HOSPITALITY: A THREE LEGGED STOOL
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· 20 viewsOne of the foremost manifestations of God’s grace in the hearts of His people is their great desire to show hospitality
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Hospitality is a three legged stool.
The first leg of the stool is the gracious nature of God.
He is a God who is good to strangers; because of this we are obliged to do the same.
Our hospitality is rooted in His goodness and grace.
We are by nature strangers, cut off from Him because of our sins, helpless to provide for ourselves, and He separated us for Himself, initiated a saving relationship, and clothed, fed, protected, and housed us.
remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
His people are thus commanded to follow His example and show hospitality to those who have no friends. Notice how God identifies Himself and Israel, and His application of these facts, in
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe.
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.
Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.
Every time God commands His people to love strangers, He tells them the reason: they themselves were in the same position once.
They were once strangers, and they received grace and hospitality from Him and even from others.
The Lord is the generous God who gives to all men graciously; He is host to the world.
As Paul points out in Acts,
Yet he did not leave himself without witness, for he did good by giving you rains from heaven and fruitful seasons, satisfying your hearts with food and gladness.”
Now that is hospitality.
Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears us up; God is our salvation. Selah
Now we, who have received His gracious benefits and His provisions, should also follow His example. Paul tells the Galatians:
So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.
Throughout the Bible, God’s people are always very noticeably hospitable people.
In Genesis 18, Abraham lifts up his eyes and sees three men standing afar off. He immediately runs to them and asks them to stay and eat.
Lot, knowing the dangers of Sodom, when he sees the two angels come into the public square (but before he knows they are angels), insists that they come to his house.
In Job 31:32, Job vindicates his character with this statement:
(the sojourner has not lodged in the street; I have opened my doors to the traveler),
No one ever had to sleep on the street if Job knew about it.
Peter stayed with Simon the tanner whenever he went to Joppa (Acts 9:43).
And he stayed in Joppa for many days with one Simon, a tanner.
Simon’s house became Peter’s home away from home, and his headquarters for spreading the gospel.
He was staying there when he received the vision of the sheet, and when the three men from Cornelius come to him, Simon invites them to stay the night at his house as well, before they take Peter back with them.
Luke records in
Now in the neighborhood of that place were lands belonging to the chief man of the island, named Publius, who received us and entertained us hospitably for three days.
In Romans 16:23, Paul mentions another man who understood hospitality:
Gaius, who is host to me and to the whole church, greets you. Erastus, the city treasurer, and our brother Quartus, greet you.
Gaius must have been quite a hospitable fellow to host an entire church. As we saw above, John commended another Gaius in
The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul.
For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, as indeed you are walking in the truth.
I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.
Beloved, it is a faithful thing you do in all your efforts for these brothers, strangers as they are,
who testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their journey in a manner worthy of God.
For they have gone out for the sake of the name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles.
Therefore we ought to support people like these, that we may be fellow workers for the truth.
Again Paul tells Timothy of his good and loyal friend Onesiphorus:
May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains,
Philemon was so hospitable to Paul, that Paul was confident to say,
At the same time, prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that through your prayers I will be graciously given to you.
I think we would all be glad to have a friend like Philemon, whose house was always open to the saints.
In Scripture, it is a common occurrence that when men are converted, they immediately begin to extend hospitality.
Jesus saw Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector who had climbed a tree trying to catch a glimpse of Him, and He said, “Zacchaeus, make haste and come down, for today I have to stay at your house”
He entered Jericho and was passing through.
And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich.
And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature.
So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way.
And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.”
So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully.
And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.”
And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.”
And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham.
For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”
Zacchaeus obeyed and received Him joyfully in his house.
Lydia, when the Lord opened her heart to believe the things spoken by Paul, made a similar show of love:
And after she was baptized, and her household as well, she urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” And she prevailed upon us.
The apostles could not refuse these first signs of Christian love.
Lydia had to show forth something of the grace that she had received, by ministering to those whom God had used to bring her to life.
One of the foremost manifestations of God’s grace in the hearts of His people is their great desire to show hospitality.
All who receive the grace of God are provoked by the Spirit of God to follow His gracious example.