Lydia; so called from the country of that name, she being born at Thyatira, a city therein, and now lived with her family at Philippi. Worshipped God; being a proselyte, and one of them who had left the heathenish idolatry, and owned the one only and true God; but as yet unacquainted with the gospel of his Son our Saviour. Heart, in Scripture sense, signifies both the understanding and the will: thus, With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, Romans 10:10. Her understanding was enlightened, her heart changed; she now loved what she before hated, and hated what before she loved. The Lord opened; this was the Lord's work; according unto what our Saviour himself had said, 1 Thessalonians 6:44, No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him. And yet we may in a sense open our hearts, by using such means as God hath promised to succeed for that purpose, Revelation 3:20; and especially when, in a sense of our inability and necessity, we implore the free grace of God, and engage him to work in us according unto all his good pleasure. Otherwise creating a clean heart within us, as it is called, Psalms 51:10, is beyond the power of nature. She attended: hearing is an instructive sense, and faith cometh by it, Romans 10:17, but it must then be accompanied with attention.
Related Commentaries of Acts 16:14
Acts 16:14
14 And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.