Open homes and open hearts

Read 1 Peter 4:9

Be hospitable to each other without secretly wishing you hadn’t got to be! (JBP)

When we think of hospitality we tend to envisage hosting dinner parties or other social gatherings of our friends. Nothing at all wrong with this,but it is not the type of ‘hospitality’ talked about in the Bible. There it is all about a love of strangers,a welcoming of the unknown or unexpected traveller. In those days,a wandering individual would have to rely on the hospitality of others rather than book a motel for the night.

So before we go patting ourselves on the back for how hospitable we are,consider whether we are hospitable in this sense. We dare not confuse sociability amongst our friends with the welcoming of strangers. In a similar vein,a church dare not call itself a friendly and welcoming church if it is simply friendly and welcoming to its members whilst leaving visitors or strangers to their own devices.

Some will have a greater capacity for hospitality than others. If we don’t have a home to call our own,obviously we are limited. But if God has given us the wonderful provision of a home and its attendant comforts,then we are called on to share it with those who might be blessed by it. Not just those we already know,but those we are yet to know.

Blessings
David Reay