Reflections on a Pauline Pilgrimage to Turkey [8]
“And to the angel of the church of Thyatira write: ‘The words of the Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire, and whose feet are like burnished bronze. I know your works, your love and faith and service and patient endurance, and that your latter works exceed the first. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and beguiling my servants to practice immorality and to eat food offered to idols…” [Revelation 2:18-29]
Our visit to Thyatira leads delightfully to a reflection in three parts.
1. Lessons from the Book of Revelation
[1] Thyatira ruins. [2] Lydia and the Women Hear the Good News from Paul. [3] Paul and Silas in prison.
In the Book of Revelation, the message to the Church in Thyatira is the longest of the seven. She is praised for her growing faith and service, but criticized for a very serious problem that needs to be corrected if the Christians there are to have eternal and immortal life. That is, her tolerance of the false teaching of Jezebel, an immoral woman who calls herself a prophetess [Rev. 2:18-29]. She has been beguiling people to practice immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. The Lord will cast her “to a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her” will be thrown into great tribulation, unless they repent. Thyatira, formed by two words that mean “continual sacrifice”, does not live a life true to its name. The Lord searches minds and hearts with piercing eyes and sees into the core of each soul. Our sins are never hidden from his all-seeing eyes. To each will be given his or her due.
We ought to notice at once that, like our own Church today, the problems with Thyatira did not come from outside the faith community. As Pope Benedict has repeatedly said, the evil comes from within! The teachings of Christ have been seriously compromised in the lives of his servants, in Thyatira as in the Church today. Notice that the false prophetess was not out to destroy the church. Yet, the spiritual corruption she caused in the faith community was spiritually fatal to many, in the way they compromised principles in their conduct. So beware, the Lord warns, of appearance of righteousness – looking faithful and productive, doing good works and offering good services – but are fundamentally in deep trouble with Jesus Christ. Today, the Scripture on Thyatira urges us to once again be conscious that what the Lord wants to see is an educated “ephphatha” Christian congregation, hearing right and seeing clearly, eager for the truth of God, not self-seeking in status and privileges, but steadfastly following Christ’s spiritual ways. Vigilance against compromising our convictions as Christians holds a special key. Pleasures of the world must be seen correctly as lasting only for a season. If we overcome the lust for the worldly, and seek to serve the Lord out of a pure, holy and righteous heart, the Lord promises to give us “the morning star”. And the Lord always turns to each one of us and urges: “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”
2. Lessons from St Lydia
Following the lead of the Holy Spirit, St Paul reached Troas on his second missionary journey. There, he had a vision of a man in Macedonia beseeching him to “Come over to Macedonia and help us” and he went [Acts 16:6-12]. It was Sabbath when he found himself in Philippi [in modern day Greece], the leading city of Macedonia. There were very few Jews in Philippi during the time of Paul’s visit. Like Lystra, this Roman colony was a military town which could not attract Jews until they assumed a commercial importance. For that reason, there was no synagogue in Philippi. So Paul and companions went to the riverside where a place of prayer might be found. And Luke, who travelled with Paul, left us this account:
- 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. 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 give heed to what was said by Paul. And when she was baptised, with her household, she besought 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 16:13-15]
St Luke may have only given us a few verses in Acts regarding Lydia, but what insight they give us! Later, Paul and Silas were beaten up and thrown into the local prison upon a trumped up charge by the owner of a soothsayer. Upon their release, Paul went to visit Lydia again. There is so much to learn from this ancient woman of the Bible.
- The conversion Lydia experienced must have gone very deep. St Paul could perceive her deep faith, else he would not have accepted her invitation to stay, his usual practice being a steadfast refusal to live off his new converts to the faith, preferring to earn his own keep through personal labour. Paul was right, for after his release from prison, Lydia did not shun his association but welcomed him and his companions [Acts 16:40].
- Lydia, although originally from Thyatira, was then resident in Philippi. As far as we know, she was Paul’s first European convert. As it was in the early church, so it is today, God often works in and through women, and saw to it that a woman was the first to be converted in the West.
- Involved as she was in the trade of purple-textile, Lydia was a well-to-do businesswoman. That probably means she was connected to the upper income segment of the local population. Purple is rare in nature and ancient rulers wore purple as a royal symbol. The practice was later adopted by the Romans, so that to wear purple was to show off one’s great wealth.
- Identifying Lydia as “a worshiper of God”, Luke discloses to us that she was one of those who were not Jewish but recognised and followed the true God. Cornelius, a Roman soldier (Acts 10:1-2), and Titius (Acts 18:5-7) are other examples.
- Lydia, a worshipper of God but not a Christian before meeting Paul, reminds Christians of every age that there are God-fearing people all around us who need to know the salvation that only Christ can bring. They are our colleagues in the work place and our neighbours. They have good hearts and are open to God. Our duty is to communicate the Gospel to them and help them respond to Christ.
- Lydia did not just submit herself to the Gospel and to God’s salvation through Jesus Christ, she brought her entire household into the new faith in Jesus the Son of God. Getting the whole household baptized is not isolated to Lydia’s story of course. The Acts of the Apostles records numerous such cases and thus supports, amongst other things, the validity of infant baptism. But the point we must make is that God’s salvation is life-changing and if that is true, then your family members should be impacted by Jesus through you.
- As she came to believe in Jesus the Messiah, it is not difficult to imagine the role Lydia played in the early days of Christianity. There she was, fervent in her faith, rich and well-connected socially. It is easy to imagine her influencing and bringing her own family and friends into the new family of faith and starting a house-church typical of the time.
- Deserving a special mention is the fact that Lydia, a woman, already had an honest calling worthy of praise – as a businesswoman in the purple fabrics trade. And yet – and here is the key – even though she had a calling to mind, she did not neglect her need to nourish her soul, and she diligently found time for that as well. Lydia speaks to us from across the centuries to not render excuses from religious duties. She shows us that while we are blessed with a trade to mind, we have also a God to serve, and souls to look after. This is where we return, once again, as we must always do, to the point that religion does not call us from our business in the world, but gives us a proper sense of direction in it. Religion does not require us to split the human person into a businessman or businesswoman from Mondays to Saturdays and a religious man or religious woman on Sundays. Rather, a Christian is called to be Christian in everything that we think, say and do.
3. Lessons from St Paul
Obedient to the Spirit, Paul not only opened Lydia’s heart, but his obedience opened the way for ministry in that region as well. Again, we may draw out a few points for reflection.
- Paul was obedient to the Spirit of God. Providence led him to Macedonia where he had the opportunity to open Lydia’s heart to Christ. Paul, like we all, had his own personality and giftedness. The big difference is, he placed them before Christ and obeyed the One who called him in whatever he did.
- Paul knew that on the Sabbath, he should be gathered with a solemn assembly of the worshippers of God and, in the absence of a synagogue, he would do so at the riverside. Whenever we do not have a designated place of worship, we can be thankful for more private places, and resort to them. We must not forsake the assembling together, as opportunities present themselves, always remembering the community dimension of our faith.
- It is easy for us to see that in obedience to the Spirit, Paul’s work of evangelisation helped spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ, moving it forward in the Gentile world on account of his preaching and speaking. There is no doubt that the truth of the gospel should be declared through preaching and speaking. And yet, if that’s all we say it is, it would be to seriously discount a crucial element in Christian evangelisation, which is witnessing. What St Paul has shown us is that in preaching the truth of Jesus’ word and work into the lives of those we connect with, and in announcing the life-saving news of salvation through the cross of Jesus Christ to the masses, this work of God cannot be carried out with any degree of efficacy without leading a servant’s humble and faithful life of genuine sacrifice. The key lies in the whole discipline – preaching and living, not in words alone.
- Paul’s witness to Lydia is interesting not least because in Jewish circles it was not proper to render religious education to women. God’s word and work were understood as having come through Scripture to men, and women would simply follow. Departing from the norm, Paul was acting very much like Jesus, spending time with women and treating them as valuable people who needed to understand and trust in Jesus’ Kingdom-message and then help in spreading the Kingdom-way.
- Not only did Paul regard women in a God-honouring way, he accepted hospitality from this gentile woman.
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, October, 2011. All rights reserved.
You are most welcome to respond to this post. Email your comments to us at jeffangiegoh@gmail.com. You can also be dialogue partners in this Ephphatha Coffee-Corner Ministry by sending us questions for discussion.