Acts 16 · Story · Hospitality
Lydia and the House Church
Acts 16:11 to 40 records the stay of Paul and Silas in a Roman colony, from the Sabbath at the river to their release from prison.
Paul crossed into Macedonia because a man in a vision pleaded for help, and at Philippi the first people Luke shows him teaching were women at a place of prayer.
And when she and her household had been baptized, she urged us, “If you consider me a believer in the Lord, come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
- Where
- Philippi
- Who
- Lydia, Paul, Silas
Summary
Acts 16 tells the founding of a church as a story of open homes. Two households at Philippi believed the gospel and opened their doors to the men who preached it. The first belonged to a dealer in purple cloth and the second to the keeper of the city's prison. Lydia's house then became the place where the believers met. In this story the welcome of guests and the gathering of a church happen under the same roof.
- Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from Thyatira and a worshiper of God, was among the listeners, and the Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message (Acts 16:14).
- After she and her household had been baptized, she asked the missionaries to come and stay at her house, and she persuaded them (Acts 16:15).
- The jailer washed the wounds of Paul and Silas, was baptized with all his household and set a meal before them in his home (Acts 16:33 to 34).
- On leaving the prison, Paul and Silas went to Lydia's house to see the brothers and encourage them, and then they left the city (Acts 16:40).
- Paul later wrote that no church but the Philippians partnered with him in giving and receiving when he left Macedonia (Philippians 4:15).
A Church Begins With a Welcome
Philippi is the first city in Macedonia where Acts records Paul preaching the gospel.
This is the story of how the church at Philippi began, told in Acts 16:11 to 40. It belongs to hospitality, the value Scripture lays on every believer when it commands the welcome of the stranger and the guest.
The question it answers is what part an open home played in the founding of a church. A reader who keeps a home meets here a woman of trade and a keeper of the prison, and sees what each did with a house after believing. The answer comes from what the two hosts did in Acts and from the letter Paul later wrote to the believers at Philippi.
Paul's Days at Philippi
Eleven of the twelve events fall within Acts 16:11 to 40, and the first is the vision at Troas that sent Paul there.
Ten of the events take place at Philippi, and in three of them the missionaries enter a believer's home.
- At Troas Paul sees a man of Macedonia in a vision"Come over to Macedonia and help us."Acts 16:9
- The party sails by Samothrace and Neapolis to Philippi"the leading city of that district of Macedonia."Acts 16:11 to 12
- On the Sabbath they speak to the women at the river"On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate along the river, where it was customary to find a place of prayer."Acts 16:13
- The Lord opens the heart of Lydia"The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message."Acts 16:14
- Lydia and her household are baptized, and she takes the missionaries into her house"And she persuaded us."Acts 16:15
- A slave girl follows them, and Paul drives out the spirit of divination"She continued this for many days."Acts 16:16 to 18
- Paul and Silas are beaten and put in the stocks"he placed them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks."Acts 16:19 to 24
- At midnight an earthquake opens the prison doors"Suddenly a strong earthquake shook the foundations of the prison."Acts 16:25 to 26
- The jailer believes and is baptized with his household"And without delay, he and all his household were baptized."Acts 16:27 to 33
- The jailer sets a meal before them in his home"Then he brought them into his home and set a meal before them."Acts 16:34
- At daylight the magistrates release them and ask them to leave"They came to appease them and led them out, requesting that they leave the city."Acts 16:35 to 39
- Paul and Silas return to Lydia's house and then leave the city"they went to Lydia’s house to see the brothers and encourage them."Acts 16:40
A timeline of twelve events, each card carrying words of its verse from the Berean text.
Paul and Silas are beaten and put in the stocks, At midnight an earthquake opens the prison doors, The jailer believes and is baptized with his household, The jailer sets a meal before them in his home, At daylight the magistrates release them and ask them to leave, Paul and Silas return to Lydia's house and then leave the city
The Welcome Told in Order
Five scenes carry the welcome, from the women at the river to the brothers at Lydia's house.
The missionaries went to the river on the SabbathActs 16:11 to 13
The Lord opened the heart of a dealer in purple clothActs 16:14
Among those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message.Luke gives the credit for Lydia's response to God's work in her, and her welcome of the missionaries follows from it in the next verse.
She and her household were baptized, and she urged them to stayActs 16:15
Her invitation rested on their judgment of her faith, for she asked them to stay if they considered her a believer in the Lord. Luke ends the verse with the words "And she persuaded us," so the missionaries took up lodging in her house.
The jailer washed their wounds and fed them at his tableActs 16:16 to 34
At that hour of the night, the jailer took them and washed their wounds. And without delay, he and all his household were baptized. Then he brought them into his home and set a meal before them. So he and all his household rejoiced that they had come to believe in God.Luke ends the jailer's night at his own table, and that meal is the reason the earthquake story belongs to an account of hospitality.
Freed from the prison, they went first to Lydia's houseActs 16:35 to 40
In the morning the city's officers brought word that the prisoners were free to go. Paul answered that Roman citizens had been beaten in public without a trial, and the alarmed officials came in person and escorted them out (Acts 16:35 to 39).
After Paul and Silas came out of the prison, they went to Lydia’s house to see the brothers and encourage them. Then they left the city.Luke ends the Philippi story at the house that first took the missionaries in, which ties the founding of the church to Lydia's welcome.
Two Households Opened Their Doors
Luke tells the conversions of Lydia and of the jailer in the same three steps of hearing, baptism and welcome.
Lydia was listening as Paul spoke by the river (Acts 16:14). Paul and Silas spoke the word of the Lord to the jailer and to everyone in his house (Acts 16:32).
Each household was baptized with its head, Lydia's in Acts 16:15 and the jailer's in Acts 16:33. Each host then received the missionaries, Lydia by urging them to stay and the jailer by setting a meal before them (Acts 16:34).
The two hosts stood far apart in the city. One was a worshiper of God from Thyatira who traded in purple cloth, and the other kept the prison where the missionaries had been held in the stocks.
Where Travelling Preachers Stayed
The Gospels and Acts record the messengers of Jesus lodging in the homes of hosts from town to town.
Jesus sent His disciples out with rules for lodging in the towns they entered (Luke 10:5 to 7).
Stay at the same house, eating and drinking whatever you are offered. For the worker is worthy of his wages. Do not move around from house to house.Jesus's instruction set the pattern of lodging with one host in each town, and Acts finds the apostles staying with hosts in the same way.
Acts names such hosts along the road. Peter lodged with a tanner named Simon in Joppa for some days (Acts 9:43). At Corinth Paul stayed and worked with Aquila and Priscilla, who were tentmakers as he was (Acts 18:3).
On his way up to Jerusalem in Acts 21, Paul stayed at the home of Philip the evangelist in Caesarea (Acts 21:8). Disciples then took him to stay with Mnason the Cypriot, an early disciple (Acts 21:16). On Malta the chief official Publius entertained the shipwrecked party for three days (Acts 28:7).
Lydia belongs in this line of hosts, and her house is the first home in Macedonia that Acts names as the missionaries' lodging.
Churches in Houses in Paul's Letters
Paul's letters name four homes where a church met, those of Prisca and Aquila, of Nympha, of Philemon and of Gaius.
Greet Prisca and Aquila, my fellow workers in Christ Jesus, who have risked their lives for me. Not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them. Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my beloved Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia.This greeting links the hosts of Acts to the house churches, for the couple who lodged Paul at Corinth (Acts 18:3) now keep a church in their home.
Greet the brothers in Laodicea, as well as Nympha and the church that meets at her house.This greeting names a woman as the host of a church, and so sets Lydia beside another woman who did the same.
to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets at your house:Philemon is the one letter of Paul whose opening address includes a church that met in a house.
Gaius, who has hosted me and all the church, sends you greetings. Erastus, the city treasurer, sends you greetings, as does our brother Quartus.The verse shows one house serving a guest and a congregation at once, as Lydia's did.
When Paul wrote from Ephesus, Aquila and Prisca sent greetings to Corinth with the church that met at their house (1 Corinthians 16:8 and 16:19). Paul also asked Philemon to prepare a guest room for him (Philemon 1:22).
Philemon 1:2, Romans 16:23
What the Text Leaves Unsaid
Four questions about the welcome at Philippi are left without an answer in Acts.
Before the Sabbath at the river the party had already spent some time in the city (Acts 16:12), and Luke names no house where they slept.
He gives no names, ages or number for the members of Lydia's household or of the jailer's.
He does not say how long the believers went on meeting at Lydia's house after Paul and Silas left the city.
Luke writes "us" in the scene with the slave girl (Acts 16:17) and "they" for the prison and the departure. The first person returns when the party sails from Philippi in Acts 20:6. Albert Barnes, in his Notes on Acts 16:40, took this to mean that Luke stayed behind in Philippi, and Acts does not say so.
The Welcome Became a Partnership
The church that began in Philippian homes went on supplying Paul's needs after he left the city.
Paul thanked the Philippians for their partnership in the gospel from the first day until the time he wrote (Philippians 1:5). Read beside Acts 16, that first day is the visit on which Lydia and the jailer received him.
And as you Philippians know, in the early days of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church but you partnered with me in the matter of giving and receiving. For even while I was in Thessalonica, you provided for my needs again and again.Paul stayed next at Thessalonica (Acts 17:1 to 2), so the earliest gifts the letter records reached him in the city after Philippi.
Their gifts reached him again by the hand of Epaphroditus, and Paul called them a fragrant offering and an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God (Philippians 4:18).
Teachers on the Welcome at Philippi
Five passages from Chrysostom, Clarke and Henry read Lydia's invitation, the jailer's care, the giving of the Philippians and the host Gaius.
died 407 · John Chrysostom
Homily on Acts 35
The quotation1 quotation
“‘And when she was baptized,’ it says, ‘she and her household’ - mark how he persuaded all of them - ‘she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us’: then look at her wisdom, how she importunes the Apostles, how full of humility her words are, how full of wisdom. ‘If ye have judged me faithful,’ she says. Nothing could be more persuasive. Who would not have been softened by these words? She did not request, did not entreat simply: but she left them to decide, and yet exceedingly forced them: ‘And she constrained us,’ it says, by those words. And again in a different way: for see how she straightway bears fruit, and accounts it a great gain. ‘If ye have judged me,’ that is, That ye did judge me is manifest, by your delivering to me such holy mysteries: and she did not dare to invite them before this. And she was baptized, and receives the Apostles with such earnestness of entreaty; with more than that used by Abraham. And she speaks of no other token than that whereby she was saved: she says not, ‘If ye have judged me’ a great, a devout woman; but what? ‘faithful to the Lord’: if to the Lord, much more to you. ‘If ye have judged me’: if ye do not doubt it. And she says not, Abide with me, but, ‘Come into my house and abide’: with great earnestness she says it. Indeed a faithful woman!”
John Chrysostom · Homily on Acts 35 · on Acts 16:15Patristic
died 407 · John Chrysostom
Homily on Acts 36
The quotation1 quotation
“And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house, and so immediately gave proof of their kindness towards him. And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. He washed them, and was himself baptized, he and his house. And they spake the word to him, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes: washed them and was washed: those he washed from their stripes, himself was washed from his sins: he fed and was fed.”
John Chrysostom · Homily on Acts 36 · on Acts 16:32 to 33Patristic
died 407 · John Chrysostom
Homily on Romans 32
The quotation1 quotation
“‘Gaius mine host, and of the whole Church, saluteth you.’ See what a crown he has framed for him by bearing witness to such great hospitality in him, and brought in the entire Church into this man's house! For by the word used here, he means a host, not a guest. But when you hear that he was Paul's host, do not admire him for his munificence only, but also for his strictness of life. For except he were worthy of Paul's excellency, he would never have lodged there, since he, who took pains to go beyond many of Christ's commands, would never have trespassed against that law, which bids us be very particular about who receive us, and about lodging with ‘worthy’ persons. ‘Erastus, the chamberlain of the city, salutes you, and Quartus a brother.’ There is a purpose in his adding ‘the chamberlain of the city,’ for as he wrote to the Philippians, ‘They of Caesar's household salute you,’ that he might show that the Gospel had taken a hold upon great folk, so here too he mentions the title with a view to the same object, and to show that, to the man who gives heed, neither riches are a hindrance, nor the cares of government, nor anything else of the kind.”
John Chrysostom · Homily on Romans 32 · on Romans 16:23Patristic
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“They not only maintained him comfortably while he was with them, but when he departed from Macedonia they sent tokens of their kindness after him; and this when no other church did so. None besides sent after him of their carnal things, in consideration of what they had reaped of his spiritual things. In works of charity, we are ready to ask what other people do.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Philippians 4:15Puritan
1762 to 1832 · Adam Clarke
Commentary on the Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord - The meaning seems to be this: If my present reception of the Gospel of Christ be a proof to you that I have been faithful to the Lord, in the light previously imparted, and that I am as likely to be faithful to this new grace as I have been to that already received, and, consequently, not likely by light or fickle conduct to bring any discredit on this Divine work, come into my house, and abide there. It is wrong to suppose that this woman had not received a measure of the light of God before this time. And she constrained us - She used such entreaties and persuasions that at last they consented to lodge there.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible · on Acts 16:15Evangelical
John Chrysostom, Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke
Who the Households Held
Commentators hold two readings of whether the households baptized at Philippi included young children.
The households included children baptized on the faith of the headAlbert Barnes and John Wesley, on Acts 16:15
The households were those able to hear and believeAdam Clarke, on Acts 16:32
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on Acts 16:32, reads the jailer's family as those "who were capable of receiving instructions". In his reading they embraced the doctrine and were baptized at once.
The strongest objection is that Luke records no hearing by Lydia's household, whose baptism he sets beside her faith alone (Acts 16:15).
A Church in a Home
The founding of the church at Philippi shows hospitality as a work the gospel sets going in a believer's house.
Every believer is given the work these hosts did, whether the guest is a travelling preacher or a brother in need.
Share with the saints who are in need. Practice hospitality.Paul's command joins sharing with the saints in need to the practice of hospitality, the two things the Philippians did for him.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Acts of the Apostles (Homilies 35 and 36) and Homilies on Romans (Homily 32), Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, first series, volume 11.
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible (1832)
- Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832 to 1869)
- John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament (1755)
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)
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