I’ve been studying out the gift of hospitality over the past few weeks and God has shown me so much. I’m so excited to share it with all of you. I am hoping to help clarify through this blog what hospitality is and what it’s not so that we can walk out this gift according to the gospel.
Romans 12:13 says “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.”
Hospitality is the divine enablement to share with others our home, our lives, our personal space and resources without communicating a need for performance or an expectation of return.
There are a few points I want to go through using this definition of hospitality. The first thing that has to be established is that all gifts are given by the Holy Spirit including the gift of hospitality. This is the “Devine Enablement.” We cannot function in our gifts outside of the Holy Spirit. This is not about us hosting an amazing dinner party or making the best food, it’s about being led by the Holy Spirit to do whatever and serve whoever he commands us to.
Secondly it’s important to distinguish who we’re showing hospitality towards, who the “others” are in our lives. If the purpose of hospitality is to show and demonstrate God’s love for his people then we must pray that our sinful, selfish hearts are replaced with God’s heart. Otherwise the “others” we choose to show hospitality for are those we feel deserve it, though the gospel says all we deserve is death. We’ll show partiality to our close friends, family and people we like, at the expense of the lost, poor, sinful, broken people that Jesus is trying to reach. As a church family we should be showing hospitality to each other as Romans 12 says, but that same heart should be missional and seek to reach and impact the lost.
Next is the concept of sharing our home, our lives, our personal space and resources. This is a tough thing for our flesh to fully grasp, we need the Holy Spirit to show us how to to this. I think that most of us are happy to have people in our homes and our lives and maybe even in our personal space. But sharing all of that takes it to a new level that I think a lot of us struggle with. The definition of share is “to divide, apportion, or receive equally.” That means that literally our house our lives and our personal space and resources we are to share equally with others. Our home, our lives and our personal space is not ours but The Lords. We are to share it with others.
Last is we are to do it without communicating a need for performance or an expectation of return. The strangers, friends and church family that we share our homes, lives, personal space and resources with don’t need to do or give us anything in return. Can we say that we do that when we invite someone over and they leave without saying the food was good or that they appreciate the invitation or appreciate us? As Jesus was dying on the cross and giving man the gift of salvation we spat on him and mocked him, there was no multitude saying “thank you Jesus!” Yet Jesus asked the Father to forgive them, for they do not know what they do.
Selfishness in the church is a deep rooted sin that we all need to repent of. We find it hard to give to the church, to give to the saints and to give to the community God’s placed us in. Hospitality starts with a broken spirit, desperate for God to come and do open heart surgery as Aaron’s been preaching on. To change our hearts to be a giving people, a people that want to see people cared for and brought to know Jesus. Then this heart becomes the driving force in our mission and every day lives.
If your gospel communities are struggling with hospitality then please contact me and let’s pray.
