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A Heart for HospitalityLadies coffee night & Bible study, Jan 9/12

The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled so that you can pray.

 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to

one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others,fai thfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. (1 Peter 4:7-10 NIV)

Peter starts out this passage by warning us that “the end is near.” Peter, as most other New Testament writers

and early church members did, believed the day of Christ’s return was just around the corner. And we, though

2000 years have passed, also know it could be tomorrow ~ and surely, for the simple reality that time

continues to progress towards that end, we know it’s closer now than it was 2000 years ago. 

Interestingly, he doesn’t tell us to go out and evangelize. He doesn’t tell us to more actively seek lost souls to

win for Christ. He tells us to be vigilant and to continue in growing in our knowledge of God and His Word, he

tells us to love fellow believers more deeply so we can forgive them more easily, and he tells us to practice

 joyful hospitality, serving fellow believers using the gifts and resources God has provided us with. Absolutely

nothing about spreading the Gospel!

Verse 8 makes it clear that love within the Body of Christ is of paramount importance in these end times.

“ Above all , keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” Love is the most

important, just like Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 13, and it is needed in exponentially increasing measure as the

end draws near. Why? Because the pressures and stresses and tribulations of the last days will put

relationships under tremendous stress, and the world will be watching to see if we are real, if our Christianity

is authentic. We’re reminded of Jesus’ words in the book of John: “By this all people will know that you are

my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

And then Peter gets practical and tells us how, exactly, we can show the love that covers a multitude of sins.

“Show hospitality to one another ~ wouldn’t it have been nice if he could have just ended the statement

there? WITHOUT adding that part about doing it cheerfully?? No, he says we must do it without grumbling.

But if we are loving earnestly and love is covering a multitude of sins, then we will not grumble so easily will

we? Love covers much of what makes us grumble. So hospitality without grumbling is the calling of Christians

in the last days. In the very days when your stress is high, and there are sins that need covering, and reasons

to grumble abound—in those very days, Peter says, what we need to do is practice hospitality.

Our homes need to be open. Because our hearts are open. And our hearts are open because God’s heart is

open to us. Moses reminds us in Deuteronomy 10 that the LORD our God is God of gods, Lord of lords, thegreat God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the

fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And YOU are to love those who

are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt.

Just like we, as Christians, are aliens in this world. John 15 and 17 remind us over and over again that we don’t

belong here; that God has chosen us out of this world, which is why we will be hated and persecuted by the

world, which is why we so desperately need each other. Which is why Peter has told us to ACTIVELY love each

other by cheerfully showing hospitality to each other. In Romans 12, verse 13, Paul instructs us to care for the

needs of other believers and to practice hospitality. Our NIV reads “practice” hospitality, but the original

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manuscripts use a much stronger word, one more accurately translated as “Passionately, enthusiastically

 pursue hospitality.”

And what happens when we get together in our homes? We, as receivers of God’s grace, who then become

managers of God’s grace, get to be the distributors of God’s grace!! If we belong to Christ, if we have by faith

received His saving hospitality, which He paid for with His own blood, then we need to extend this hospitality

to others. Hospitality always costs ~ time, money, energy… it cost Christ His life. Romans 15:7: “Receive one

another as Christ has received you, for the glory of God.” We live on free grace every day. We need to begood stewards of that grace by extending it, by extending God’s hospitality to others. 

Remember how at the beginning we thought it a little odd that these verses were Peter’s end times strategy? 

I just want to wrap this up with a reminder that to be a Christian is not just to have our own personal

relationship with God ~ it is to be a contributing part of a family. For New Testament believers, that was a

powerful concept. They had come out of all different kinds of backgrounds—slaves, free, Jews, Gentiles, men,

women—but they had come to be related to each other, brothers and sisters in the family of God.

And for those first Christians who were living in a pagan, hostile world that rejected Christ, this family was very

important to them. They stuck together. They had to. Their survival depended upon it. They shared theirmaterial possessions. They met in homes. They ate meals together. They cared for each other’s widows. They

showed hospitality to each other.

The ministry of hospitality is one of the key factors that explains how Christianity was able to expand and

advance so rapidly during that time. When the first century non-believing world looked at Christians, they

were forced to acknowledge, “these people REALLY love each other.” It explains why Christianity is growing in

leaps and bounds in poor countries, or countries where Christians are actively, aggressively persecuted.

Based on what we find in the New Testament Scriptures, hospitality is one of the most practical, concrete

expressions of true Christian love and one of the most effective ways of spreading the Gospel message.

Remember those “one anothers” of Scripture we talked about way back in September? Love one another,pray for one another, admonish one another, encourage one another, bear one another’s burdens, etc….

Showing hospitality to one another is just one of those. And through fulfilling the command to be hospitable

to one another we can fulfill virtually ALL the other “one another’s”!!

It’s in the context of our homes, not standing in the aisles after church, that we have the greatest

opportunities to love others, to serve them, to encourage them, to admonish them, to bear their burdens.

And many non-believers who would never darken the doorway of a church, will gladly come to your home ~

whether it’s neat or messy, whether for a simple cup of tea or a fancy 5-course dinner ~ to visit with a friend

who cares about them and who’s eager to show it by listening to them and joyfully serving them.

(with much inspiration from John Piper & Nancy Leigh DeMoss)