21 Days of Prayer: Day 14

Community - Hospitality

"Do not neglect to show hospitality…”

HEBREWS 13:1-17.

The Body of Christ… the community of believers… Christian community is the tool through which God achieves the salvation of all peoples. Recently in our twenty-one days of prayer, we have been studying how the gospel creates a people – a community – of believers rooted in Jesus Christ to worship God through devoting themselves to the word of God and using their spiritual gifts to serve one another. Especially yesterday, we saw that Christians are to serve other Christians so that they will be built up to be godlier… We are to serve other believers so that they will look more like Christ, but what does the Bible say about strangers?

Our text today comes near the end of the book of Hebrews – a book written primarily to Jewish Christians who were being tempted to abandon Christianity and return to the Temple worship of Judaism. After warning the people of the seriousness of falling away from Christ, the author of Hebrews tells the Christians what truly following Jesus looks like…

The author gives several commands to the Jewish Christians, and amongst those commands he says: “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” The original Greek word that we translate “hospitality” literally means the love for strangers. The author says that the Jewish Christians (and us today) are to have a specific love for the people we do not know. We are to love strangers because we ultimately do not know who it is we are serving – it could even be the angels of God… There is at least one incidence of this in the Bible.

In the Old Testament book of Genesis, Abraham – a man whom God had made His covenant with – entertained three angels (who are described as men but later turn out to be angels; see Gen. 18:1-8 & 19:1). Abraham washed the feet of the angels, brought them food and drink, and offered them a place to rest. Abraham loved these three angels through providing for their most basic needs. What is significant about this passage is that “the LORD appeared to [Abraham] by… three men [who] were standing in front of him.” God revealed himself through strangers. These three angels revealed God and brought with them the blessings of God’s covenant with Abraham. In a similar way, strangers that we love could possibly be angels whom God uses to reveal Himself and bring the promises of the gospel to us… So, it is important to note how Abraham loved the angels.

Abraham cared for the most basic needs of his guests, and he gives us a model for how we are to love strangers. Abraham had to sacrifice his time, energy, and material goods to serve these strangers. This sounds so outlandish to us today in the American church. “Why should I give up the income I have worked so hard for? Why should I let someone into my home which I worked so hard to purchase (or build)? Why should I take time out of my busy schedule to serve this person whom I have never met?” … The answer to these questions lies a little bit further in our text.

The author of Hebrews writes, “Jesus suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.” The Son of God left the perfect love of heaven to welcome strangers into His home. God in the flesh died so that strangers would experience His perfect hospitality. Our sin had made us strangers and rebels to God, but because of Christ’s sacrifice, we experience the hospitality of God and are made members of the family (see Rom. 8:14-17).

Do you see the preciousness of hospitality? Do you see the absolute necessity of hospitality? Where would you be, Christian, if others had not welcomed you into their household and told you about Christ? More than that, where would you be if the Son of God had not bled to welcome you into His household?... Because of what Christ has done, our response as His followers is only natural: “Therefore let us go to [Jesus] outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.” Because Christ shed His blood to show us hospitality, we too should lay our lives down in sacrificial acts of love to those whom we do not know.

It may be needless to say, but a great percentage of the American church does not show this kind of sacrificial hospitality to strangers. Why is this? Much of the time, we Christians do not realize how far our sin has removed us from God. Sin removes us from the infinitely holy God as far as the east is from the west (an infinite distance). Because we do not realize the immense distance our sin causes between God and us, we often do not truly appreciate what God did to cross that distance and make us His own. We think it too inconvenient to serve others because we do not see what has been done for us… Taking on human form was not convenient, putting up with stubborn people whom He created good was not convenient, being falsely accused was not convenient, being abandoned by His friends was not convenient, being beaten and whipped, bearing the wrath of God on the Cross for sinners was not convenient… but Christ did it anyway… Therefore, we sacrificially serve those whom we do not know…

Another reason that we do not show hospitality in the American church is that we do not recognize what hospitality does. Hospitality is ministering to someone’s physical needs in order to serve their greatest spiritual need. Whenever we give a stranger a meal, it opens the door for us to tell them about the Bread of Life. Whenever we offer a stranger cool water, it presents us with the opportunity to tell them about the Living Water. Whenever we welcome someone into our household, it gives them an opportunity to experience what God’s house looks like. In other words, Christian hospitality is the means through which strangers are welcomed into the household of God – the Body of Christ. Through hospitality, those who were once far off in sin are brought near in Christian community. Hospitality is the means through which we welcome people to the gospel!... Indeed, hospitality is the means by which God in the flesh brought us into His home.

Christ models for us true hospitality in the sacrifice of His life. And right now, if you belong to Him, He empowers you to do love strangers… How far will we go to invite strangers home?

Personal Questions:

What does the original Greek word which we translate “hospitality” mean in this context?
What did Christ do to show you hospitality? Where did Christ’s hospitality bring you from and what did it bring you into?
Do you realize the beauty and necessity of Christian hospitality? Or do you not recognize the effects of our sin and the purpose of hospitality?
Do you live out sacrificial hospitality as Christ did? Or do you live in what is convenient for you?

Prayer Points:

Pray that you and our church would recognize the immense gap that exists between God and us because our sin.
Pray that you and our church would increasingly treasure the depths to which Christ went to show us hospitality.
Pray that you and our church would reject a lifestyle of convenience as the basis for determining our love to strangers.
Pray that you and our church would look to Christ as our model and strength for welcoming others into Christian community – the household of God.