Opening Prayer and Introduction

God thank you for the clarity of your word. Thank you that especially on a practical topic that should affect all of us, like hospitality, your word has so much to say. God, you know I have more to say this morning than I have time to say it, so I pray that you would grant me clarity, accuracy, efficiency. God, I pray for my hearers, I pray that this would not be merely an imparting of information. God, I pray that we would marvel at your love for us, that we would be motivated by the right things, that we would not be hearers only of your word, but you would make us doers to your glory, that you would more and more make us a church marked by hospitality as a result of your word, as a result of these messages. In Jesus name we pray, amen.

Recap of Part 1 and Gospel-Rooted Hospitality

All right, so last week was part one. If you have not heard that, you can get it online. But the summary, the take-home message, is that God’s love demonstrated in the gospel is the fuel and foundation of our hospitality. God didn’t just say he loved us, but he showed it by making us—while we were strangers, while we were his enemies—he made us his children at great cost to himself. He took us from being children of the devil, children of wrath, and made us children of God. And so our hospitality must be rooted in genuine love. That’s why the name of today’s lesson and the whole point is our hospitality imitates, reveals, and spreads gospel love.

The Greek word for hospitality, as we learned last week, has two parts. It was literally brotherly love—Philadelphia—to strangers. That was a built-in reminder every time they used the word, every time they heard the word, a built-in reminder for early Christians that this hospitality really was a gospel-imaging love for people who weren’t their family. We get to treat people who are not our family as our family because God treated us and actually made us his family even while we weren’t.

Commands to Hospitality in the New Testament

I just want you to see this: every command to hospitality in the New Testament—these are the three major ones, there’s other mentions but these verses are the three major commands to hospitality—in every one of them we see brotherly love, love for our brothers, true love in the near context. This is consistent because if God’s love is the foundation, example, and basis of our love for one another, we would expect outward expressions of that love to be tethered to commands to love.

So you see here Romans 12, 1 Peter 4, Hebrews 13. In Romans 12:9 and 13, the overarching command is “Let love be genuine,” and then we see an outworking of that being devoted to one another in brotherly love and an outworking of that genuine love is pursuit of hospitality. In 1 Peter 4:8-9, “Above all be fervent in your love for one another” and then “be hospitable to one another.” Hebrews 13:1-2, “Let the love of brothers continue, do not neglect to show hospitality.”

These verses reveal, and really the whole biblical teaching on hospitality reveals, that the Christian practice of hospitality was not viewed simply as a means of overcoming a practical need. It did overcome a practical need—if you think back to the very early church in Acts 2 and Acts 4, they met needs—but hospitality wasn’t simply a means of overcoming a practical problem or fulfilling a social requirement. Hospitality instead is a concrete expression of Christian love for blood-bought siblings brought into God’s family through the death of our older brother Jesus, and love for our Father.

Hospitality Must Be Fervent and Zealous

We’re going to make eleven observations of what true hospitality must be from these verses.

First, Christian hospitality must be fervent and zealous. I’m getting this from 1 Peter 4:8 primarily. It says, “Keep loving each other earnestly,” or fervently, and then the next command is “Show hospitality.” The Greek word for “earnestly” or “fervently” isn’t focused on emotion like “love each other with all your heart” merely, but more like a taut muscle, a strenuous or sustained effort like an athlete. It suggests a certain toughness of love that endures.

Don’t just let hospitality happen. Don’t just love when you get the opportunity. There’s a fervency, a zealousness, a straining of muscles. You don’t just let this love happen; you strive for it. The earnest, fervent love will have a number of manifestations, not hospitality merely, but hospitality must be one of them.

Alexander Strauch says hospitality is a concrete, down-to-earth test of our fervent love for God and his people. Similarly, Hebrews 13:2 says don’t neglect hospitality. Hospitality must be an active, fervent pursuit. Romans 12:9 says let love be without hypocrisy and then leads to “seek to show hospitality.” There’s nothing passive about these commands.

Hospitality as Sin-Covering, Without Grumbling, and Serving

Second, Christian hospitality must be sin-covering. 1 Peter 4:8 says above all, keep loving one another earnestly since love covers a multitude of sins, and then you get the command “Show hospitality.” This means we will be sinned against, and love isn’t irritable or resentful. Love endures. You’re going to need this kind of love if you’re going to have people in your home. You don’t only have people who don’t challenge your love. Sometimes you show hospitality to hard-to-love people, and your love gets to cover over sin. It’s a great way to win a brother or sister from sin.

Third, Christian hospitality must be without grumbling. 1 Peter 4:9, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” If you grumble, you undermine the purpose. Grumbling shows self-centeredness. God loves a cheerful giver, not a grumbling giver. Hospitality is love in action. Through caring acts of hospitality, the reality of our love is tested.

Fourth, hospitality must be humble in service. 1 Peter 4:10 says as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another. The heart of service is Jesus-emulating humility. Jesus came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many. Biblical hospitality flows from freedom and aims to serve, not impress.

Hospitality From God’s Provision and Genuinely Loving

Fifth, hospitality must be an overflow of God’s provision. 1 Peter 4:11 says whoever serves, serves in the strength that God supplies. Our seeking to show hospitality doesn’t flow from our own strength or provision, it flows from and magnifies God’s provision. Consider Romans 8:32: he who did not spare his own son, how will he not also graciously give us all things? We remember that all we have is a gift from our Father.

Sixth, Christian hospitality must be genuinely loving. Romans 12:9 and 13 show hospitality is subordinate to genuine love. It’s easy to look loving but actually seek your own benefit. Genuine love doesn’t seek its own. Love will be given to those who cannot repay. Jesus in Luke 14:12 says when you give a dinner, don’t just invite those who can repay you, but the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind. True hospitality is distinct from the world’s practice because it extends to the unwanted and the needy.

Meeting Needs and Spreading the Gospel Through Hospitality

Seventh, hospitality lovingly and sacrificially meets needs. Romans 12:13 says contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Hospitality fleshes out love in a personal and sacrificial way, sharing our most prized possessions—our home, time, finances, privacy.

Eighth, hospitality can be used to spread the gospel message. Third John 5-8 commends Gaius for hosting missionaries in his home. By this, he became a fellow worker for the truth. Hospitality supports gospel workers.

When Not to Show Hospitality and Demonstrating Faith

Ninth, there are times to withhold hospitality. Second John 10 says don’t welcome false teachers into your home. First Corinthians 5 says don’t even eat with someone who claims to be a brother but persists unrepentantly in sin. Second Thessalonians 3 warns against enabling laziness. Hospitality should not partner with false teaching or unrepentant sin.

Tenth, hospitality demonstrates faith. It’s often a litmus test of genuine faith. First John 3:17 asks if you see a brother in need and refuse, how does God’s love abide in you? James 2:15-17 asks can that faith save you if you refuse to meet a brother’s needs? Matthew 25 shows hospitality to the least of these my brothers reflects saving faith.

Conclusion: God-Glorifying Hospitality

Finally, hospitality must be God glorifying. 1 Peter 4:11 says do all this that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. Check your motivation. Who gets the glory?

When you consider hospitality to Christians, do not think first and most about the what or how. Think about the why. When we were far off, strangers to God, he adopted us at great cost to himself. Now we remember God’s love to us and be defined by brotherly love towards those who were once strangers but now are blood-bought brothers and sisters.

These are high aims, impossible without saving grace. By God’s grace, may we at Grace Bible Church be marked by this kind of gospel love—imitating, revealing, and spreading hospitality.

Closing Prayer

God thank you for your love for us. I pray that you would make us people who show that love to others. In Jesus name we pray, amen.