The book of Acts is a record of hospitality extended in the early church. People like Jason, Priscilla, and Aquila risked their necks to show hospitality to those who were preaching the gospel. Hospitality toward gospel-workers is all over Paul’s epistles. He expects hospitality for himself from both churches and individuals (Romans 15:24, 32; Philemon 22).

Love of Strangers

The New Testament word translated as hospitality is literally “love of strangers.” We know we’re not wrong in applying the term to welcoming those in our churches because each of the hospitality commands is nestled within passages about brotherly love. At the same time, while our hospitality should start in our local churches, it shouldn’t stop there. In addition to welcoming one another, we should welcome unbelievers, as well as needy saints.

Once when Jesus dined in the house of a Pharisee, he said to his host:
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. (Luke 14:12–14)

The world schemes and calculates, “What can I get out of this in this life?” But Christians are strategically storing up treasure in heaven. Imagine the meals and accommodation there!

We bonded with our former next-door neighbors because they had kids the same age as ours and a friendly labrador who liked to play with our golden retriever. They had lived in Dubai for a long time and were happy to join us for dinner and attend our Christmas carol parties, but they never showed interest in the gospel.

Nevertheless, when a Muslim friend of theirs wanted a Bible, they came to us. As a result, I was able to lead my neighbor and her Muslim friend in a Bible study through the Gospel of Mark. Eventually both started coming to church.

How well do you know your neighbors? I confess, my husband and I have gone through seasons of being more or less involved with our neighbors—often realizing that we had wrongly become too “busy” to reach out. But fellow Christian, make time to invite your unbelieving neighbors into your life for the sake of the gospel.

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