Pursuing Hospitality

Introduction

This morning we are going to be covering Romans 12:13 “Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.” a short verse with only two main points as Paul continues his explanation of what authentic love looks like. Have you ever noticed that loving someone takes on a variety of different forms? Back in 1992, Gary Chapman published a book on the Five Love Languages. I have found some parts of what he said to be helpful because love is expressed in a variety of different ways. The five love languages that Chapman proposed were:

Words of affirmation

Quality time

Receiving gifts

Acts of service

Physical touch

Chapman’s book had a benefit because it made people more aware of what might be missing in their relationships, but it had some essential flaws as well:

It assumes that I have one need above all the others and that can’t change

It in some ways excuses my lack of showing love because I am not receiving what I truly need in my own life.

It can lead to hopelessness because you feel like your spouse is incapable of showing love in that way

Showing love isn’t going to fix someone’s sin problem.

Why do I bring this up? In Romans 12:9-ff Paul has been giving us a description of what authentic love looks like:

It hates evil and loves good

It is kind and respectful

It isn’t lazy but is passionate about serving God

It is able to rejoice and endure trials in dependence on God

It can be easy to think that love is a grab bag of things I can choose from to show my love to others. Like the five love languages, we think as long as I’m good at one, I should be fine, but love manifests itself in a variety of ways. You might think, “Pastor Jason, there are a lot of things I have to do in this list. I don’t think I can handle it all.” I want to remind you that love is the foundation of every element on this list. Focus on Authentic love and the rest will come naturally when it is necessary. In the next chapter, Paul will claim Romans 13:10 “…love is the fulfilling of the law.”

In our verse this morning, we will see that Authentic love opens both its hands and its home. True love recognizes that our money, our houses, our cars, our tools, our food is not really ours to keep to ourselves. They are resources given to us to use to express our love for others. We are stewards to use God’s resources on the things that He loves.

Authentic love shares its resource

Romans 12:13 “Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.”

Giving begins by entering into someone’s life

The first word of this verse is distributing. But the translation though appropriate might be deceptive because this is the exact same word as koinonia- fellowship- sharing- part of our fellowship is sharing our wealth, our goods, our food with others. It is used in 1 Timothy 6:17–18 “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; That they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate;” with the word communicate which also doesn’t necessarily make sense in our language today.

The point of using this word is that it is more than merely giving money. This is more than mere charity or giving a gift. By using this word for fellowship, Paul is saying that we enter into their needs and help them bear them. As we have seen elsewhere, this kind of giving must begin by giving of ourselves. 2 Corinthians 8:5 “And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.” Sometimes people want to give money because it means they don’t have to get involved themselves. That is not the heart motivation that Paul has in mind here.

This is the same type of virtue signaling that the left and big corporations do when they donate a ton of money to a cause, but they don’t really care about the issue. Atleast they don’t care enough to get involved themselves. True love gives because they truly have taken on the burden of that other person themselves. It is not merely a show of concern.

Our giving is primarily focused on the needs of others

The next important word in this text is necessity. Now it isn’t wrong to bless someone with something nice, but the focus of this verse is on Needs- anything necessary but lacking- food, clothing, shelter. In the early church this was essentially important because people were having their goods taken from them as they were persecuted for the name of Christ. Christianity also drew a significant number of poor people. But today, there are still needs in the church. We may not be going without food, clothing or shelter, but there are times when other believers struggle with needs:

they may be having trouble making ends meet and they have bills to pay

they may have had their car break down- in today’s society, it is nearly impossible to live without a car.

there may be some unexpected repairs to their house that they can’t afford

Our first loyalty is to other Christians

Of the saints- There are a lot of needy people in our world and God does expect us to minister when presented with an opportunity. But sometimes, you have to weigh your opportuntities. Sometimes you have to decide what is more important. Paul says that the priority in our giving ought to be the saints, the believers in our lives. Galatians 6:10 “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” reminds us that when we can help, we should help. We should help anyone, but especially those who are of the household of faith. The household of faith does not just mean Christians in this local church though they should be a high priority. It refers to every Christian everywhere. When an opportunity is placed in our laps, we should share our resources with those who have need.

Example: Barnabas Acts 4:32–37 “And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles’ feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. And Joses, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas, (which is, being interpreted, The son of consolation,) a Levite, and of the country of Cyprus, Having land, sold it, and brought the money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.”

Authentic Love opens its doors

Romans 12:13 “Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.”

The second half of the verse is relate to the first. One way in which we share resources is by showing hospitality. Hospitality comes from a latin word meaning host. It is inviting people into your home to share shelter, food, etc. In the early church hospitality was necessary because hotels were not always available. Traveling Christians and evangelists would be housed in the home of other Christians. You may not have known them ahead of time, but there was a need and you volunteered to take care of it. Pastors were supposed to be given to hospitality because they led the way. But you are bringing someone into you home who you may not even know to show the love of Christ to them.

Hospitality is something we should seek opportunities to show

The word given speaks of Pursuing- to hasten or run after something. This is about the attitude we have toward hospitality. We should be eager to show hospitality. It should be something we take the initiative to do. We should invite someone over because they invited us over and it becomes this loop. We show hospitality even when others do not.

This is not always easy because our home is our safe place. Its where I don’t have to deal with other people. I can relax and let go for awhile. I go to work and invest my life in others all day long, I spend my time doing what my job requires of me and I would just like some time to relax. As a pastor, we have tried to have people into our home and sometimes the business of life gets in the way. There are a lot of people to have over; so what we have tried to do is bring over more than one family at a time. If we haven’t gotten to you know that we do plan to have you over. We are working our way there. Then there are those whose spiritual needs are more demanding. I don’t say any of this to excuse or really even explain what we are trying to do, but to empathize with you if you feel like hospitality is hard.

Insert story here illustration- kids bringing toys out

Hospitality can be shown to believers and unbelievers

The Greek word for hospitality literally means love of strangers. It is easy to show hospitality to your best friends. To open your doors to those in your peer group who you enjoy being around. Or even to have over the last person who had you over; but hospitality by definition includes having over people you don’t know too well. Let’s be honest, there are a lot of people that you and I could get to know better in this church. We see them every Sunday but they are still basically a stranger to us. There are others like missionaries and evangelists that we may never have met before but we have an opportunity to show love and get to know another believer. The author of Hebrews commanded Hebrews 13:2 “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” This was an allusion to the story of Abraham when three men came to his tent. One was the Lord and the other two were the angels who were sent to Sodom. They appeared as men at first and yet Abraham opened up his tent to them.

Hospitality though is not just for strangers. 1 Peter 4:9 “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” We are the one another. Your brothers and sisters in Christ. So while we should not shy away from showing hospitality to strangers, we should also not shy away from showing hospitality to the people we know.

Example: Gaius 3 John 5–6 “Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well:” In this church, Diotrephes who wanted to rule and reign in the church withstood those whom John had sent to the church. He refused to show hospitality, but Gaius swept in and took them in. He even took it one step further, he helped them financially get to their next location. Hospitality doesn’t end at our door step.

Conclusion

You might feel like this type of thing just isn’t for you. You wouldn’t even know where to start. If it is just lack of knowledge we can help. But the reason I started the message the way I did this morning is because we often act like on way of showing love is optional. We can just pick and choose what we are comfortable with. A person with the gift of giving might find this easy while others might not. Love when it is genuine will be eager to give and share hospitality with others. This is not about legalism, this is about love. I am not up here saying if you aren’t doing this you are evil and you need to start adding this to your list of good things to do.

What I am really challenging you with this morning is that love will seek an opportunity to show itself. Giving and hospitality are two of those ways. This morning ask yourself, “Do I genuinely love others? Do I genuinely wish to be a help in any way that I can be? Am I willing to take an opportunity to share my goods with others? Even further, am I eager to do so?” If you find yourself answering “no” to any of those questions, this morning let’s realign our heart to love God and love others.