The Neglected Grace of Hospitality
“You are told to love your neighbour as yourself. How do you love yourself? When I look into my own mind, I find that I do not love myself by thinking myself a dear old chap or having affectionate feelings. I do not think that I love myself because I am particularly good, but just because I am myself and quite apart from my character. I might detest something which I have done. Nevertheless, I do not cease to love myself. In other words, that definite distinction that Christians make between hating sin and loving the sinner is one that you have been making in your own case since you were born. You dislike what you have done, but you don't cease to love yourself. You may even think that you ought to be hanged. You may even think that you ought to go to the Police and own up and be hanged. Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person's ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.” – C.S. Lewis
The New Testament word for hospitality means “the generous and gracious treatment of guests.”
In an individualistic society where front porches are rare and privacy fences are common, Christian hospitality stands out as a gift both to those showing hospitality and to those being shown hospitality. Sometimes we keep our lives closed off as much as our backyards, needlessly neglecting new people around us in this life.
In the Old Testament we see God’s command of radical hospitality as a defining characteristic of God’s people that is completely counter cultural.
Leviticus 19:33-35 “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.”
God’s reasoning for commanding His people to love strangers as themselves is because the Israelites were once strangers in the land of Egypt.
In Exodus 23:9 God commands his people, “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”
In Deuteronomy 10:19 God commands his people, “Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”
The Israelites were to love the people around them because they used to be just like them. If they were unloving of sojourners and strangers after they had been delivered from the Egyptians, then they would be no different than the Egyptians themselves. But the Israelites are different, radically different, because of God’s delivering work and authoritative Word.
In the New Testament we see that hospitality, love of neighbor, is imperative of a heart that has been delivered from slavery to sin and welcomed with loving arms into the house of God by faith in the finished work of Christ. A person who claims Christ and neglects to love his neighbors is like the man who has been forgiven his debt and then goes and demands from those indebted to him.
Romans 15:7 puts it this way: “Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”
If as Christians we treat our neighbors as the world treats their neighbors then we are no different than the world and we are completely neglecting the way that God has treated us. But, like the Israelites, we are different, radically different than the world, not because of our actions, but because of God’s delivering work through Christ, His authoritative Word. Christian hospitality is not done out of guilt in order to “be better.” We show hospitality out of joy and gratitude for what God has done in us.
There are neighbors and strangers all around us. New people at church we have spoken to a hundred times but never considered inviting over to our house. Neighbors we have lived next to for years and they have never seen the inside of our houses, sat at our tables, and enjoyed our food.
May God change our hearts to be more and more aware and loving of the strangers in our lives who He has placed around us, people He has given us to love.
Persevere, Joey Turner Pastor of Student Ministry