Hospitality

Hospitality is “the act or practice of being hospitable; the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers with liberality and good will” (New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary). The Latin root of the word hospitality is hospes, which refers to a guest, visitor, host or stranger. In opposition we find hostis: stranger, foreigner or enemy. Our word hospital is derived from the first term, and the word hostility from the latter. The contrast sheds a first light on what lies at the heart of hospitality.

Hospitality is often confused with entertaining. Although we also speak of entertaining a guest, this word is more descriptive of the act of diverting or of amusing. Entertainment could represent a superficial hospitality, but it is possible to entertain without being hospitable.

A Definition of Christian Hospitality

Scripture is the testimonial of God’s relentless hospitality toward his creatures. The Old Testament and New Testament contain abundant evidence of the importance of hospitality as a social and religious expectation. The God who made and sustains us wishes to welcome everyone into his household through Jesus Christ. Therefore, Christian hospitality can be defined as the reality of divine hospitality experienced and expressed in the life of God’s children. In other words, Christian hospitality is the reflection of God’s character in the life of each Christian and of the church. It is a lifestyle, a visible portrayal of the first commandment to love God and neighbor. It is being ready and available as food, drink, comfort and welcome for people. It is stretching our hearts and resources for the welfare of others and to the glory of God. Consequently, hospitality goes far beyond the act of entertaining to become an all-encompassing approach to Christian life in general and to relationships in particular. When we practice hospitality, this realization should make us all the more dependent on the Holy Spirit.

Hospitality in the Old Testament

As we read through the Old Testament, we find that ancient Israelite hospitality was more than mere entertainment. In an age when there were no inns or hostels, it was a necessity of life. Hospitality was a matter of survival for the traveler, the merchant, the itinerant prophet, the landless Levite, the relative on his way to visit kin, the needy and the foreigner. Hospitality ensures that the guest, whether Israelite or an alien, could expect food, lodging and protection. The well-being of a guest was the host’s moral and religious obligation.

Although hospitality in the Old Testament had various expressions, at its core were its religious and social dimensions: to love God was to love human beings, to be hospitable was a response to Yahweh’s own kindness toward Israel. From a religious point of view, the manner in which a householder received a guest (such as by providing fresh water for the traveler’s dusty feet) and the kind of meal served were interpreted as evidence of the host’s character and commitment to honor Yahweh. Hospitality or the lack of it would, therefore, augment or damage the host’s reputation. From a social perspective, through hospitality God created a net and network of human interdependence designed to secure the basic necessities of those who were at some kind of disadvantage, especially the poor and landless.

Despite the lack in Hebrew of a technical word for hospitality, in a number of Old Testament passages it is either clearly implied or directly prescribed, as when God commanded Israel to care for the widow, the orphan and the stranger (Deut. 10:17-19; Deut. 24:17-22; Proverbs 14:31; Amos 5:11-12). In some narratives hospitality is indirectly portrayed and serves as the backdrop for a biblical episode or theophany (Genesis 24:10-60). In prophetic books hospitality is related to true justice expressed in terms of respecting the rights of kin, the orphan, the widow, the poor and the stranger (Zech. 7:8-14). In the person of Boaz the book of Ruth offers one of the richest examples of this kind of hospitality. Even a religious act such as fasting lost its value when separated from concrete expressions of social righteousness such as hospitality (Isaiah 58:6-7, 10). In the wisdom literature Wisdom is presented as extending her hospitality to any person lacking understanding (Proverbs 9:1-6, 13-18). And in the book of Job Eliphaz interprets Job’s misfortune as God’s judgment on the latter due to his absence of hospitality (Job 22:6-11).

These and other Old Testament passages express the socioreligious importance attributed to the practice of hospitality, which surpassed the mere act of entertaining. God’s people were to “remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this [to care for the needy]” (Deut. 24:18). At the root of this lies a deep care by God for his creatures. In an age when there were no civil and human rights committees and no unemployment insurance, God established a community in which religious devotion and social concern were a part of daily living. Therefore, God’s laws were not just fingerprints but divine footprints. The Israelites were to follow them and thus provide a tangible picture of what a genuine human society should be like. In this light, hospitality was nothing less than Israel’s response to divine love as well as to human need.

Hospitality in the New Testament

The basic guidelines presented by God to Israel in the Old Testament carried over into the New Testament. However, in the latter there is a new message, the gospel, as well as a new community, the church, which together reaffirm and dramatically increase the role of hospitality in furthering God’s kingdom. If the Old Testament injunctions on hospitality were specific to Israel, in the New Testament the call to practice hospitality extends to everyone who accepts Christ as Lord (Ephes. 2:1-8). As Jesus had reached out to humankind, so the early Christians were to provide material and spiritual assistance to any needy person and to the saints in particular (Ephes. 4:28; 1 John 3:16-18). The driving force behind the hospitality of the early Christians was the awareness that because God in Christ had loved them first, they were to love their neighbor (1 John 4:10-12, 9-21). Far from dwelling on this as a mere theological ideal, they lived it out to the extent of their abilities and resources in relationship to one another and the world. Christ had called his followers to be on the giving end (John 15:12), and their hospitality was a response to this vocatio (Latin for “calling”).

The New Testament abounds with evidence of hospitality. There are numerous accounts of Jesus in the role of the host or that of a guest. As a host he fed crowds who had not made provision for themselves (Mark 6:30-44; Mark 8:1-11; John 6:5-15). Before his crucifixion Jesus hosted his farewell dinner with his disciples. That night the bread and the wine became the symbols of the sacrificial nature of divine hospitality (Luke 22:7-19). After the resurrection he walked to Emmaus with two distraught disciples, who only recognized him when he broke bread and offered it to them at the dinner table (Luke 24:13-35). Around that time he also prepared breakfast on the beach for some disciples returning from a miraculous catch of fish in the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-14).

As a guest Jesus would often teach his table companions and even confront his adversaries, so carrying on his Father’s business over a meal (Luke 14:1-14; Luke 19:11-26). He repeatedly enjoyed the hospitality of his friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany and on one occasion told his overwhelmed hostess that spending time with the divine guest was more important than flawless entertaining (Luke 10:39-42). While in Jericho, much to the displeasure of his detractors, he invited himself into a tax collector’s home (Luke 19:1-10).

Two of Christ’s most powerful teachings on hospitality appear in Luke 14:12-14 and Matthew 25:31-46. The first upholds the unconditional openhandedness with which we are to treat the economically dependent and the outcasts. The second tacitly assumes hospitality in the actions of feeding, giving a drink, providing lodging, providing clothing, caring for the sick and visiting those in prison. These became the common practices of the early church, the visible witnesses of kingdom come.

The place of hospitality is also reinforced in Christ’s parables that involve food and drink, meals or banquets (Luke 14:15-24; Luke 15:22-31; Luke 16:19-21; Luke 17:7-10). These stories gain in richness and relevance as we see them through the eyes of hospitality. Furthermore, they challenge the audience to look at the spiritual implications of commonplace situations: a kind foreigner, a neighbor’s midnight request for bread, a beggar at the rich man’s door.

The Lord’s Supper (see Communion) is the supreme example of God’s hospitality. It reassures us of God’s relentless care and his unwavering goodwill toward his creatures: his own Son is the host and the sacrifice, the Bread of Life and the Cup of Salvation. God invites us to take refuge under his protective eye, to satiate our souls on divine love, to quench our thirst with life-giving divine truths and to sit and converse in the divine. And then God bids us to look sideways and share this good gift (eu-charis in Greek) with others in the assurance of the future supper of the Lamb.

The early church also offers a prime example of Christian hospitality in action as they devoted themselves to alms giving, love feasts, the support of teachers and church leaders, the care of widows, orphans, the sick, the infirm, the poor, the disabled, slaves and prisoners, the burial of the poor, succor to victims of calamities, provision of employment and hospitality to visiting missionaries (Acts 4:32-35; Romans 16:23; Galatians 3:26; Hebrews 13:1-3; 1 Peter 4:9; 1 John 3:16-18; 3 John 5-8). This kind of liberality was characteristic of house churches as well as Christian households (see Home). Third John presents the contrast between two church leaders: one named Gaius, who used hospitality to assist the work of missionaries and evangelists, and the other named Diotrephes, who opposed the apostle Paul by precluding hospitality. However, despite external threats from a society antagonistic to Christianity and internal disagreements, the early church carried on with God’s tradition of hospitality.

Hospitality Today

We live in a society saturated with messages. There is music in shopping centers, ads at bus stops and railway stations and inside and outside buses and trains. Many cars have stereos, people carry Walkmans, and in most homes television sets function several hours a day. Hospitality can provide us with a haven. A simple, thoughtful meal is a sanctuary that must not be desecrated. It is an intimate time not to be sacrificed to the vociferous media gods that seem to have taken over our society. As Christ “eagerly desired” to share the last supper with his disciples (Luke 22:15), so we must convey the same message to family, friends and friends-to-be. A healthy homemade dinner, candles, flowers in a vase and a fresh tablecloth are ways of sacramentalizing the ordinary. These touches say, “I care. I treasure our time together.” Hospitality guards intimacy, which lies not in closed doors but in dismissing the pervasive intermissions and distractions that rob us from togetherness. Hospitality offers a way to reach out to a society suffering the effects of disintegrated families, loneliness and alienation.

Hospitality as a reflection of God’s character will stem from a transformed life, a heart touched by the love of God and the awareness that all we own is his. We are stewards of the material possessions (whatever these might be), knowledge, talents, abilities and time entrusted to us. There are many ways of extending hospitality, some of them were already practiced by the Israelites and by the early church and Christ himself. In particular, there are three gifts the contemporary Christian host can offer, namely, prayer, time and acceptance.

Hospitality and prayer go hand in hand. Through prayer God opens our eyes to people’s needs that can be met through us. Prayer also prepares our hearts for whatever the encounter with the recipient of our hospitality might bring. While, humanly speaking, we can control certain aspects of the entertaining process, true Christian hospitality demands that we entrust our guest and ourselves to God. We are completely dependent on God if we wish to give emotional, spiritual and material refreshment. Prayer, as attentiveness to God, is as necessary in the church as it is in the home in the context of hospitality. Whether we reach out corporately or individually, prayer will create the ambience for the work of the Trinity.

“I do not have time to have people over!” is one of the common excuses for the lack of hospitality. The book of Proverbs encourages us to count our days so that we will become wiser. When we look at Christ, we get a good picture of where and how he invested his time. He spent most of it with people and among people. People were his passion, the reason for him to interrupt eternity and come into human history. At the appointed time, people were the reason his life was cut short on the cross. People were the object of his redemptive sacrifice. His time was subject to divine purpose. Often his followers seem to work in the opposite direction: we submit divine purpose to the availability of our personal time. Hospitality helps us counter this tendency because when we receive a guest in the name of Christ, we create a parenthesis in the midst of all our other activities. In it God can meet host and guest. Through acts of hospitality, we offer our time as a living sacrifice to the God who did not abandon us to random fate and who has called us to invest our days as his Son did.

Acceptance is an expression of our heartfelt hospitality, as it reflects a welcoming attitude. Acceptance is the room we give people to be who they are. It is the opposite of putting them “in a box.” Acceptance, the “room with a view” to the other person, is created in our minds and hearts and finds expression in acts of hospitality. Acceptance is the key to hospitality, as it portrays the welcoming attitude of our God who in so doing never compromised his character. That is why acceptance must not be confused with political correctness. The first has its basis in the experience of God’s immutable grace and holiness; the latter is an ever-shifting societal code of expected attitudes. Perhaps there are few other gifts as costly as honest acceptance. But who can measure its impact on someone searching for a solid foundation in life or a proof that God still cares or a place of refuge and restoration? Through hospitality we extend God’s acceptance and welcome and acknowledge our own needs to become more gracious and Christlike in our dealings with people.

Hospitality as an Act of Worship

There are many ways in which we can express our gratitude to God for the gift of eternal life, for the material and spiritual provisions we receive during our pilgrimage on earth. We can sing, pray, speak, dance or write. We can also stand in silent awe. We can cry in worship. It is in times like these that we become aware of the fact that all we are and have comes from God.

Christian hospitality is also a form of worship—whether as a private act or a corporate effort—when it is a heartfelt response to God, the imitation of his welcoming character, the reflection of a restored imago Dei, the mark of kingdom values and priorities. As we offer hospitality, we echo the original voice, “Come and sup with me.” To welcome, to feed, to comfort or to assist someone in God’s name is a way of affirming our devotion and allegiance to the Giver of all good gifts. As hospitality points to God, it becomes a way of honoring God.

It is not possible to express the immeasurable privilege of being made coworkers in God’s kingdom, sowers of seeds of hope through acts of hospitality. We have a cloud of witnesses from the Old and New Testaments and beyond that attest to the blessings that come to those who live hospitable lives. With the nourishment of the Bread of Eternal Life broken for us, we are called to carry on with God’s tradition of hospitality: issue the invitation, extend the table, receive the guests, wash their feet, bring out the spread, tell them that God has been good to us. In the mundane we celebrate the sacredness of life in Christ. We toast in anticipation of the kingdom banquet. We affirm that hospitality is not merely a nice metaphor of what God has offered us but a spontaneous and genuine act of worship to the God who withheld nothing to bring us back into relationship with himself and with one another. Christians and churches that embrace hospitality reflect God’s character and enhance God’s glory. Having been welcomed into God’s household, as debtors to grace we reach out to friend and stranger to the praise of God’s name.

» See also: Eating

» See also: Fellowship

» See also: Greeting

» See also: Love

» See also: Time

» See also: Worship

References and Resources

R. Banks, Going to Church in the First Century (Chipping Norton, N.S.W.: Hexagon Press, 1980); R. Banks and J. Banks, The Home Church (Sutherland, N.S.W.: Albatross, 1986); R. F. Capon, The Supper of the Lamb (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1969); R. Duck, “Toward an Understanding of Hospitality in the Old Testament,” M. C. S. thesis, Regent College, Vancouver, B.C., 1980; A. Harnack, The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries (New York: Harper & Row, 1962); A. Heron, Table and Tradition (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1983); T. Howard, Splendor in the Ordinary (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale, 1976); R. P. Hromas, Celebrate the Feast (Torrance, Calif.: Ark Productions, 1982); J. Koenig, New Testament Hospitality (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1980); K. B. Mains, Open Heart , Open Home (Elgin, Ill.: David C. Cook, 1976); New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon, 1993) 1:1266; B. Rowlinson, Creative Hospitality (Campbell, Calif.: Green Leaf, 1981); E. Schaeffer, Hidden Art (London: Norfolk Press, 1971); J. Vanier, Community and Growth (Toronto: Griffin House, 1993).

—Patricia Kerr