When we think of “hospitality”, what comes to mind?  Entertaining family and friends?  Martha Stewart?  A painstaking chore?  Something done by only a few, with no lasting consequences?  Over the last few decades we have lost a Biblical understanding of the holistic impact of Christian hospitality.  Martha Stewart didn’t invent hospitality. More radical still, she hasn’t perfected it either. Hospitality as presented in the Bible is not merely a practice. Instead, it is a way of life in view of the coming of God’s Kingdom.

Throughout the entire Bible God demonstrates and commands his followers to practice hospitality.  Our English word “hospitality” comes from the Greek word philoxenia which is from two root words xenia meaning foreigner or stranger and the word philo which means love. In other words we are to show love to strangers, hospitality to others.  So what do you do to show hospitality to others?  How do you show love to strangers?

In his book Outlive Your Life, Max Lucado writes:

“Long before the church had pulpits and baptisteries, she had kitchens and dinner tables. Continue reading →