Showing Hospitality

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” (Heb. 13:2).

What I have to say about this is primarily an observation. That is that Christian people do not give much hospitality. When they do, it is to friends who then return the hospitality. But this text says to give hospitality to strangers. That is not entertaining your friends or giving dinners back and forth.

The text gives us a motivation: some have entertained angels unawares. I remember talking to people about this, not recently, but when we lived on the East Coast. They were not about to invite strangers to their homes! They were not concerned that they might be missing angels. They were concerned that the people they entertained might be crooks or thieves who would take advantage of them. They do not expect to entertain angels; they only expect to be taken advantage of. As a result, hospitality goes by the board.

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.” This is not good advice; it is a command. When we neglect it, we are disobeying God.

Even if we do not get an angel, entertaining strangers is a great witness to those strangers. This is not the kind of hospitality that says they owe us a dinner now; it is one-way giving. Because of this, the people we show hospitality to are profiting, not just from the dinner, but from the love of the host and hostess. This love that you have when you open your house to a stranger is the kind that the Lord Jesus speaks of; it is the kind of love we are to have as Christians. It is selfless. It is not watching out for yourself; it is watching out for the good of the other person. “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others” (Phil. 2:3-4).

This sort of hospitality seems to be happening less and less in the Christian world. This is an encouragement to reverse the neglect. There are certainly people who need the food, but there are also people who need the love that you can give to them.

If you are not prepared for this, use your spare time to get prepared. Spend time in the Word seeing what the Scripture says about it. Get trained to give hospitality to friends and strangers alike. That is the nature of the Christian home—characterized by hospitality.

How do you train yourself? Start by inviting a bachelor or two—someone who is easy to entertain. That will get you more prepared to invite others. When Bessie and I were a young married couple, Bessie told me that if I wanted to invite a bachelor home for dinner, I should go ahead and do it anytime I wanted. She didn’t have to have any advance notice. But if I was going to invite a couple or a woman, she wanted a week’s notice, because she was concerned about her housekeeping. She knew that bachelors wouldn’t pay any attention to it.

You need to either keep your house spic and span all the time, or be willing to invite people over when it’s not spic and span. Don’t be concerned about it. Our foolish pride gets in the way of hospitality. We are afraid of criticism of our house, our home, instead of loving people. If you want to practice, practice by inviting bachelors, or tramps, or people who are homeless. They will be very grateful and not critical. Don’t do nothing. Work yourself into giving hospitality to people who need it.

This post coordinates with today's reading in the Same Page Summer Bible Reading Challenge. If you are not in a daily reading plan, please join us at TotheWord.com. We would love to have you reading with us.