Stranger Love

What is Biblical Hospitality?

I remember fondly one Christmas dinner Alexa and I celebrated in our tiny apartment in Seattle. We had a small table, only big enough to sit four comfortably, but this Christmas we squeezed around it a group of single guys from church, and Alexa fed us a feast. Some of our guests were friends we had known for some time, others we were just getting to know, but that made the meal and conversation all the more special. We shared stories, we enjoyed the food, and for a few hours we were all like family. 

I’ve given you a fairly romantic picture, perhaps reminiscent of Hallmark movies, but is this what hospitality is? Near the end of his long letter to the church in Rome, Paul commands this, “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality,” (Rom 12:13). It’s a little lost in the ESV translation, but I believe Paul is commanding the church in Rome to do two things:

1. Be generous to fellow believers (“contribute”=to share in someone’s sufferings or to share your resources).
2. Be kind to strangers.

The NIV translation brings out this twofold command in the English by separating the two thoughts with a period: “Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality,” (Rom 12:13). Why would the translators make this interpretive decision? Why would I tend to agree with them? Because the word "hospitality" literally means to show kindness to strangers. Where philadelphia means the love of brothers and sisters, philoxenia (hospitality) means love of strangers.

So, was the meal Alexa and I shared with the guys that one Christmas so many years ago an example of hospitality? Yes and no. Alexa and I were certainly showing kindness to people who weren’t a part of our biological family, but some of our guests that night were part of our spiritual family. They all went to our church, which is how we got to know them in the first place! We get off on a technicality, however, for a few of our guests were not Christians, otherwise we would have only been following Paul’s first injunction, to be generous to fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Chasing Down the Stranger

Maybe you feel that I am being too exact in my definition of hospitality, but I think Paul is making an important distinction in Romans 12:13, one that we often miss today. When we invite friends, family, and fellow believers over to share a meal, we are certainly showing kindness and love, but unless a stranger is in our midst, we are not necessarily showing hospitality in the way I think the Scriptures envision. Bible commentator, John Stott, helpfully paints the picture of how important hospitality was when Paul was writing to the Romans. There were few hotels in this time, and those that existed were often dangerous places. So, it was imperative that Christians open their homes to traveling strangers. In fact, the verb Paul uses in 12:13 does not mean “show” or “practice”. It means to "pursue" hospitality.

The ancient theologian, Origen, states, “We are not just to receive the stranger when he comes to us, but actually to enquire after, and look carefully for, strangers, to pursue them and search them out everywhere, lest perchance somewhere they may sit in the streets or lie without a roof over their heads.” Those are convicting words. When was the last time you chased someone down and invited them over for dinner? I don’t think I’ve ever done that. 

Biblical Hospitality for Today

Certainly the circumstances are different today than they were in the 1st century, but at Christ Church we’ve come to see how centrally important hospitality still is for the church. That’s why our new vision statement is “a love for Jesus makes room at the table.” There may be more and better hotels today than there were two thousand years ago, but people are in need of stranger love more than ever. In the midst of political polarization, increased anxiety and depression, and the plethora of technologies that are encouraging us to become more and more isolated, hospitality, and the gift of a seat at the table, is just as powerful an extension of grace as it ever was. Hospitality was central to Jesus’ ministry as He invited outcasts and sinners, strangers to the righteous and the powerful, to join Him around the table for food and fellowship, and it should be central to our ministry as well.

So, next time you are planning a meal for family, friends, and fellow church members, consider chasing down a stranger and giving him or her a seat at the table. How could we not when God sent His Son Jesus to chase us down so we could be a part of His family? Let’s be a church that shows stranger love to a world in desperate need of the ultimate lover of strangers—our Savior and Redeemer.