…and from there to Philippi, which is the foremost city of that part of Macedonia, a colony. And we were staying in that city for some days. And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made; and we sat down and spoke to the women who met there. Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. Acts 16:12-14
Paul was in Philippi, a Greco-Roman city. Paul’s latter letter to the Philippians was addressed to the church that grew out of this missionary encounter. On the Sabbath, they went out of the city to the place where the local Jews were known to pray. Apparently there was either no synagogue, or due to Roman persecution of the Jews, they were not welcome in the city. And why were there only women there for this Sabbath Jewish prayer meeting? It is believed that the persecution of the Jews may have caused the men to either leave the city, or did not want to be identified publicly as Jewish.
The more important point of this narrative is that it was there that Paul met Lydia. Lydia was almost certainly a Gentile woman who was a “God-fearer,” meaning she had become convinced of the truth of the God of the Jews, but had not been officially converted to being Jewish. Lydia was also a wealthy woman, since purple dye was exceedingly expensive in that day.
The even more important point is that when Paul spoke of Christ and the gospel, Lydia was converted. The following verse says she and her household were baptized.
This account is instructive not only because the gospel was being revealed to a wealthy Gentile, but to a prominent woman. Contrary to to modern feminists, Christianity is not anti-female. The fact is, in that day every culture and religion was strongly male-dominated, restricting women in most every way. It was Christ and the Christian gospel that broke new ground by including women as equal in the eyes of God.
Thank the Lord that He loves His people equally regardless of race, socio-economic states—and yes, whether male or female!