Can we start with Lydia? Evidently, Lydia was a believer in God, but a Gentile. Paul encountered her in Philippi, down by the river where several other women like her met together on the Sabbath. So what, one may ask. First this, Lydia was not from Philippi, she was from Thyatira. For some reason or other she had relocated and set up shop. That involves a whole lot more than you might think. According to Everett Ferguson in Backgrounds of Early Christianity, that meant she had to go through the same red tape we would have to today, first joining a guild of dyers and second, applying for permits and probably paying a fee to set up her business in the agora. And that means she must have been a successful businesswoman if she was able to do all that.
Yet, she is also a believer in God somehow. Whether she encountered the teaching in her hometown or in Philippi we don't know. But we do know that she knew enough to worship on the Sabbath and cared enough to find a community of believers (since there was evidently no synagogue) and meet with them. The first lesson she teaches us is to always travel with the Lord. She didn't leave him behind and she never "went on vacation" from Him. Perhaps those other women were all like her—Gentile believers, another thing we don't know. But we do know that she accepted the gospel and became part of the fledgling church in that town. Even Jews learned in the Scriptures had a hard time doing that, and so her open-mindedness is another lesson.
And here may be her biggest lesson of all. Immediately after her baptism, she looked at Paul and Silas and said, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us (Acts 16:15). When Paul taught her the gospel, he taught her that it was not about what she could get out of it; it was about following a suffering servant by serving others, and she did so, insisting she be allowed to, immediately. I have actually heard Christians tell elders exactly what they expected from the church now that they were members. Others may not say it, but certainly act like it. Lydia knew better. She was so grateful for her salvation that she couldn't wait to give something back, even knowing it would never actually repay the bill.
So she took Paul and Silas into her home, and here we see another lesson. She may have known these two men, but did her neighbors? More important, did her customer base? All they knew were two rabble rousing jailbirds, but Lydia had no qualms about taking them in or the effect it might have had on her reputation or business. This was how she helped spread a gospel that had saved her, and she was ready to sacrifice whatever necessary.
All those lessons from the three verses that mention her name, Acts 16:14,15,40. Lydia was truly a remarkable woman, one who deserves far more notice than she is usually given. If we learn her lessons, we can be too.
But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mark 10:43-45).
Dene Ward