Hospitality is a defining mark of a disciple. In the time when the New Testament was written, there were no motel or restaurant chains. People depended more on the willingness of strangers to open their homes to provide hospitality. Peter wrote:
Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. 1 Peter 4:9 (NLT)
Jesus made hospitality a measuring stick of our willingness to put his teachings into action.
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 creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. Matthew 25:34-35 (NLT)
Hospitality is a ministry skill and practice helps us to be more effective in our pursuit of fulfilling the Great Commission.
The first element of the Great Commission is the “GO.” We are not called to build structures to host all our outreach and evangelism efforts. We are not merely to invite people to come to a church meeting with us to listen to the preacher. That may be an “efficient” easy way to try to do evangelism, but Jesus asked us to pray for God to send out people with a shepherd’s heart who will leave the comforts of home and church to go into the ripe fields of our neighborhoods looking for those who need Jesus.
But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. 38 Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:36–38 (NKJV)
One aspect of the “going” part of the Great Commission can be best pursued by the minority of individuals who have powerful evangelistic pulpit ministries and can attract large crowds to hear gospel messages. Most disciples, however, do not have such a ministry gift and must rely on more down to earth methods to “catch” people for the kingdom of God. That is where hospitality comes into play.
Lifestyle evangelism is built on the premise that relationship building with our friends, neighbors, and coworkers is a gateway to reaching people, leading them to faith in Christ, and helping them become missional disciples in their own right.
There are no shortcuts in building relationships. Whereas, one can “button hole” a stranger in order to share a “one minute” version of the gospel, the kind of trust that allows us to speak to the deeper issues in a person’s life can only be built the old fashioned way – through making the effort to build a genuine relationship over time.
Most of us live in neighborhoods in which we probably don’t even know a great number of the residents.
How do we break through the invisible barrier that has been erected against truly knowing one another? I believe it starts with a decision to be deliberately outgoing and hospitable.
Fortunately we do not have to be extroverts to be good at this. Most of us are mixtures of introversion and its opposite. We can learn to function effectively as an extrovert, even if we are not naturally internally motivated to engage and be with people. Our motivation springs from a commitment to the Great Commission and a compassion for people whom Jesus described as “harassed and helpless” and who have no Shepherd.
Making a decision to become more involved in our neighbor’s lives should result in our sending prayers to heaven on their behalf and making the effort to speak to them when we have the opportunity.
Here’s a thought: if we don’t talk with people, we will never get to know them or be able to share the gospel with them. Being an island to ourselves is antithetical to the Great Commission.
Once we begin to have conversations with people, we are going to learn all sorts of things about them, which can give us opportunities to pray for them and otherwise speak into their lives. It also gives us a chance to receive from them. Good relationships are always a give and take proposition. It is important for us to learn how to receive. There are not many things more off putting to a relationship than being a “know it all” who never needs any help. If there is no give and take, we don’t really have a relationship. We simply may be hunting for a gospel “trophy.” If we are properly motivated, we love people just regardless of how they respond to the gospel. Our goal is to love as unconditionally as God does. Otherwise, people will see right through us.
I put visitation next on the list.
Talk can be fairly cheap, but a visit speaks louder than words.
When our neighbors welcome us into their homes, they may begin to open up their lives to us on a whole new level. The favor can be returned by our inviting them into our homes, too, just for a visit, or perhaps for a meal.
Deeper relationships can often be built over shared meals. This allows us to enter the realm of biblical hospitality.
Showing hospitality has its own reward, but what if it results in our being able to help a neighbor experience God’s love through the gospel? How can that properly be valued? Making disciples is a big reason why we are here. We can experience the joy of opening our homes and lives to our neighbors, if we take the leap into being hospitable.
(A great resource on this topic is a book by Rosaria Butterfield entitled The Gospel Comes with a House Key.)
