Defining Hospitality
The word “hospitality” in our New Testament comes from the Greek PHILOXENIA. I know. I looked it up. I really did.
It’s evident that words evolve over time. This word at one time meant “affection for the foreigner, for the stranger”. Yet it is consistently translated “hospitality”, a word defined in most our churches as “having the gang over”.
There seems to be a move by modern translators to enlarge our vision of hospitality. The NRSV translates Romans 12.13:
Peterson, in The Message, translates 1 Peter 4.9:
What do you think? Have we so limited our hospitality as to eliminate the welcome of the “foreigner” into our homes? The visiting teacher, or the Swiss preacher’s family, we’ll welcome them (for a few days). But what about the real, homeless foreigner? Do we offer him (or her) a roof over their heads?
It’s evident that words evolve over time. This word at one time meant “affection for the foreigner, for the stranger”. Yet it is consistently translated “hospitality”, a word defined in most our churches as “having the gang over”.
There seems to be a move by modern translators to enlarge our vision of hospitality. The NRSV translates Romans 12.13:
Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers. (Emphasis mine.)
Peterson, in The Message, translates 1 Peter 4.9:
Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully.
What do you think? Have we so limited our hospitality as to eliminate the welcome of the “foreigner” into our homes? The visiting teacher, or the Swiss preacher’s family, we’ll welcome them (for a few days). But what about the real, homeless foreigner? Do we offer him (or her) a roof over their heads?
January 22nd, 2007 at 2:05 pm
Your timing is impeccable my Swiss Brother. Yesterday we had a young man visit us at church who was camping out in the woods near our building. I offered him some food from our food pantry but then my wife reminded me of what you just wrote about, true hospitality. She said, “That was nice thing you just did. Now go invite him out to lunch with us because I bet he hasn’t eaten a nice hot meal in days. We ended up taking our friend to Longhorn’s and then to a local hotel. No props for me here. It was all due to my wife who excels in the gift of hospitality. Good post Bro.
Brady comments: God bless you and your wife for letting doing what was needed and even more… Loving the stranger. Very good.
January 22nd, 2007 at 3:41 pm
What a great reminder. I pride myself that College is so good at receiving the strangers and those who don’t “look like us.” But it’s something I’m still very much working on myself.
January 22nd, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Perhaps the problem lies with the mixed messages we receive?
We understand the truth of: “Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully.”
But in the back of our mind we hear mom saying: “Don’t talk to strangers.” Adding to our confusion we hear dad saying: “Don’t pick up hitchhikers.”
And so we are confused.
January 22nd, 2007 at 6:36 pm
When I was a small child, I can remember hobos coming through the countryside, and my Mom would feed them on the back porch. Another time, I remember one being allowed to sleep on a couch on the front porch. I don’t know if he was invited to sleep in the house or not. Today, even in that corner of NE Arkansas, I’ll bet there’s not a soul that would do it. Today’s world is a dangerous place, and it’s sometimes difficult to balance good judgment and what the Bible teaches us to do. Not too many years ago, a young lady who was traveling through Tennessee on her way to school stopped and picked up a hitchhiker. The paper said she was known for kindly acts and taking the hospitality teaching into action in her life. She was found dead some days later. I struggle with this, just as I’m sure all of us do. But when I fail to act according to conscience, I hear that country song, “What if he’s an angel?” or the scripture about entertaining angels unaware.