Philippi

Devotional Notes

During his second missionary journey, Paul had a vision at night of a man from Macedonia calling for help. Following the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he sailed from Troas and arrived in Philippi for the first time. Philippi, founded in the 4th century BCE, was an ancient city in eastern Macedonia, located in northeastern Greece on the northern coast of the Aegean Sea, about 10 km southeast of Neapolis and 30 km southwest of Amphipolis. It was named by Philip II, the father of Alexander the Great. At that time, Philippi was a Roman colony and was not under the jurisdiction of the province of Macedonia. Its administrative system mimicked that of Rome, and its citizens enjoyed self-governance under Roman law and were exempt from taxes. Many retired Roman soldiers settled there.

A synagogue required at least ten men to be established. Since there were few Jews in Philippi, there was no synagogue. Because the government did not permit Jews to gather within the city, the pious women would meet outside the city by a river, the Gaugites or Crenides, a distance of about a Sabbath day’s journey (2,000 cubits) from the city gates. Among them was a woman named Lydia, a businesswoman from the city of Thyatira who sold purple cloth. Lydia and her household were baptized (Acts 16:15a), making her the first person Paul converted in all of Europe. Paul later accepted her invitation to stay in her home (Acts 16:13-15). The gospel successfully took root and grew well in Philippi, confirming the Holy Spirit’s guidance to Paul (Philippians 1:3).