“Y’all come in. Make yourself at home. Can I get you some sweet tea?”
In the South, hospitality isn’t just good manners. It’s practically a religion.
But long before sweet tea, there was Lydia.
Lydia was a businesswoman. She sold purple cloth, the most expensive fabric in the ancient world. Purple dye was made from sea snails, and it took thousands of them to dye a single garment. In other words, Lydia’s customers were royalty, the rich, and the famous.
One Sabbath, Lydia was at a riverside prayer meeting outside the city of Philippi when a traveling preacher named Paul showed up and began to speak. And the Bible says, “The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.”
Lydia and her whole household were baptized. And the very first thing she did as a new believer? She invited the missionaries home.
“If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.”
And then, the Bible says, “she persuaded us.” Apparently, Lydia didn’t take “no” for an answer.
Later, after Paul and Silas were beaten and thrown into jail in Philippi, where did they go when they got out? Straight to Lydia’s house.
So, what is hospitality? It’s not a fancy house. It’s not perfect cooking. It’s an open door and an open heart.
Lydia’s open heart led to an open home. And her open home became the meeting place for the first church in Europe.
You never know what God might build around your kitchen table.
Prayer:
Dear Heavenly Father, thank-you for opening my heart to You. Thank-you for giving me the hospitality of Lydia, so that my door and my table will always be open to others. Thank-you for every guest You send my way. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Wikipedia: Lydia of Thyatira, Philippi, Tyrian purple
Look-It Up:
One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house, where they met with the brothers and sisters and encouraged them. Then they left.
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
Free Bonus:
Lydia is considered the first recorded convert to Christianity in Europe.
The church that met in Lydia’s house later received a letter from Paul: the book of Philippians, often called the “letter of joy.”
Purple was so expensive that it became the color of royalty. The phrase “born to the purple” still means being born into a royal family.