Digging Deeper: The Color of Royalty
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1:8 (ESV)
11 So, setting sail from Troas, we made a direct voyage to Samothrace, and the following day to Neapolis, 12 and from there to Philippi, which is a leading city of the district of Macedonia and a Roman colony. We remained in this city some days. 13 And on the Sabbath day we went outside the gate to the riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14 One who heard us was a woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple goods, who was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was said by Paul. 15 And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
Acts 16:11-15 (ESV)
THE COLOR OF ROYALTY
It is said that purple is the color of royalty. In fact, ancient law made it so. Ancient Roman and Elizabethan law forbade the common population from wearing the color, limiting it legally only to the ruling class. Violators would face the death penalty.
The Byzantine Empire featured rulers who donned purple attire, signed royal decrees and documents in purple ink, and whose offspring were referred to as being “born in the purple.” In ancient Japanese culture, purple was a sign of wealth and authority.
Part of the appeal of the color was its scarcity and difficulty to produce. Its origins are from the ancient city of Tyre in Phoenicia (modern-day Lebanon). It required gathering tens of thousands of murex sea snails and extracting their tiny mucus glands and then simmering or fermenting them in salt vats for days. The complex, intensive process and multitude of snails required to yield a single gram of purple dye is said to make it “more valuable than gold.”
When Paul is sharing the gospel on a riverbank in Macedonia, one among his audience is Lydia, who is denoted as a “seller of purple goods.” This is no small distinction. Lydia would have been a successful and wealthy businesswoman whose primary clientele would have been limited to the elite social, wealthy class.
Finding success like that in ancient times would have required a lot more than LinkedIn posts and good networking skills. Historians believe Lydia was likely a member of the dyer’s guild that existed in Thyatira and suggest that she moved to Philippi to ply her trade. Given the customer base she had, it is reasonable to presume she lived in spacious accommodations while there.
Once she heard Paul sharing the gospel, she converted to Christianity and was baptized along with her household. Then, she insisted on being hospitable, urging Paul and his group to stay with her.
Luke records, “she prevailed upon us,” when she was insisting they come back to her house. This insinuates a persistent urging, an unrelenting plea from this new believer. Given the persuasive techniques of a successful saleswoman, it is no surprise she was able to convince them to join her. The fact that she was a successful person yielded a house spacious enough to accommodate the entire group and take excellent care of the weary travelers.
The lesson here is that Lydia was working towards something, but she didn’t even know what it was. Her work ethic and subsequent success were aimed at natural desires – financially and otherwise. However, all of that was preparing her for this moment, where she would travel to ply her trade to a foreign land just to encounter a group of believers who would bring Jesus to her doorstep.
Lydia is the first documented European believer in Jesus, and her house, built on the wealth and success of her business, became the first European church in history. God weaved a purpose into her story beyond what she could see, but once she heard the call, she did not relent and pursued him.
God can sow many wondrous things into our lives, using even the mundane to paint a marvelous masterpiece, if only we answer when he calls without relenting and pursue him above all else.
Lee Wilson and his wife, Deanna, have been NorthStar Church members since 2010. They are parents to Everett, Henry and Roselyn. Lee is passionate about sports (Go Braves, Go Dawgs) and has the pleasure to serve on the worship team as a bassist.