Life in a Hospitable Kingdom

Originally written for www.thewellonline.org.uk:

Hospitality – “Welcoming people into your life and space in order to bless them, usually by way of food, companionship and shelter.”

Our God is a hospitable God. We serve a King who is both hospitable and who enjoys receiving hospitality. This is because he is a God of relationship.

In creation he provided people with food, companionship and shelter.

In Christ he received hospitality (his way of life made him dependent upon the hospitality of others) and he gave hospitality, for example, in the last supper. His death was, in part, to enable hospitality – to prepare a place for us, and open the door to ongoing relationship with Him.

In his Kingdom he still seeks to receive our hospitality, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20; (see also Matthew 25 below) and to give hospitality – our future is a feast and a place. Jesus said, “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” John 14:1-2

Our goal, to see the Kingdom of God come, will mean individuals, families, churches and even the town or city we ive in will become increasingly hospitable.

Key New Testament Instruction on Hospitality

a) Hospitality is normal Christianity.

Often ‘application’ chapters in the New Testament (in the light of what God has done – live this way) include “be hospitable”. For example, Romans 12:13, “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.” Don’t just do it if you have to – ‘seek to show’ , be scheming about how you can welcome people into your life and space in order to bless them. What excuses are there to throw parties, who could you have round for drinks, who could come over for food? Could anyone stay with you? We serve a hospitable King and so naturally hospitality is a normal part of His Kingdom.

b) The church should be a hospitable community

We should be in and out of each others lives and spaces, blessing each other with food, companionship, and indeed shelter when needed. 1 Peter 4:9 says, “Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.” Why would you grumble? Living a hospitable life can be hard, expensive (money, food, space, time), it’s ongoing – this isn’t just Christmas, it’s a way of life but it is a Kingdom way of life, and therefore we are called to it.

c) Being hospitable is requirement for Christian leadership.

In every passage on ‘elders’, those who lead the local Christian community, being hospitable is listed as a non-negotiable requirement. Leaders don’t have to be clever, good looking, rich, talented, inspiring, but they do have to be hospitable. “Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach…” 1 Timothy 3:2. “For an overseer, as God’s steward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.“ Titus 1:8

We should expect Christian leaders to operate something of an open home, and be known as welcoming, generous to guests and having strangers into their home. If this isn’t happening they shouldn’t be leaders. If you’re aspiring to lead others in the Christian community, start working on your hospitality, have people over, have people round, let people stay. Seek to welcome people into your life and space in order to bless them.

d) Being hospitable is key to the mission

“Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. It was for the sake of the Name that they went out, receiving no help from the pagans. We ought therefore to show hospitality to such men so that we may work together for the truth.“ 3 John 5-8

We should actively welcome people in the Kingdom from outside our patch, including leaders. There are people we need to work together for the truth with. It’s how Jesus has set up the Kingdom.

e) Hospitality literally means ‘love of strangers’

The Kingdom of God coming emphatically does not mean the cultivation of a dinner party culture where everyone in the church takes their turn to have everyone else in the church around. One of the words the NT uses for hospitality literally means ‘love of strangers’. The Kingdom of God is about love for the outcast, putting the lonely in families, and loving your enemies.

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” Hebrews 13:2

Welcoming strangers is easily neglected because nobody expects it of you. Yet it is integral to the Kingdom of God. It’s very important on a number of levels that the well remains an ‘open network’ where new connections are constantly being made and a scratching each others back culture is avoided. Who knows who you might meet.

Is this Jesus’ most unobeyed command?

“He said also to the man who had invited him, “When you give a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you. For you will be repaid at the resurrection of the just.”
When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, “Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God!” But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’” Luke 14

f) Your final judgment is based, in part, on your hospitality

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” Matthew 25

Food, drink and a welcome, are we doing these things? Hospitality is central to the Kingdom.

Getting very practical

Come into the Kingdom. If you haven’t yet committed to following Christ accept his hospitality now, and be hospitable to Him. Welcome Jesus into your life and space.

Assess your resources. Once in the Kingdom Jesus may lead you to sell your possessions, give to the poor, move or other such actions as he has done to many of his followers through history. Be obedient.

Think about the right things. Matthew 6 – don’t worry about your life, how to keep from embarrassment, and ensure your fulfilment, but rather put your mental energies into working to further God’s Kingdom.

Begin to work. Followers of Jesus will work, it may be Kingdom work – praying, being merciful, telling people about Jesus, or it maybe Kingdom work – graphic design, pulling pints, banking etc – but it’s only if we’re apart from Jesus that we get to do nothing!

Budget. Pray about how you should use the income and resources that are coming your way. Probably your priorities should look something like -

1. Giving
2. Tax
3. Rent (How can you be hospitable if you have no space of your own?*)
4. Gas, Electricity, Water
5. Food (include enough for others)
6. Repay debts
7. Hospitality

* Organise to get people together. Get people to the pub and buy the first round.
Have people in for drinks – tea is a great (Kingdom?) part of our culture. Share food with people. Chefs are the worship leaders! Buy a futon and have people stay. Get a guest room. Don’t fill it with crap. If people feel free to pop over unannounced (and want to) you’re probably getting towards a good practice of hospitality.

How can we get serious about connecting with strangers?

How, as the church in the town can we ensure that there is always an open door to food, shelter and companionship for people who need it?

Hospitality, as the Bible displays it, is not cucumber sandwiches and polite conversation but rather a radical act that displays so much of the Kingdom. Let’s be people who open our lives and spaces in order bless people.