What a joy it is to be a member of the family of God and to be a member of his church. How humbling it is to know that we are members of the church for which Christ sacrificed himself out of love. Let us use the motivation that comes out of this joy to show a similar love to those around us. When we are humbled by the gospel, we are reminded that no one should be deemed unlovable.

Hospitality is vital to the life of the church. How we treat someone, whether they’re a visitor or longtime member, may affect their involvement within a church. It may also impact their decision to continue attending a church. Most of us have visited a church at some point in time. For me, especially when looking for a church while a seminary student, I asked myself three things:

1. Did I hear the gospel?

2. Did the church lead a God-centered worship service?

3. Did anyone greet or speak to me after the service?

While the first two points are usually out of our control, we can control the third one when someone visits our church.

We are called to display sincere love and affection when we greet each other.

On different occasions, Scripture tells us to greet each other with a holy kiss (Rom. 16:16, 1 Cor. 16:20, 2 Cor. 13:12, 1 Thess. 5:26, and 1 Peter 5:14). First century, Greco-Roman cultural norms are obviously very different from our twenty-first century, American cultural norms. We are not necessarily called to kiss each other when a handshake is a sufficient greeting, but there is an intimacy involved in the greeting we are told to give within the church. We are called to display sincere love and affection when we greet each other. This greeting reaches a deeper level, such as asking how we might pray for one another or rejoice and weep with someone.

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