household was probably composed of women who assisted her in her business. She constrained us. Paul did not usually accept aid from his converts (Acts 20:33; 2 Cor. 12:17), but it seems that her urgent entreaty prevailed.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain 13. These four Asiatic strangers, in their Oriental costume,…
13. These four Asiatic strangers, in their Oriental costume, quite a spectacle in a European city, render themselves still more conspicuous preaching daily on the street. Being native Jews both by race and religion, they everywhere hunt their consanguinity, finding a small synagogue down on the bank of the river Strymon. They resort thither on the Jewish Sabbath and enjoy the service conducted by the women.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain Section 2. (Act 16:13-40.)
Section 2. (Act 16:13-40.)
Progress through conflict.
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Philippi is evidently the starting-point of the history proper, as the Spirit of God is pleased to take it up for our instruction. It begins with conflict, and the power of Satan is more nakedly manifest here than at Paphos upon the former journey. It is no longer, however, debased Judaism that is the instrument, but heathenism, the rule of the demons or false gods, which had for the world at large usurped the place of the One true God. The power of the world has here therefore to be reckoned with,, and the progress of the gospel in the teeth of persecution. Yet under no circumstances does the gospel succeed so well; and Philippi is a marked instance of this, -always in lively sympathy with the gospel, as we know from the epistle to the saints there; and to whom the apostle speaks as to sympathetic bearers of his own earnest pressing forward in what was to him a race for a prize. The name Philippi, "fond of horses," naturally reminds us of this, and stamps with its significance spiritually those who now come before us, as well as the whole-hearted laborers the fruit of whose work they are. Progress through conflict may well characterize this section; and there is little true progress made where the adverse power is not realized.
1. The beginning here is in a humble way enough. Here, where they have been brought by, a vision of imploring need, the very man of the vision does not appear; and in the absence of any synagogue, such as in general provided them with their first opportunity, they are fain to go outside the city-gate, by the bank of the river where it was the custom for prayer to be, and speak to the women who seem alone to have the heart to come together. We see that they are not men who will miss a small door open in seeking a large one; and here also, if there be effectual entrance, it must be the Lord who makes it. The heart of Lydia* is thus divinely opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul. Her baptism soon follows, with that of her house, or family, as if the natural consequence of her own faith. So undoubtedly would a proselyte to Judaism as she was have considered it; and the Lord has long since assured us that such a rule as to the kingdom of God has not been repealed (Mat 18:14). Entrance into the Church is not at all in question; to which the baptism of the Spirit alone could introduce. It is the confusion between Church and Kingdom which has largely been the cause of the difficulty upon these points which has arisen. The doctrine is not here before us to consider. Lydia, as the faithful person that she desires to be known as, does not shrink from identifying herself with those who have been the means of bringing her the truth which has won her. In those days it was not possible to be long ignorant of what it involved to do this; but with whole-hearted decision she at once presses the little company of. Christ’s witnesses to come into her house and abide there; and her earnestness will admit of no refusal: she constrained them. In fact the clouds were already gathering which portended a storm which was soon to break.
{*Lydia’s occupation and the city whence she came are given, and these with the significance of her name, would doubtless help in illuminating the brief narrative we have of her conversion, had we eyes to see. Thyatira was a city in Asia, where the door had just been closed on Paul. The first convert in Europe was from that city, and thus the continuity of the work is shown. Her business -said to be characteristic of the city -had to do with the adornment of the natural man. Her lowliness is in striking contrast with the Church of Thyatira (Rev 2:18, etc.), which represents the Church of Rome, the "woman arrayed in purple and scarlet color." -S.R.}
2. The enemy does not begin, however, with an open attack -far from it: he announces himself in the first place as himself a witness to the message that Paul brings! A female slave, having a spirit of Python (supposed to be inspired by Apollo) and who brought her masters much gain by her divinations, followed Paul and his companions on their way to the place of prayer, and day after day cried out, "These men are servants of the Most High God, who show you the way of salvation." It was an astonishing testimony from one accredited by the multitude as a true prophetess, but whose whole condition spoke to those who could discern the truth of dreadful bondage to an evil spirit! Yet it was in this case a true testimony, and which from such lips would naturally bring the attention of many to the truth. Nor had those accredited by it any responsibility apparently in the matter. Why should they not even accept such homage to the truth forced from the mouth of a demon? So had the evil spirits in the Lord’s time owned Him as the Holy One of God whom men scoffed at as the Nazarene. But He had silenced them, and cast them out; and now also there could be no alliance between the awful power that held the world captive and Him who is its Deliverer. Satan, if he will testify, shall testify in being cast out; and the apostle, though for a time simply ignoring his effort to attach himself as a parasite to the tree of life, at last brings to bear on him the power of the Name of Jesus Christ, and his captive is set free.
Alas, not always was there to be the wisdom to discern the attack of the enemy in that which spoke highly of the way of salvation, and glorified its ministers. And so in fact was the way to be perverted, and the ministry to become the chief agency in its perversion; the little seed became a tree, with the birds of the air lodged securely in its branches. Who can doubt that we have here a forecast of that which has now become history? -though the disaster wrought is not yet all told out.
Alliance or persecution, -these are the alternatives: false friendship or open war. The apostle’s act shows at once his acceptance of the issue, and presages the final result; though for the present -and this in the ordering of God for blessing to His own -the conflict may seem largely to go against them. The cross must be the way to the crown, as the Lord fully assured us; and "if we suffer, we shall also reign with Him." The world is adverse, and the condition of progress is that we make our way through hostile forces. At Philippi, the enemy seeks to turn his first discomfiture into success. The loss of their gains stirs up the girl’s masters to drag Paul and Silas before the magistrates, with the charge that as Jews they are troubling the city by introducing customs unlawful to them as Romans. The prejudice against Jews was great, and the last part of the charge had in it a certain amount of truth, as well as ability to rouse the fanaticism of Romans. "The letter of the Roman law, even under the republic, was opposed to the introduction of foreign religions; and though exceptions were allowed, as in the case of the Jews themselves, yet the spirit of the law entirely condemned such changes in worship as were likely to unsettle the minds of the citizens, or to produce any tumultuous uproar . . . . Thus Paul and Silas had undoubtedly been doing what in some degree exposed them to legal penalties; and were beginning a change which tended to bring down, and ultimately did bring down, the whole weight of the Roman law on the martyrs of Christianity" (Conybeare and Howson).
Thus the prince of this world had taken means to secure himself against the truth which might dethrone him; and at Philippi different causes combined to rouse the excitement of the mob so as to carry the magistrates along with it. The arrested men are stripped and beaten in the merciless way natural, not merely in the hard pagan world, but in the lawless condition in which things were at present. Bruised and bleeding they are thrust into prison, with a charge to the jailer to keep them safe; who on his part thrusts them into the innermost dungeon, and their feet into the stocks.
These are the world’s weapons, which are freely used upon unarmed and defenceless men, teachers, as an oracle of their own had loudly proclaimed, of the way of salvation. But if the weapons of these men are not carnal, they are, in the language of one of the sufferers here, "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds," and presently the prison walls are stirred to their foundations, as vibrating to the unaccustomed sound of prayer and praise from lips that cannot be silenced as the hearts that move them cannot be stilled.
3. "At midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God; and the prisoners listened to them."
What a new sound it must have been! Had it been in a Christian land, as we say, however poorly any land may be that, we should think of memories that it would awaken in whatever hardened hearts; but here there were no memories to awaken; it was a new gospel of gladness going forth, which in such circumstances those old Romans knew not. They could die well, as we know; -sternly, grimly, they could die; with their song too upon their lips, as heroes, patriots, and in softer moods of love and loyalty; but all this was inspiration from earthly sources, and not strange to men: here was inspiration of another kind, -a new strain that held the listeners by its rapt unearthliness, its confidence and joy in an unseen God. Here was its revelation -its gospel: would there be answer to this undoubting claim upon One assumed so near and competent?
Suddenly an unexpected answer came: a great earthquake rocked the prison to its foundations; and in a moment all the doors were opened, and every one’s bonds were loosed! Yet all the more the wonder held them: they were in hands so manifestly mighty, so interested too, and guided by purpose for the manifestation of which they could only wait. Did not some realize perhaps, that there was here a God worth waiting for, whom it must be a joy to know?
There was one, however, to whom what had taken place was a message of death, or seemed such. The jailer, roused from sleep by the sudden shock, and seeing the prison doors open, supposed that the prisoners had escaped. In that case, from the severity of the Roman law there would have been for him no escape. He had drawn his sword to kill himself, in despair of life, when a voice of quiet assurance from the depths of the prison arrested him. "Do thyself no harm," it called; "for we are all here." In that instant the voice of God had spoken to him; the keeper and his captives had changed places: the perfect authority breathing in these words, coupled with mercy to himself so great, which had laid aside all that self-concern prompted to, to care for a mere careless and hardened persecutor, smote him with conviction that God was with these men. He was in their hands, and not they in his. Conscience and heart were roused in him together; the sense of sin, and of goodness that drew him after it. He called for lights, and sprang in, and fell down before Paul and Silas, trembling with these new emotions; and bringing them out, with the voice of the prophetess, no doubt, ringing in his ears, he said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
It was such a cry as divine grace awakens and responds to. The facing of death immediately before, the consciousness of the divine hand in all that had taken place, had been used of the Spirit of God to make him understand what salvation would mean, though not the way of it. The way he did not understand; nor could he have understood without further help the simple words (to us, thank God!) in which it was made known to him: "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, -thou and thy house." It is a blessed word; blessed in the largeness of assurance that clings to it; and which, though on opposite sides misconceived, we are not to give up on that account.
It is faith in a personal Saviour that is preached to the convicted man, -a committing himself to One mighty to save; a believing on, which is trusting, leaning on. It is not a doctrine simply that he is to accept, but a living Person who is to be trusted.
But then it is a Person who has accomplished a work for men, in the power of which He is Lord and Christ; not simply Sovereign Ruler, but the "Anointed" Priest, the Representative of His people. As having stood in our place upon the cross, He stands as the One in whom we are accepted before God.
It is necessarily, therefore, faith which saves, just because it is Christ who saves; it is not the value of faith in itself, although there is value in faith; for it is the real active principle in every soul: so that it can be said, "Faith, if it have not works, is dead, being alone." It works because it puts Christ in His place, and so God (as manifested in Christ) in His also. But as contrasted with works it is the very confession of creature nothingness and worthlessness, in which it lays hold of Another as all its competence and all its boast. Repentance and faith are thus but the opposite sides of the amazing change which is wrought in conversion: the one is the face turned towards God, as the other is the back turned upon self. Each therefore implies the other.
But now as to the closing words, "thou and thy house:" have they any special encouragement as to the family of a believer, or have they not? Do they mean only "thou, if thou believest, and thy house also, if they believe"? Or do they mean something more than this? Would there be need to assure the penitent here, that faith being the way of salvation, it was as open to his house upon their believing as to himself? It does not seem as if he would need to be assured of that.
On the other hand, there should not need to say, that if faith be, as it surely is, the way of salvation there is no exemption of the family of a believer from the necessity of faith. If there should possibly be any, as is sometimes stated, who with the plain word of Scripture before them can yet hold that for a believer’s house there is even the possibility that without faith they may still please God, or that the father’s faith can in anywise be proxy for that of the child, such a superstition needs only to be brought into honest daylight to be refuted. Quite a different thing it is to believe that there are special promises to a believer’s house, not unconditional, and yet conditioned only upon his being in practical reality, and in relation to that which is in question, a believer. Such a belief has plenty to ground itself upon in Scripture, and is not a superstition but a faith.
Take Abraham, "the father of all them that believe" (Rom 4:11), as an illustration and somewhat more. "I know him," says the Lord, "that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him" (Gen 18:19). Here is, indeed, not a promise but an assurance, grounded upon that which the practical character of his faith wrought in the Old Testament example of it. Himself called out from the idolatry around to keep the way of the Lord, he acknowledged Him as the God of his household as well as his own God. With such purpose of heart the wise man’s proverb would be fulfilled as to his house, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it" (Pro 22:6). This is the rule of the Christian’s house, according to which he is to bring up his children in the "nurture (or discipline) and admonition of the Lord" (Eph 6:4). To this the promise applies that assures him that it shall be effectual; and not in vain is the assurance. The faith which it is true they need cannot be imparted by all that man can do for them: how comforting then the word which entitles confidence in the Lord to whom we bring them, and whose we would have them, that nevertheless this "discipline and admonition" shall be effectual! Discipleship, government, discipline belong to the kingdom; and "thou and thy house" have always been the rule in the kingdom of God. Yet all here is distinctly conditional, not absolute, as the Gospels fully show us; and to this, and not to the Church, is baptism introductory (see Mat 28:18-19, notes); all is perfectly intelligible, therefore, when we find directly here, that "they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house;" and that the jailer "was baptized, he and all his, immediately."
Notable it is that of Israel’s "set times" (Lev 23:1-44), which typically present God’s ways (as we say dispensationally), on to the end which is God’s rest, those from Passover to Pentecost speak of what was indeed offered to Israel, and thus might have been hers, but being rejected through unbelief, they have passed from her in their spiritual significance and become the peculiar portion of the (characteristically Gentile) Church. No doubt can be entertained as to Pentecost; but the Sheaf of First-fruits also, which is Christ in resurrection, the promise of the harvest to come, is also ours whose portion will be with Him in this, while Israel inherits hers upon earth. Accordingly the feasts which speak of the national blessing come afterwards, with an interval between, in the seventh month; the feast of trumpets gathering them afresh, at the new moon, when the Sun of righteousness begins to shine afresh upon Israel; the day of atonement then showing their sins put upon the scapegoat and sent away; and finally the feast of tabernacles consummates their blessing.
Passover, let us notice, is not like the day of atonement, one sacrifice covering all the people, but "a lamb for a house," each family distinctly represented. Nay, if one should be defiled at the time of its celebration, or on a journey afar off, a second Passover can be kept, to remedy the omission. I do not say but that, in a secondary sense, this may apply to Israel, who were indeed defiled at the time of Christ’s suffering for men; but this would only confirm the more the application of the Passover primarily to the present going out of the gospel in the day of Israel’s rejection.
But what then is the principle that faces us in the Passover? Clearly, it is "Thou and thy house;" the heads of the houses kill the lamb, and sprinkle the blood upon the lintel and the two side-posts of the houses where they eat it. The family character of the redemption feast is manifest; and notice again that it is at Philippi, among those who are Gentile -no synagogue of the Jews in the place, and not a word of any man of Israel in the place, save only the preachers themselves, that we hear what we may call now the passover gospel -"Thou shalt be saved: thou and thy house."
What a change has passed, and as in a moment, upon the hardened instrument of heathen cruelty and opposition to the word of Christ! "He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and having brought them up into his house, set food before them, and rejoiced with all his house, believing God." Although we have to translate perhaps in this way, on account of the difficulty of other rendering in English, yet it should be understood that the expression "with all his house" is not here as in the case of Crispus afterwards where it is said that he "believed with all his house" (Act 18:8). Here it is an adverb, and there should be a reason for the difference, the effect of which would be to make the joy more simply his own. It is certain, at least, that although they had spoken the word to all that were in his house, faith is ascribed to himself alone.
The work in the prison is done, and now indeed the prison doors can hold them no longer. The day having come, the magistrates sent the lictors with a curt message to "Let those men go." But Paul is concerned that there should be no avoidable reproach left upon the testimony, and he refuses to be dismissed in this manner after the public wrong upon men uncondemned. The magistrates are afraid when they hear that they are Roman citizens they have been treating in this manner, and come in humble fashion to bring them out; begging them, however, to leave the city. They return therefore to Lydia’s house; and after having there met the brethren (of whom, in the time that had elapsed, and as from the epistle afterwards we cannot but infer that, there were many), and having comforted them, they departed.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Alexander MacLaren 1905 · Public Domain
Acts
PAUL AT PHILIPPI
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Act 16:13.
This is the first record of the preaching of the Gospel in Europe, and probably the first instance of it. The fact that the vision of the man of Macedonia was needed in order to draw the Apostle across the straits into Macedonia, and the great length at which the incidents at Philippi are recorded, make this probable. If so, we are here standing, as it were, at the wellhead of a mighty river, and the thin stream of water assumes importance when we remember the thousand miles of its course, and the league-broad estuary in which it pours itself into the ocean. Here is the beginning; the Europe of to-day is what came out of it. There is no sign whatever that the Apostle was conscious of an epoch in this transference of the sphere of his operations, but we can scarcely help being conscious of such.
And so, looking at the words of my text, and seeing here how unobtrusively there stole into the progressive part of the world the power which was to shatter and remould all its institutions, to guide and inform the onward march of its peoples, to be the basis of their liberties, and the starting-point of their literature, we can scarcely avoid drawing lessons of importance.
The first point which I would suggest, as picturesquely enforced for us by this incident, is-
I. The apparent insignificance and real greatness of Christian work.
There did not seem in the whole of that great city that morning a more completely insignificant knot of people than the little weather-beaten Jew, travel-stained, of weak bodily presence, and of contemptible speech, with the handful of his attendants, who slipped out in the early morning and wended their way to the quiet little oratory, beneath the blue sky, by the side of the rushing stream, and there talked informally and familiarly to the handful of women. The great men of Philippi would have stared if any one had said to them, ‘You will be forgotten, but two of these women will have their names embalmed in the memory of the world for ever. Everybody will know Euodia and Syntyche. Your city will be forgotten, although a battle that settled the fate of the civilised world was fought outside your gates. But that little Jew and the letter that he will write to that handful of believers that are to be gathered by his preaching will last for ever.’ The mightiest thing done in Europe that morning was when the Apostle sat down by the riverside, ‘and spake to the women which resorted thither.’
The very same vulgar mistake as to what is great and as to what is small is being repeated over and over again; and we are all tempted to it by that which is worldly and vulgar in ourselves, to the enormous detriment of the best part of our natures. So it is worth while to stop for a moment and ask what is the criterion of greatness in our deeds? I answer, three things-their motive, their sphere, their consequences. What is done for God is always great. You take a pebble and drop it into a brook, and immediately the dull colouring upon it flashes up into beauty when the sunlight strikes through the ripples, and the magnitude of the little stone is enlarged. If I may make use of such a violent expression, drop your deeds into God, and they will all be great, however small they are. Keep them apart from Him, and they will be small, though all the drums of the world beat in celebration, and all the vulgar people on the earth extol their magnitude. This altar magnifies and sanctifies the giver and the gift. The great things are the things that are done for God.
A deed is great according to its sphere. What bears on and is confined to material things is smaller than what affects the understanding. The teacher is more than the man who promotes material good. And on the very same principle, above both the one and the other, is the doer of deeds which touch the diviner part of a man’s nature, his will, his conscience, his affections, his relations to God. Thus the deeds that impinge upon these are the highest and the greatest; and far above the scientific inventor, and far above the mere teacher, as I believe, and as I hope you believe, stands the humblest work of the poorest Christian who seeks to draw any other soul into the light and liberty which he himself possesses. The greatest thing in the world is charity, and the purest charity in the world is that which helps a man to possess the basis and mother-tincture of all love, the love towards God who has first loved us, in the person and the work of His dear Son.
That which being done has consequences that roll through souls, ‘and grow for ever and for ever,’ is a greater work than the deed whose issues are more short-lived. And so the man who speaks a word which may deflect a soul into the paths which have no end until they are swallowed up in the light of the God who ‘is a Sun,’ is a worker whose work is truly great. Brethren, it concerns the nobleness of the life of us Christian people far more closely than we sometimes suppose, that we should purge our souls from the false estimate of magnitudes which prevails so extensively in the world’s judgment of men and their doings. And though it is no worthy motive for a man to seek to live so that he may do great things, it is a part of the discipline of the Christian mind, as well as heart, that we should be able to reduce the swollen bladders to their true flaccidity and insignificance, and that we should understand that things done for God, things done on men’s souls, things done with consequences which time will not exhaust, nor eternity put a period to, are, after all, the great things of human life.
Ah, there will be a wonderful reversal of judgments one day! Names that now fill the trumpet of fame will fall silent. Pages that now are read as if they were leaves of the ‘Book of Life’ will be obliterated and unknown, and when all the flashing cressets in Vanity Fair have smoked and stunk themselves out, ‘They that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.’ The great things are the Christian things, and there was no greater deed done that day, on this round earth, than when that Jewish wayfarer, travel-stained and insignificant, sat himself down in the place of prayer, and ‘spake unto the women which resorted thither.’ Do not be over-cowed by the loud talk of the world, but understand that Christian work is the mightiest work that a man can do.
Let us take from this incident a hint as to-
II. The law of growth in Christ’s Kingdom.
Here, as I have said, is the thin thread of water at the source. We to-day are on the broad bosom of the expanded stream. Here is the little beginning; the world that we see around us has come from this, and there is a great deal more to be done yet before all the power that was transported into Europe, on that Sabbath morning, has wrought its legitimate effects. That is to say, ‘the Kingdom of God cometh not by observation.’ Let me say a word, and only a word, based on this incident, about the law of small beginnings and the law of slow, inconspicuous development.
We have here an instance of the law of small, silent beginnings. Let us go back to the highest example of everything that is good; the life of Jesus Christ. A cradle at Bethlehem, a carpenter’s shop in Nazareth, thirty years buried in a village, two or three years, at most, going up and down quietly in a remote nook of the earth, and then He passed away silently and the world did not know Him. ‘He shall not strive nor cry, nor cause His voice to be heard in the streets.’ And as the Christ so His Church, and so His Gospel, and so all good movements that begin from Him. Destructive preparations may be noisy; they generally are. Constructive beginnings are silent and small. If a thing is launched with a great beating of drums and blowing of trumpets, you may be pretty sure there is very little in it. Drums are hollow, or they would not make such a noise. Trumpets only catch and give forth wind. They say-I know not whether it is true-that the Wellingtonia gigantea, the greatest of forest trees, has a smaller seed than any of its congeners. It may be so, at any rate it does for an illustration. The germ-cell is always microscopic. A little beginning is a prophecy of a great ending.
In like manner there is another large principle suggested here which, in these days of impatient haste and rushing to and fro, and religious as well as secular advertising and standing at street corners, we are very apt to forget, but which we need to remember, and that is that the rate of growth is swift when the duration of existence is short. A reed springs up in a night. How long does an oak take before it gets too high for a sheep to crop at? The moth lives its full life in a day. There is no creature that has helpless infancy so long as a man. We have the slow work of mining; the dynamite will be put into the hole one day, and the spark applied- and then? So ‘an inheritance may be gotten hastily at the beginning, but the end thereof shall not be blessed.’
Let us apply that to our own personal life and work, and to the growth of Christianity in the world, and let us not be staggered because either are so slow. ‘The Lord is not slack concerning His promises, as some men count slackness. One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.’ How long will that day be of which a thousand years are but as the morning twilight? Brethren, you have need of patience. You Christian workers, and I hope I am speaking to a great many such now; how long does it take before we can say that we are making any impression at all on the vast masses of evil and sin that are round about us? God waited, nobody knows how many millenniums and more than millenniums, before He had the world ready for man. He waited for more years than we can tell before He had the world ready for the Incarnation. His march is very slow because it is ever onwards. Let us be thankful if we forge ahead the least little bit; and let us not be impatient for swift results which are the fool’s paradise, and which the man who knows that he is working towards God’s own end can well afford to do without.
And now, lastly, let me ask you to notice, still further as drawn from this incident-
III. The simplicity of the forces to which God entrusts the growth of His Kingdom.
It is almost ludicrous to think, if it were not pathetic and sublime, of the disproportion between the end that was aimed at and the way that was taken to reach it, which the text opens before us. ‘We went out to the riverside, and we spake unto the women which resorted thither.’ That was all. Think of Europe as it was at that time. There was Greece over the hills, there was Rome ubiquitous and ready to exchange its contemptuous toleration for active hostility. There was the unknown barbarism of the vague lands beyond. Think of the established idolatries which these men had to meet, around which had gathered, by the superstitious awe of untold ages, everything that was obstinate, everything that was menacing, everything that was venerable. Think of the subtleties to which they had to oppose their unlettered message. Think of the moral corruption that was eating like an ulcer into the very heart of society. Did ever a Cortez on the beach, with his ships in flames behind him, and a continent in arms before, cast himself on a more desperate venture? And they conquered! How? What were the small stones from the brook that slew Goliath? Have we got them? Here they are, the message that they spoke, the white heat of earnestness with which they spoke it, and the divine Helper who backed them up. And we have this message. Brethren, that old word, ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself,’ is as much needed, as potent, as truly adapted to the complicated civilisation of this generation, as surely reaching the deepest wants of the human soul, as it was in the days when first the message poured, like a red-hot lava flood, from the utterances of Paul. Like lava it has gone cold to-day, and stiff in many places, and all the heat is out of it. That is the fault of the speaker, never of the message. It is as mighty as ever it was, and if the Christian Church would keep more closely to it, and would realise more fully that the Cross does not need to be propped up so much as to be proclaimed, I think we should see that it is so. That sword has not lost its temper, and modern modes of warfare have not antiquated it. As David said to the high priests at Nob, when he was told that Goliath’s sword was hid behind the ephod, ‘Give me that. There is none like it.’ It was not miracles, it was the Gospel that was preached, which was ‘the power of God unto salvation.’
And that message was preached with earnestness. There is one point in which every successful servant of Jesus Christ who has done work for Him, winning men to Him, has been like every other successful servant, and there is only one point. Some of them have been wise men, some of them have been foolish. Some of them have been clad with many puerile notions and much rubbish of ceremonial and sacerdotal theories. Some of them have been high Calvinists, some of them low Arminians; some of them have been scholars, some of them could hardly read. But they have all had this one thing: they believed with all their hearts what they spake. They fulfilled the Horatian principle, ‘If you wish me to weep, your own eyes must overflow’-and if you wish me to believe, you must speak, not ‘with bated breath and whispering humbleness,’ but as if you yourself believed it, and were dead set on getting other people to believe it, too.
And then the third thing that Paul had we have, and that is the presence of the Christ. Note what it says in the context about one convert who was made that morning, Lydia, ‘whose heart the Lord opened.’ Now I am not going to deduce Calvinism or any other ‘ism’ from these words, but I pray you to note that there is emerging on the surface here what runs all through this book of Acts, and animates the whole of it, viz., that Jesus Christ Himself is working, doing all the work that is done through His servants. Wherever there are men aflame with that with which every Christian man and woman should be aflame, the consciousness of the preciousness of their Master, and their own responsibility for the spreading of His Name, there, depend upon it, will be the Christ to aid them. The picture with which one of the Evangelists closes his Gospel will be repeated: ‘They went everywhere preaching the word, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.’
Dear brethren, the vision of the man of Macedonia which drew Paul across the water from Troas to Philippi speaks to us. ‘Come over and help us,’ comes from many voices. And if we, in however humble and obscure, and as the foolish purblind world calls it, ‘small,’ way, yield to the invitation, and try to do what in us lies, then we shall find that, like Paul by the riverside in that oratory, we are building better than we know, and planting a little seed, the springing whereof God will bless. ‘Thou sowest not that which shall be, but bare grain . . . and God giveth it a body as it hath pleased Him.’
Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain 13-15. Upon entering this strange city, the first on…
13-15. Upon entering this strange city, the first on the continent of Europe visited by an apostle, Paul and his companions must have looked around them with great anxiety for some opportunity to open their message to the people. The prospects were sufficiently forbidding. They knew not the face of a human being; and there was not even a Jewish synagogue into which they might enter with the hope of being invited to speak "a word of exhortation to the people." By some means, however, they learned that on the bank of the river Gangas, which flowed by the city, some Jewish women were in the habit of congregating on the Sabbath-day, for prayer. Thither the apostles directed their steps, determined that here should be the beginning of their labors in Philippi. (13) " And on the Sabbath-day we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made, and sat down, and spoke to the women who had collected there. (14) And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God, was listening; whose heart the Lord opened, so that she attended to the things spoken by Paul. (15) And when she was immersed, and her house, she entreated us, saying, If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and remain there. And she constrained us. "
With Bloomfield, I reject the criticism of the most recent commentators, who render the second clause of verse 13 , " where was wont to be a place of prayer ." Besides the reasons suggested by this learned author, I would observe, first, that the term proseuche is nowhere else in the New Testament used in the sense of a place of prayer, but always means prayer. Nothing but a contextual necessity, therefore, would justify a different rendering here. Again, the expression enomizeto einai means was accustomed to be, and it is never said of a place, or building, that it is accustomed to be where it is.
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We now see one reason for that singular prohibition which had been steadily turning Paul aside from the fields which he had preferred, until he reached the sea-shore; and of that vision which had called him into Europe. These women had been wont to repair to this river-bank for prayer. God had heard their prayers, as in the case of Cornelius, and he was bringing to them the preacher through whose words they might obtain faith in Christ, and learn the way of salvation. Long before either they or Paul knew anything of it, God was directing the steps of the latter, and timing the motion of the winds at sea, with reference to that weekly meeting on the river's bank, as he had once done the flight of an angel and the steps of Philip with reference to the eunuch's chariot. Now, as in those two cases, he has brought the parties face to face. He answers the prayers of the unconverted, not by an enlightening influence of the Spirit in their hearts, but by providentially bringing to them a preacher of the gospel who knows the way of salvation.
The statement that the Lord opened the heart of Lydia, that she attended to the things spoken by Paul, is generally assumed by the commentators as a certain proof that an immediate influence of the Spirit was exerted on her heart, in order that she should listen favorably to the truth. Their interpretation of the words is expressed in the most orthodox style by Bloomfield, thus: "The opening in question was effected by the grace of God, working by his Spirit with the concurrent good dispositions of Lydia." Dr. Hackett says her heart was "enlightened, impressed by his Spirit, and so prepared to receive the truth." Whether this is the true interpretation or not, may be determined by a careful examination of all the facts in this case.
First: The term open is evidently used metaphorically, but in a sense not at all obscure. To open the mind is to expand it to broader or more just conceptions of a subject. To open the heart is to awaken within it more generous impulses. What exact impulse is awakened, in a given case, is to be determined by the context.
Second: The impulse awakened in Lydia's heart was not such a disposition that she listened favorably to what Paul said, but, "that she attended to things " which he spoke. The facts, in the order in which they are stated, are as follows: 1st. "We spoke to the women." 2d. Lydia "was listening." 3d. God opened her heart. 4th. She attended to the things spoken. The fourth fact is declared to be the result of the third. It was after she "was listening" that God opened her heart, and after her heart was opened, and because of this opening, that she attended to what she had heard. What the exact result was, then, is to be determined by the meaning of the word " attended. " The term attend sometimes means to concentrate the mind upon a subject, and sometimes to practically observe what we are taught. The Greek term prosecho, here employed, has a similar usage. It is used in the former sense, in Acts 8:6 , where it is said the people, " attended to the things spoken by Philip, in hearing and seeing the miracles which he wrought." It is used in the latter sense in 1 Tim 4:13 , where Paul says, "Till I come, attend to reading, to exhortation, to teaching;" and in Heb 7:13 , where to attend to the altar means to do the service at the altar. That the latter is the meaning in the case before us is clearly proved by the fact that she had already listened to what Paul spoke, or given mental attention to it, before God opened her heart so that she attended to the things she had heard. Now, in hearing the gospel, she learned that there were certain things which she was required to attend to, which were, to believe, to repent, and to be immersed. To attend to the things she heard, then, was to do these things. That immersion was included in the things which Luke refers to by this term is evident from the manner in which he introduces that circumstance. He says, "And when she was immersed," etc., as if her immersion was already implied in the preceding remark. If such was not his meaning, he would not have used the adverb when, but would simply have stated, as an additional fact, that she was immersed.
Having the facts of the case now before us, we inquire whether it is necessary to admit an immediate influence of the Spirit, in order to account for the opening of her heart. We must bear in mind, while prosecuting this inquiry, that the opening in question was such a change in her heart as to induce her to believe the gospel, to repent of her sins, and to be immersed, thereby devoting her life to the service of Christ. Her heart had been contracted by the narrowness of Jewish prejudices, which were obstacles, in some degree, to the reception of the gospel; but she was a "worshiper of God," which inclined her to do whatever she might learn to be the will of God. In seeking to account for the change effected, we must also bear in mind the well-settled philosophical principle, that when an effect can be accounted for by causes which are known to be present, it is illogical to assume a cause which is not known to be present. Now, in Lydia's case, it is not asserted that an immediate action of the Spirit took place in her heart; neither can it be known that such a cause was present, unless this is the only cause which could produce the effect. But it is known that all the power which can be exerted through the words of an inspired apostle preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, was present. And it can not be denied, that when the gospel, thus presented, is listened to by one who is already a sincere worshiper of God, as Lydia was, the heart may be so expanded by it from the narrowness of Jewish prejudice as to admit of faith, repentance, and obedience. The assumption, therefore, that her heart was opened by an abstract influence of the Spirit, is entirely gratuitous and illogical, while the real cause is patent upon the face of the narrative in the preaching done by Paul.
If it be objected to this conclusion, that it is said God opened her heart, and not Paul, we answer, that God by his Spirit was the real agent of all that was effected through the words of Paul. For it was the Spirit in Paul who spoke to Lydia, and it was the fact that the Holy Spirit was in him which compelled her to believe what he might say, and gave his words all their power. Hence, so far is the statement of the text from being inconsistent with our conclusion, that the opening of her heart through Paul's words is the clearest proof that it was effected by the Holy Spirit as the prime agent.
If, in conclusion of this inquiry, we compare Lydia's case with that of the eunuch, or of Cornelius, who were in similar states of mind previous to conversion, and needed a similar opening of the heart, we find that it was effected in the same way, through the power of miraculously attested truth, and that the only difference is in the phraseology in which Luke chooses to describe it. If, from these facts, we attempt a general conclusion, it is, that when any narrowness of heart, produced by improper education, or otherwise, stands in the way of salvation, the Lord removes it, and opens the heart, by the expanding and ennobling influence of his truth. This is true of the saint as well as the sinner, as is well illustrated by the case of Peter and the other apostles in connection with the family of Cornelius.
The statement that Lydia's household were immersed with her has been taken by nearly all pedobaptist writers as presumptive evidence in favor of infant baptism. Olshausen, however, while affirming that "the propriety of infant baptism is undoubted," has the candor to admit that "It is highly improbable that the phrase her household should be understood as including infant children." He also affirms that "There is altogether wanting any conclusive proof-passage for the baptism of children in the age of the apostles, nor can the necessity of it be deduced from the nature of baptism." Dr. Alexander also remarks that "The real strength of the argument lies not in any one case, but in the repeated mention of whole households as baptized." But Dr. Barnes states the argument in the more popular style, thus: "The case is one that affords a strong presumptive proof that this was an instance of household or infant baptism. For, (1) Her believing is particularly mentioned. (2) It is not intimated that they believed. On the contrary, it is strongly implied that they did not. (3) It is manifestly implied that they were baptized because she believed."
Dr. Alexander's statement of the argument is that generally employed by debatants; that of Dr. Barnes the one most common among preachers and teachers who have no opponent before them. In reference to the former it is sufficient to say, that "the repeated mention of whole households as baptized" affords not the slightest evidence in favor of infant baptism, unless it can be proved that in at least one of these households there were infants. It there were infants in one, this would establish the presumption that there might be in some others. But until there is proof that there were infants in some of them, it may be inferred that the absence of infants was the very circumstance which led to the immersion of the whole family. Indeed, a fair induction of such cases fully justifies this inference in reference to Lydia's case. There is positive proof that there were no infants in any other family whose immersion is mentioned in the New Testament. There were none in the household of Cornelius; for they all spoke in tongues, and believed. There were none in that of the jailer; for they all believed and rejoiced in the Lord. None in the household of Stephanas; for they "addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints." Now, inasmuch as one of the peculiarities of all households who were immersed, of whom we know the facts, was the absence of infants, we are justified in the conclusion, no evidence to the contrary appearing, that this was also a peculiarity of Lydia's household. The argument, therefore, as stated by Dr. Alexander, is not only inconclusive, but, when properly viewed, establishes a presumption quite the reverse.
The argument, as stated by Dr. Barnes, is based entirely upon the silence of the Scriptures. He says: " Her believing is particularly mentioned;" but "it is not intimated that they believed. On the contrary, it is strongly implied that they did not." Now, if the mere silence of Luke in reference to their faith implies strongly that they did not believe, his silence in reference to Lydia's repentance implies as strongly that she did not repent. In some cases of conversion, the repentance of the parties is "particularly mentioned." "It is not intimated" that Lydia repented; therefore, says the logic of Dr. Barnes, "there is a strong presumptive proof that this was an instance of" baptism without repentance. If men are allowed thus to prove what is Scripture doctrine, by what the Scriptures do not mention, there is no end to the doctrines and practices which the Bible may be made to defend. If Dr. Barnes were compelled to meet the argument in reference to Lydia's repentance, he would do it very easily, and, in so doing, would refute his own in reference to the baptism of her children. He would show that we know that Lydia repented, because none but those who repented were admitted to baptism on other occasions. Just so, we know that all baptized on this occasion believed, because none but believers were baptized on other occasions. Not till he can prove, from other statements of the Scriptures, that persons were baptized by the apostles without faith, can he establish the presumption that these parties were not believers, simply because their faith is not mentioned.
Dr. Barnes concludes his note on this case, by saying, "It is just such an account as would now be given of a household or family that were baptized on the faith of the parent." This is true. But it is equally true, that it is just such an account as would now be given of a household or family that were baptized without an infant among them. The presence, therefore, of one or more infants, which is essential to the argument, remains absolutely without proof.
The mere absence of proof is not the worst feature of the pedobaptist assumptions in this case. For the assumption that infants were here baptized depends upon five other assumptions, the falsity of either of which would vitiate the whole argument. It is assumed, First, That some of the household were baptized without faith. Second, That Lydia was, or had been, a married woman. Third, That she had children. Fourth, That one or more of her children were infants. Fifth, That her infant children were so young as to necessarily be brought with her from Thyatira to Philippi. Now, so long as it remains possible that all the parties baptized were believers; or that Lydia was a maiden; or that she was a married woman or widow without children; or that her children were of a responsible age; or that her younger children were left at home in Thyatira when she came to Philippi to sell her purple cloths; so long as any one of these hypotheses can possibly be true, so long will it be impossible to prove an instance of infant baptism in her household.
One more suggestion is necessary to a full statement of the argument in this case. When Lydia invited Paul's company to lodge in her house, they were backward about complying, as is evident from the remark that "she constrained us." Now there can be no probable reason assigned for this reluctance, but the fact that it was her house, and the brethren felt it a matter of delicacy to be the guests of a woman. To the full extent of the probability of this supposition, which is heightened by the fact that she calls the house her own, is it probable that she was an unmarried woman, and, therefore, improbable that she had infant children. Thus we find that all the known facts in the case are adverse to the argument in favor of infant baptism.
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain was wont
was wont
might legally, i.e. a legal meeting-place for Jews where there was no synagogue.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 16:13-36 Luke gives his readers cameos of three lives…
16:13-36 Luke gives his readers cameos of three lives touched by the Good News in Philippi: a wealthy woman (16:14-15), an exploited slave girl (16:16-21), and a middle-class officer (16:23-36).
16:13 The Jewish community at Philippi was too small to have a synagogue, which required ten adult males. Instead, Jews met for prayer in an open space by the Gangites (now called Angista) River that afforded privacy, quiet, and water for Jewish purification rites.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.