Spiritual Practice:

Hospitality

Hospitality in the New Testament

By hospitality, we mean “the welcoming and fellowshipping with believers and non-believers out of truth and love for Jesus Christ so that they may see Christ more clearly and/or so they will join us as exiles themselves [become believers]” (John Ravan). Practically, hospitality consists of opening up our homes to strangers. There are clear commands for Christians to engage in hospitality in the New Testament:

"Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality."
Romans 12:9-13
"Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares."
Hebrews 13:1-2
Hospitality is also a mark of a faithful elder:

"Therefore an overseer [elder] must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money."
1 Timothy 3:2-3
The Bible tells us that the end times are present, and hospitality is part of living for Christ as we await his return:

"The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. Show hospitality to one another without grumbling."
1 Peter 4:7-9
We need to see the importance of hospitality to Christianity in these verses. Romans 12 and Hebrews 13 tell us hospitality is part of the basics of Christian life. 1 Timothy 3 tells us hospitality is a mark of biblical church leadership, and 1 Peter 4 tells us hospitality is a necessary activity for living in the end times of the world. Because we are recipients of God’s hospitality through the gospel, we should be conduits of God’s hospitality to others. He has welcomed us into his heart home. Therefore, we should welcome others into our hearts and homes as well.


Barriers to Hospitality

Typical barriers to engaging in hospitality include avoidance of befriending people who are different from us, busyness, and worries about the presentation of our home. We can confuse the culture’s idea of “entertaining” with biblical hospitality. They are not the same. One author summarizes the differences for us:

Entertaining

  • I want to look good
  • Emphasis on food or outer appearance
  • Preoccupied or apologetic about messes
  • Goal: To impress

Hospitality

  • I want Jesus to look good
  • Emphasis on the hearts of those in your home
  • Humbled by the mess and can still serve
  • Goal: To serve


Front Porch Christianity

In terms of implementation, a helpful concept is to imagine our job as those who build what Tim Keller calls “front porches” in our culture. In generations past, a central hub of activity within neighborhoods was the front porch. They were a halfway point between the street and the house. People congregated and engaged with one another on front porches and could get a taste of the home behind the porch. In our culture today, the centrality of the front porch has been lost both literally and in spirit. There are not a lot of “front porches” where people can interact with Christians as a way to see into the home (the church) before stepping all the way in. Through hospitality, we need to build front porches as bridges for moving from the “street” to the “home.”

Tim Keller understands this as the activity of the early church as they engaged in hospitality:

“The original church porch (as we can see from the New Testament) was simply a highly hospitable Christian home, a place to which non-believing neighbors and colleagues are constantly invited and where Christian faith is unselfconsciously modeled and discussed.”

Application:

Hospitality involves creating an environment where nonbelievers can witness Christianity being modeled and discussed. Examples include having others over for dinner, organizing social nights, hosting international students who are far away from their families and cultures, etc. Engaging in the practice of hospitality is something we should be partnering together in as brothers and sisters at Generations.

Let us know creative ways you have engaged in hospitality and/or ideas you have that may benefit the whole church. We love hearing and sharing testimonies of our spiritual practices at work!
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