What would happen if we Western Christians (who, like our culture, value privacy over hospitality) started focusing on verses like these? (Rom. 12: 13) PRACTICE hospitality. (Heb. 13: 2) Do not forget to SHOW hospitality to STRANGERS... (1Pet. 4: 9) OFFER hospitality to one another without grumbling. (Luke 14: 12-14) Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, DO NOT invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Oh, by the way, hospitality in Greek means love the stranger. It is the other that cannot be defined or approved by my own ego or social clique. It is the one who lay outside my boundaries, boundaries of my own making. It is the one who is unpredictable and invites me to trust in not what I can give, but what God alone can give. Love the stranger...it goes against the modern, American system...but the kingdom of God is not about the modern, American system.
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 20:04:03 +0000
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