A Life of Grace - (6) Hospitality

I suspect most seminaries caution aspiring ministers against bringing too much Greek and Hebrew into their sermons. This is good advice; our English translations are excellent. Usually the meaning of the original word isn't necessary to spell out—especially in the opening of a sermon. I think "Hospitality" is an exception to that rule.

New Testament word for hospitality is a compound word. The first part (philos) means "love;" the second part (xenos) means "stranger, or foreigner." Hospitality is literally love of strangers. Appropriately, the English "hospitality" comes from the Latin "hospitalis," the care of a guest.

Biblical hospitality does not strictly fall within the domain of a housewife. It shouldn't be confused with etiquette or hosting techniques. It isn't the entertainment of friends or relatives. It is the deliberate, practical care of outsiders.

And it is explicitly the gift to others of God's grace to us. God commanded the Israelites to love strangers because they themselves had been strangers in Egypt (Lev 19:33–34; cf. Ex. 22:21, Dt. 10:19). We too, having been "strangers to the covenants of promise" have been brought "near by the blood of Christ" as "fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God" (Eph. 2:12, 13, 19). How do we show the grace of hospitality to others?