Scripture Daily

Context No. 1505 of 4322 · Acts

Context · Reflection

Acts 16:13-18: in context

13On the Sabbath day we went outside of the city by a riverside, where we supposed there was a place of prayer, and we sat down and spoke to the women who had come together. 14A certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, one who worshiped God, heard us. The Lord opened her heart to listen to the things which were spoken by Paul. 15When she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house and stay.” So she persuaded us. 16As we were going to prayer, a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling. 17Following Paul and us, she cried out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us a way of salvation!” 18She was doing this for many days. But Paul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!” It came out that very hour.

In Philippi, Paul and his companions go outside the city on the Sabbath to a place of prayer by the river, and speak to the women gathered there. One of them is Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth, a worshiper of God; and as she listens, the text says, the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul was saying. She and her household are baptized, and she presses the missionaries to stay at her home. Soon after, Paul encounters a slave girl with a spirit of divination who follows them crying out, and he commands the spirit to leave her, and it does.

The quiet, important phrase is the one about Lydia: the Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what Paul said. Paul preached; Lydia listened; but what actually opened her heart to receive the message was the Lord. There were, presumably, others by the river who heard the same words and were not moved; the difference in Lydia was that the Lord opened her heart. This says something important about how anyone comes to faith. The words must be spoken, and Paul spoke them; but the words alone do not open a heart. That is God's work, done secretly, within, opening the heart to receive what the ears hear. Conversion is finally God's doing, not the persuasiveness of the preacher nor even the willingness of the hearer alone, but the Lord opening a heart. There is comfort in that for anyone who longs for someone else to come to faith and cannot make it happen. We can speak, we can pray, we can live faithfully before them; but we cannot open a heart. Only the Lord can do that, as he did for Lydia. And there is humility in it for our own faith: if we believe, it is because the Lord opened our hearts to receive the word we heard, and even our faith is finally his gift and not our own achievement. We speak; God opens; and the opening of a heart is his work, to be prayed for and credited to him.

When I long for someone to come to faith, do I rest in the truth that only the Lord can open a heart, praying for that rather than trusting my own persuasion, and do I credit my own faith to the God who opened my heart to receive his word?

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