There’s a difference between entertaining guests and Christian hospitality …

Anyone can have guests in their home, but not everyone is hospitable. That’s because there’s a difference between entertaining hand-picked guests and opening your home for hospitality.

What’s the difference?

You might call it a posture of the heart.

When we entertain guests, we do so to provide a form of pleasure for ourselves. Oh, we may want our guests to “have a good time” as well, but if it’s not a pleasurable time for us, those guests won’t be invited back! The posture of our heart is to please ourselves through the company of others.

Hospitality is a reversal of that “heart posture” to one of making your home open to just about anyone for their pleasure — it’s for their benefit!

For many years Dr. Frances Schaeffer and his wife, Edith, ran a house of Christian hospitality and study in Switzerland called L’Abri. They opened their hearts and homes to hundreds of people seeking biblical answers to life’s challenges. In her book, What is a Family?, Edith offers this counsel: “Every Christian home is meant to have a door that swings open.”

Another couple were well-known for opening their home long before the Schaeffers practiced Christian hospitality. Alexander Strauch writes in his book, “The Hospitality Commands,” the following:

“Famed father of the Reformation, Martin Luther, considered hospitality to be of central importance to the growth and health of the Body of Christ and its members. He and his wife, Katie, were legendary for their open door hospitality. ‘For the great house was always full to the brim,’ cites Luther historians, Preserved Smith, Ph.D and Herbert Percival Gallinger, Ph.D.”

Many of the conversations held in his home and around his table were recorded in Luther’s work, Table Talk. Of that volume, The Christian Classics Ethereal Library notes:

“In 1517, Martin Luther’s 95 Theses sparked the Protestant Reformation by challenging the practices of the Roman Catholic Church and the authority of the pope. Many of Luther’s books were ordered to be burned as a result of Luther’s dissent. Despite this fact, a copy of Martin Luther’s Table Talk (then entitled Divine Discourses) was found preserved under the foundations of a German citizen’s home in 1626. Table Talk contains a series of informal conversations Luther shared with his students and colleagues in his home. The topics of these conversations range from religious doctrine and history to instructions regarding government, church, and the academic university.”

Martin Luther proved that the table is a splendid pulpit from which to teach God’s truths and disciple God’s people. If you want new Christians to grow, open your home and share your love and knowledge with them. Your home is the best tool you have to enhance loving Christian community. Your local church can become a friendlier, more loving community if you — and others you know — consistently open your homes to one another.

And even before Martin and Katie practiced hospitality, the first church turned the world upside with it! Pastor and author, Max Lucado, writes in his book, Outlive Your Life, about God employing hospitality as a key strategy for the church:

Long before the church had pulpits and baptisteries, she had kitchens and dinner tables. Even a casual reading of the New Testament unveils the house as the primary tool of the church. The primary gathering place of the church was the home. Consider the genius of God’s plan. The first generation of Christians was a tinderbox of contrasting cultures and backgrounds. At least fifteen different nationalities heard Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost. Jews stood next to Gentiles. Men worshiped with women. Slaves and masters alike sought-after Christ. Can people of such varied backgrounds and cultures get along with each other?

We wonder the same thing today. Can Hispanics live in peace with Anglos? Can Democrats find common ground with Republicans? Can a Christian family carry on a civil friendship with the Muslim couple down the street? Can divergent people get along?

The early church did — without the aid of sanctuaries, church buildings, clergy, or seminaries. They did so through the clearest of messages (the Cross) and the simplest of tools (the home).

Not everyone can serve in a foreign land, lead a relief effort, or volunteer at the downtown soup kitchen. But who can’t be hospitable? Do you have a front door? A table? Chairs? Bread and meat for sandwiches? Congratulations! You just qualified to serve in the most ancient of ministries: hospitality.

When we entertain guests, our focus is on entertaining guests for our entertainment! But when we swing open the doors of our homes for hospitality, our focus is threefold:

• • On loving them, those who are welcomed in.
  • On ministering to them, looking after their needs.
  • And on enjoying them!

That’s quite a difference!

It can be fun to entertain guests and be entertained by them, but it can be a blessing to swing open the door of your home for hospitality.

Who are you inviting in?

Scotty