Hospitality⤒🔗

Has this ever happened to you? You are far away from home and the Lord’s Day arrives, so you make plans to worship. You seek out an affiliated church, or failing that, a church that is doctrinally close to your own. You arrive on time, take part in worship, are edified, and then it is time to leave. As you exit the building, you expect that some of the regulars will introduce themselves to you. Perhaps someone will even invite you over for a coffee and a time of fellowship.

The Cold Shoulder←⤒🔗

Only it does not happen. As you leave the building no one greets you. All around you there are people standing in little groups talking to one another; nevertheless, no one approaches. You wait a little while in order to give them a chance. After all, you are a stranger among them and it may take them a moment to notice you. Alas, nothing happens. No one comes up to you. No one talks to you. Some even stare at you from a distance – you can just feel it. So what do you do? You go back to your hotel room, disappointed and lonely. Sometimes you are even left wondering about just what kind of a church was that anyway. Has this ever happened to you?

It has happened to me, and I know that it has happened to others. Why, the ironic thing is that at times such a church may even spend a lot of time and energy on evangelism. Obviously, what they need is someone to remind them to start with the most basic thing of all, namely hospitality.

A Minor Matter?←⤒🔗

Of course, you may be of the opinion that this is a matter that belongs to the minor and insignificant things of life. If that is how you think, however, then I would urge you to have another look at your Bible. For what is striking there is that the matter of hospitality runs like a cord all through the Scriptures.

Take, for example, the Old Testament. How often are the people of Israel not commanded to deal compassionately with the strangers and aliens among them? It is even an issue that you can find back in the law of the Ten Commandments. Among those who should benefit from the Sabbath are also the “alien(s) within you gates” (Exodus 20:10).

When we turn to the New Testament, we see that this subject receives just as much press. The apostle Paul writing to Timothy about which widows should be put on the official list of widows gives certain qualifications and one of them is “showing hospitality” (1 Timothy 5:10). Likewise, when he writes about candidates for the office of elder he cites “hospitable” as being one of the requirements (1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8). By the same token, the apostle Peter, writing to God’s scattered people, tells them to “offer hospitality to one another without grumbling” (1 Peter 4:9). Then too, there is the apostle John who in speaking about “brothers, even though they are strangers to you,” says “we ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth” (3 John 5, 8). Finally, and this may be the most interesting reference of all, the author of the letter to the Hebrews states “do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it” (Hebrews 13:2).

Need more be said? Surely, the biblical givens are quite clear. Hospitality is not an optional thing. It has to be an integral part of the life of the people, the elders and the church of God.

A Hospitable God←⤒🔗

Yet, we may still be wondering why this is so. Why do the Scriptures make this into a theme and elevate it to a requirement? It would be my contention that our God wants a hospitable people because He himself is such a hospitable God. What do I mean by that? Well, consider his Word once again and what do you see? You see a God who does not wash his hands of mankind after the fall into sin. Rather He goes out of his way to seek man and to call him back to himself and to his service. You can see this especially in the sending of his very own Son Jesus Christ.

Why does the Father send Him? He does so in order to gather, defend and preserve a people for himself. Like the father in the Parable of the Lost Son, God the Father longs for the day when all of his children will come home (Luke 15:11-32). He wants nothing better than to show them his divine hospitality.

Showing Hospitality Today←⤒🔗

So much for the theology. Now what about the practice? Surely, if we want to be numbered among the obedient children of God, we will not neglect this duty of showing hospitality. If you are an elder in the church, realize that it is one of the requirements of your office. If you are a child of God, examine your own life to assess your personal level of hospitality. If you belong to a local congregation of Jesus Christ (as we all do) determine how well the body functions also in this regard.

Indeed, if the former is the case, you have your work cut out for you as you try to raise the temperature and change bad habits. If the latter is the case, you also have work to do in order to keep the flames of hospitality burning.

Should a stranger happen to visit your church, how would he or she be received? Better yet, should an angel visit, how well would he be received?