We Are Called to Be Hospitable

“But, Mom, do I have to?” Boy, did my kids utter those words hundreds of times over the years! Whether it was when I announced it was time to do their schoolwork, tidy up their bedrooms, or pile in the Buick to go somewhere, they sometimes pushed back, testing whether what I had just instructed them to do was optional or actually obligatory. Usually it was the latter.

There are numerous subjects that present themselves in the pages of Scripture that evoke a similar response from us as believers. When we read Jesus’ admonition in Luke 6:27 to “love your enemies,” our immediate thought may be, “Are ya crazy?” In that same passage part of the famous Sermon on the Mount—we are also instructed in verse 28 to bless those who curse us. Uh . . . blessing them isn’t exactly what we had in mind. And then we read these words in 1 Peter 4:9–10:

Be hospitable to one another without complaining. Just as each one has received a gift, use it to serve others, as good stewards of the varied grace of God.

Be hospitable. But it is so much work! And quite a bit of hassle. It interrupts my plans and cramps what little style I may have. But the Bible is one step ahead of us. As if anticipating the grumbling rolling around in our brains and eventually emitting from our lips, it overlays it with a little caveat: without complaining.

Busted.

When met with our choruses of “But, Jesus, do I have to?” the resounding answer is yes. First Peter 4:9 isn’t a sweet suggestion. We aren’t told to think about maybe opening our hearts and homes sometime. You know, in case one day we happen to feel like it. First Peter 4:9 not only assumes that we will offer hospitality but tells us how we are to do it: no griping allowed.

The word translated as “complaining” (or in some Bible versions as “grumbling”) is the Greek word goggysmós. It cracked me up the first time I saw that word printed in the English transliteration. No matter how I tried to pronounce it, I couldn’t. And each stab I took at it sounded just like the concept it was meant to portray. It sounds like a person grumbling and protesting, mumbling their immense annoyance.

Actually, this term doesn’t just refer to our audible complaints about an action we are asked to perform. It carries the concept of secrecy too—of muttering and murmuring under our breath, expressing a secret displeasure that is not openly asserted. The contrast of such a cantankerous attitude is to perform a task joyfully, with a cheerful mind and disposition.

I think the concept of hospitality is often misunderstood. When you think of the word hospitality, what comes to mind?

Entertaining in your perfectly cleaned home, complete with stunning, high-end décor?

A gourmet meal that rivals something straight out of a Food Network special?

A formal invitation with a planned-out menu and carefully thought-out conversation starters?

The biblical concept of hospitality is straightforward in its definition. The original word is philoxenos. It is a combination of two other words: philos and xenos. Philos means love, and xenos means stranger. Hospitality is simply loving strangers and continuing to love them until the strangers become friends. There is no mention of a menu, no talk of home design.

I would run out of fingers and toes if I tried to use them to count all of the former strangers who are now my friends. These souls I got to know by inviting them over to our home—or I became acquainted with them by being hospitable somewhere other than within my four walls. (More ideas on that coming later!)

Stranger love isn’t the only aspect of hospitality. Scripture also tethers this topic to loving fellow believers in passages such as Romans 12:13 and Romans 16:23. Hospitality is a tool we can use to serve those we barely know or to minister to our closest friends. And it can be a powerful means of building up those in our local church as we offer our homes as venues where our spiritual community can flourish and care for each other.

Excerpt from Reach Out, Gather In: 40 Days to Opening Your Heart and Home by Karen Ehman (2020) used by permission of Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group

Karen Ehman is a New York Times bestselling author with Proverbs 31 Ministries as well as a writer for Encouragement for Today, an online devotional that reaches more than four million women daily. She has authored fifteen books, including Keep It Shut, Settle My Soul (with Ruth Schwenk), and the recent release Reach Out, Gather In: 40 Days to Opening Your Heart and Home. You can connect with Karen at karenehman.com, where she helps women live their priorities and love their lives.