Hospitality Pt. 1

This past week we started a new two-week series talking about hospitality. This is an important topic and an important discipline because hospitality

1. Demonstrates genuine Christian love toward out brothers and sisters in faith by sharing our homes and our lives
2. Displays the gospel by treating those who are not family as if they were
3. Is commanded of believers and is a necessary mark of Christian maturity

I referenced several passages throughout my message, and if you missed them, you can review my notes—or read the book The Hospitality Commands by Alexander Strauch. He does an excellent job of surveying the New Testament teaching on hospitality.

As we grow in showing hospitality toward other Christians, toward our neighbors and co-workers and others in our community, and toward the disadvantaged, I think we will see that God beams out the light of the gospel more strongly through our community. The key in all this is love. God first loved us, so we love others. As we love others, we demonstrate the love of God and give visible witness to the power of the gospel. I pray that the Lord will give us hearts to love those around us and eyes to see the ways that we can love them in tangible ways.

This coming Sunday night we will have a special guest speaker to do Part 2 of the series. Brian Fort has been living out hospitality for some time and will be joining us to clean up after me and give more of a practical perspective. I'm looking forward to learning from Brian and being challenged to follow his example!

Recommended Reading:
The Hospitality Commands by Alexander Strauch
Blog posts: Gospel Hospitality and Gospel Hospitality in Our Neighborhood by Jeff Vanderstelt

Audio