Picture this: You and every Christian in the world are invited over to God’s house to have a giant family reunion. There are millions of Christ followers gathered for this grand occasion to worship God and eat a meal in community. Tables are set up everywhere, with every kind of food you can imagine with yard games galore. As everyone grabs their seats to begin dining together, something immediately grabs your attention. Despite there being a seat for the millions upon millions of Christians gathered for this event, there are 3 times as many empty seats. You then realize that each empty seat represents someone who didn’t get an invitation to the banquet simply because they didn’t know Christ. You become greatly disturbed by this! How could everyone in the world not be a part of this family? So you leave the party and immediately start inviting everyone you know to come join.

This is the purest sense of hospitality. Nobody should miss out being a part of God’s family, both in heaven for eternity and on earth now. If God’s unconditional love can make room for everyone to be a part of his family, no matter who they are or what they’re done, then surely we ought to do the same.

In module 2, we learned how to open up to our true selves through confession. In Module 5, we learned how to be open to the guidance of a friend. In this module, we’re learning how to open ourselves up to serve others. Hospitality in its simplest form is loving people where they are and tending to their needs. But hospitality, and specifically Christian hospitality, goes much deeper than that. 

We are not only called to actively love those we know, but to live with open invitation to strangers, foreigners, and outsiders. Romans 12:13 says, “When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.”The Greek word for hospitality in this verse is philoxenia. It means, “to receive and show hospitality to a stranger, that is, someone who is not regarded as a member of the extended family or a close friend.” To show biblical hospitality is to receive a stranger as a guest. Not just your best friends and family, but strangers! This can be someone we randomly pass on a sidewalk downtown, a coworker we’ve never interacted with, an estranged family member, or someone from a totally different racial or social background.

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This may contradict everything you think of when “hospitality” comes to mind. Typically, being hospitable means cleaning up your house because you want to leave a good impression on your guests, or receiving exceptional customer service at a restaurant or business. Our versions of hospitality today are almost more self-centered than anything. But hospitality according to Scripture means welcoming somebody in who is lost and lonely, regardless of who they are, and regardless of your condition. Hospitality is seeing someone, serving their needs, and building a relationship in the process. In this version of hospitality, a moment of conversion happens: someone we once identified as a stranger is welcomed as a guest, who is transformed into a friend. 

Now put this definition of hospitality alongside evangelism. At one point, we were outside the family of God. But someone—whether it was a family member, friend, pastor, or whomever—saw us, built a relationship with us, spoke truth into us, and welcomed us into their faith community. So doing was so we could have our greatest need met: receiving Christ as our Savior. Our willingness to make room for people who need loving can be the very way they meet Jesus if they haven’t already.

So what does this type of hospitality look like? It could be introducing yourself to a coworker and inviting them to coffee. It could be seeing a homeless person on a corner of a street and listening to their story. It could be inviting a struggling family at church over for a meal. It could be hosting a small group at your house to provide meaningful community to those who are lonely. It doesn’t matter how you do hospitality, as long as it involves you opening yourself up to someone new, getting to know them, and meeting their needs, all while bringing Christ into the picture along the way. After a little while, the Holy Spirit will prompt you with the perfect opportunity to invite them into the family of God.

At the end of the day, hospitality is a position of the heart. Is your heart open? Are your hands ready? God is calling us to take a generous approach to everything we do, seeing this world and the people in it like he does. God isn’t asking us to exhaust ourselves or spread ourselves too thin by taking care of everyone. He’s calling us to keep the door open and a seat ready at our table. He’s calling us to keep a reserve ready of all the goods we have (our food, our clothing, our money) so we are always ready to share with those in need. We don’t love out of our own ability, and love rarely makes sense or seems fair. We love as we allow the life of Jesus in us to spill over to others. Your capacity to act is limited, but your ability to love unconditionally is not. Jesus will empower you to love like he does. But only if you let him.

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JOURNAL responses to the prompts below, and come ready to discuss these at your next meeting.

1. What were your first thoughts as you read the essay? What stood out to you?

2. Evangelism and hospitality are often misunderstood in our culture. How would you define each of these terms? Has your understanding of each shifted over time? If so, how?

3. Author Skye Jethani writes in his book, The Divine Commodity, that “The English word ‘hospitality’ originates from the same Latin root as the word ‘hospital.’ A hospital is literally a ‘home for strangers.’ Of course, it has come to mean a place of healing. There is a link between being welcomed and being healed.”

How could hospitality help someone heal? Or to frame the question another way, what kind of hurts or struggles would hospitality help mend?

4. We introduced the Greek word philoxenia. It’s translated as hospitality; to receive a stranger as a guest. Perhaps you’ve heard the word xenophobia before. It comes from the Greek term xenos, which means “stranger” or “guest”, and phobos, which can mean “fear” or “flight.” Xenophobia is defined as, “fear and hatred of strangers or foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign.” Or, put simply, it’s the fear of strangers.

Consider every kind of “difference” you can think of between yourself and others. Think about cultural, political, and religious differences, but also differences in personality, lifestyle, etc. Have you ever experienced a fear of the “other”? If so, how? Who makes you uncomfortable? Who do you avoid? Why?

5. Pastor Jon Tyson said, “The credibility of our faith depends on the quality of our hospitality.” Do you agree? Why or why not? 

6. In Romans 12:13, Paul writes, “When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.” This specifically commands disciples to keep their doors and hearts open to the needs of other Christ followers.

What does this tell us about the nature and value of Christian community in the family of God? How does this contrast with the attitudes you observe in our culture? What does our relationship with Jesus give us access to?

Paul specifically instructs Christians to open their homes to other Christians. Does this mean when it comes to nonbelievers, we can close our doors? (Think back to what we’ve learned about evangelism.)

7. Pause and ask God to help you clearly remember a time when you were an outsider, and someone welcomed you in. Perhaps you can clearly remember when you became a Christian, when you moved from outside the family of God to in, or time spent in another country or with people outside of your culture. Maybe you’ve experienced a season of loneliness, and in the midst of it, found a friend, or needed something, and a stranger’s generosity met that need directly.

When have you been an outsider, and who invited you in? When have you been the recipient of a gift of generosity? What difference did that make in your life?

If this applies, consider writing that person a letter right now, or reaching out to them with a text or phone call. Thank them for welcoming you in, and helping you when you needed it.