Acts 16:15

And when she was baptized, and her household, 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.

And when she was baptized, and her household - probably without much delay. The mention of baptism here (for the first time in connection with the labours of Paul, though it was doubtless performed on all his former converts) indicates a special importance in this first European baptism. Here also is the first mention of a Christian household. Whether it included children-also in that case baptized-is not explicitly stated; but the presumption, as in other cases of households baptized, certainly is that it did. Yet the question of Infant Baptism must be determined on other grounds; and such incidental allusions form only part of the historical materials for ascertaining the practice of the Church.

She besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord - that is, if ye deem me a genuine believer in the Lord Jesus (as her baptism implied that they did). There is a beautiful modesty in this plea, but there was a constraining force in it:

Come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us, [ parebiasato (G3849)]. The word (as in Luke 14:29) implies that she would take no denial.

Remarks:

(1) What regions should be selected at any given time for missionary operations, and by whom they should be undertaken, is a question involving such mysterious elements, that the most honest solution of it may sometimes prove to be wrong. But even then, "unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness;" and "the meek will He judge in judgment, the meek will He teach His way" (Psalms 112:4; Psalms 25:9). Paul and Silas doubtless exercised their best judgment, and probably cherished high hopes of success, after their fruitful progress "throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia," in moving westward toward Proconsular "Asia;" and yet they "were forbidden of the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia." No reason appears to have been assigned, nor any other field for their labours as yet pointed out. So, again thrown on their own judgment, they deem it advisable to proceed northward to Bithynia; but "the Spirit (again interposing) suffered them not." What now is to be done? The East seems decisively shut out from them: can it be that they are now to cross the sea and penetrate into Europe? Perhaps that word in his original call - "far hence unto the Gentiles" (Acts 22:21) - was borne in emphatically upon the great apostle; and the East being now tolerably dotted with the Gospel, the question perhaps arose, What if the great Western seats of civilization, literature, art, and power, should now be our destination? Certainly, if this was his actual thought, the course which the missionary party now took was just what they would naturally adopt; for by "going through Mysia," without stopping to labour in it, and "coming down to Troas," they would put themselves in readiness to take shipping in whatever direction they might there be divinely instructed to proceed. And is there not here encouragement for missionary churches and missionary servants of the Lord Jesus, as to the choice of their fields of foreign labour? Divine light and guidance are not to supersede the exercise of our own prayerful judgment, but may be expected just as we are faithful in the use of it, and simple in all the steps we take for the furtherance of our Master's cause.

(2) If we could but pierce deep enough into the spiritual necessities of this fallen world, what Macedonian cries for help might we not hear from all quarters night and day-enough to rouse all the churches of Christendom, and call forth missionaries in clouds to say, Here am I, send me! Never, certainly, does the Church rightly engage in the missionary enterprise, nor any of its agents go forth aright, except in response to this Macedonian cry-in which the human heart sets its unconscious seal to the last command of the Risen Saviour, to make disciples of all nations.

(3) How noiseless was the first triumph of the Gospel in Europe, as brought to it by the great apostle! Though there was no synagogue of the Jews at Philippi, he would conclude there must be Jews there, who would meet for worship somewhere on the Sabbath day; and finding on inquiry that there was a spot by a river-side where some Jewish women were wont to meet for prayer on that day, he would "assuredly gather" that there he would be able to feel his way to the work which the Lord had for him to do. Accordingly, on the arrival of the hallowed day, he is found, with his missionary companions, in the midst of this humble gathering of devout females. What passed between them at their first meeting-whether, as being Jews themselves, they were requested, or volunteered, to conduct the devotions usual in such circumstances-we know not. All we know is, that instead of standing up formally before them and discoursing to them, as in a synagogue, they simply "sat down" - probably on the slope of the river's bank - "and spake (or talked) unto the women which resorted there." Such were the circumstances-the least formal that can well be conceived-in which the first soul was won to Christ on European soil by the instrumentality of Paul.

And wherever an open door can be gotten-whether on the hill-side or in the city, where pours the busy crowd; in temple, synagogue, cathedral, meeting-house, or on the slope of a river's bank; to thousands, hundreds, tens (as here), or to one (as when Philip was sent to the Ethiopian eunuch) - there are the time and the circumstances for preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ; and miserable is the system of thought which would restrict this to certain consecrated times and places, to the loss of opportunities never to be recalled of reaching the souls of men! "Preach the word in season," says Paul to Timothy (2 Timothy 4:2), but "out of season" too-as his blessed Master had done before him. (See the notes at Matthew 4:12, Remark 3, at the close of that section, p. 23).

(4) By what trivial circumstances are one's whole life, character, and destiny, even for eternity, affected and determined! Had Lydia's business as a purple-seller not brought her in contact with Jewesses-to whom she would expose her wares, and the more zealous of whom would draw her into religious conversation-she had never, perhaps, embraced the Jewish Faith; and had she not been led, in prosecution of her evidently thriving business, to set up house at Philippi, and been among the Jewish worshippers on this Sabbath day by the river-side, she had not had her "heart opened to attend to the things which were spoken by Paul." Thus were the very conditions of her conversion furnished by circumstances in her history quite unconnected with religion. So was it with the Centurion at Capernaum (see the notes at Luke 7:1; Remark 1, at the close of that section, p. 248); and so in numberless other cases from age to age. And if so much for all eternity depends on so little in time-and that little often so trivial, and but very partially under our own control-what need in every step to commit our way to Him "of Whom, and through Whom, and to Whom are all things!"

(5) To "give heed" to the preaching of the Gospel seems a very simple thing; and none who enter our modern places of worship can doubt that multitudes do listen with thoughtful and reverent attention to the discourses which are delivered there, without any divine operation opening their hearts to do so. Thus probably listened all the women to whom Paul spake by the river-side. But since Lydia's "attention" is expressly ascribed to an operation of the Lord Himself, opening her heart to give heed to the things which Paul spake, it must have been something very different from the interest with which the other women heard what the apostle had to say, and with which the generality even of attentive hearers still listen to their preachers. Of this the results are the best proof. That any of the other women were drawn to Christ, we have no evidence; but on the mind of Lydia was worked an entire revolution. She rested not until she was baptized, and her household; she insisted on the missionaries-if they judged her a genuine disciple of the Lord Jesus-taking up their abode in her house; the voice of rejoicing and salvation was heard in that house forthwith (Psalms 118:15), and it was sanctified by the word of God and prayer; on the liberation of Paul and Silas from prison, their bent their steps to this Christian house as their natural home so long as they remained at Philippi; and on their departure, Timothy and Luke appear to have made her house their headquarters, staying to form what proved the thriving Philippian church. Such were the blessed fruits of the opening of one woman's heart to "give heed to" the words of eternal life, spoken to others as well as her by a river-side. And so it still is, that one is taken and another left: Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in thy sight. Come from the four winds, O Breath, and breathe upon the slain, that they may live!

(6) 'Baptism (says Lechler) occurs twice in this chapter, and both times a whole family is baptized (Acts 16:15; Acts 16:33). For the first time since Luke records the missionary acts of Paul does he mention the baptism of the converted; and it is significant that in both instances here all belonging to the parties concerned are baptized along with them. Both passages (Acts 16:15; Acts 16:33) have been quoted in favour of infant baptism, as an apostolic custom, on the supposition that the family certainly numbered little children, (as Bengel asks, Quis, credat, in tot familiis nullum fuisse infantem?-`Who can believe that in so many families there was not one infant?') But this cannot be so surely maintained as that an argument can be founded on it. The chief importance of the transaction rests not on whether there were children in the family, and how young they may have been, but on the indisputable fact, that in both cases the whole house-all belonging to the families-were baptized along with the head of the house. This at once suggests the idea of a Christian family-a Christian household. Personal decision is a great matter, but the mere salvation of isolated individuals is not Biblical teaching. The unity of the family in Christ, the consecration of the household by grace-all belonging to one Lord-is here represented to us as something well-pleasing to God. And it is a remarkable fact, that this side of salvation in the apostolic history is first prominently brought before us on European ground.' This extract, though it may not convey the whole truth on this important subject, expresses what we conceive to be a great principle-the domestic character which these transactions stamp upon the earliest Christianity.

A Soothsaying Spirit, Striving to Mar their Work, is Expelled by Paul and Silas, in consequence of which They are Seized, Scourged, Imprisoned, and Manacled (16:16-24)