Hebrews 13:2

Hospitality to strangers

One of the most incredible moments of hospitality that I was ever the recipient of came from strangers who were not followers of Jesus. It was 2017 and Somi and I were still living in Northern Africa. We were living in a huge metropolitan city and I had been having this relationship with this guy, I'll call him Z for now. Z and I had been talking about the gospel week after week after week. He was a university student and his interest seemed to really be growing each week that we had a conversation. And our friendship was growing deep and rich. He invited me to come into the countryside to spend a long weekend with his aunt and uncle. It was a much smaller city. And while we were there, from the moment that I entered the door, I was shocked by the way that I was received. I walked through the door, and our hosts, who spoke no English, they only spoke Arabic, were there waiting to receive me, literally with open hands, walking me through the door, holding my hands as I entered. overwhelmed by what they felt like was the honor to have me in their home. We sat down and immediately they began laying out this huge feast for us to eat. The moment that I had walked in the door, telling me how thankful that they were that I was there in their country and there with them in their home. I got up to go use the restroom to wash my hands and they insisted that I sit back down, that I absolutely could not get up and instead they brought a bowl of water to the table, brought out washcloths, and the host, the man, grabbed my hands and washed my hands for me in this bowl of water. I was so overwhelmed, so shocked by the type of honor that I was receiving from my host that I didn't know how to take it in. The evening went on in similar fashion and throughout the whole weekend I continued to just be bombarded with honor from these hosts who were strangers to me before this weekend. And I walked away from that weekend having had many wonderful gospel opportunities but also deeply troubled in my soul that I had never shown such hospitality to anyone who had ever entered my home and these people did not know Jesus. That moment has stuck with me for many, many years and makes a passage in a series like we're in tonight all the more important for us as followers of Jesus as we seek to show hospitality to others. Our passage tonight from Hebrews chapter 13 verse two focuses on the idea of strangers that we would show hospitality to. And it shows us that regardless of where we live or what culture we come from, hospitality is not something that is optional in the lives of followers of Jesus. It's really at the core of Christian love for other Christians and at the center of our witness to the lost. would you look with me at Hebrews chapter 13, verse two. Our verse today comes at the beginning of this long list of commands at the end of the book of Hebrews, outlining how Christians are to live in a Christ-honoring way in light of the rich gospel truths that the whole book of Hebrews has been laying out up to this point. Read with me, Hebrews 13, verse two. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. So the primary verb, the primary action in our text is this command, do not neglect. It is an imperative, it's a command, which means that it's not an optional thing alongside this long list of commands given in Hebrews 13. And the assumption of this command in particular is that it's not a singular act. It's not a call to be hospitable once to strangers, but instead an ongoing lifestyle-defining practice of not neglecting to show hospitality to strangers. And of course, like Josh talked about last week, culturally, this would have been assumed to be quite common in the culture in which the letter of Hebrews was written. It would be much more similar culturally to what I experienced in North Africa in the home of my friend's aunt and uncle. For us, I think there are several key questions that we want to ask of this text. And the first is, who should show such hospitality to strangers? And the letter of Hebrews being written to the church, it is the church first that should show this kind of hospitality, it's Christians. And as was talked about last week, this means the whole church, not just a few people within the church. Not just the women of the church, but the men in the church too. Not just the extroverts of the church who love spending time with lots of people, but all of the church using their gifts to show hospitality. It means that it's not just the couples and the families of the church who are to show hospitality, but the singles, the newly marrieds, the marrieds with kids, the empty nesters, and those who are advanced in their years, all contributing their gifts to show hospitality to strangers. The whole church. Next to whom should hospitality be shown? And just like this text says, here in this context, the emphasis is hospitality to strangers. And like Josh mentioned last week, the same Greek word is used here in this passage. This word hospitality literally means the love of strangers. And this is not a new emphasis in this text, but it's something that's very consistent throughout the whole counsel of God's word. If we look all the way back to the giving of the law in Leviticus chapter 19, you see the exact same themes given to the people of God, the people of Israel then, to show hospitality to strangers. Leviticus 19 verses 33 and 34 say,

when a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as a native among you, and you shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

three key things from this text. First, they're commanded to treat these strangers wandering through their land, presumably some of them would have been among the people of God and some pagans, not among the people of God, but they're to treat them as natives. That's the kind of love that they're to show them. And the degree of love that they are to show them? They're to love them as themselves. High calling for the people of God, a high calling of love. And why, does it say? because they too were once strangers in the land of Egypt. Friends, we even more, we too were once strangers, alienated from God, but we have been brought near through Christ. How much more must we as new covenant believers who have been brought into the family of God extend that same love by welcoming strangers into our households? But who are those strangers? Who are the strangers in our lives? Two categories, Christian strangers and non-Christian strangers. I'll just give you a few examples. Christian strangers in our lives, very practically, among the church universal. Here it might be traveling missionaries or evangelists that we can welcome into our lives who we don't know. Visiting pastors who our church welcomes with such honor and dignity. Here, being in a university town, there are many, every fall there's new groups of young undergrad students, first years, or grad students who are looking for a church, and it's a perfect opportunity to show hospitality to strangers who are Christians. Or the unique privileges that we have of being in a university medical hub, there are Christians visiting the hospital all the time, and even over the past year, our church has had the opportunity to show hospitality to Christians who are coming to receive medical treatment or their kids need medical treatment. But I think this text also applies to non-Christian strangers, secondarily, but still applicable. Maybe we could think about, still with UVA in focus, foreign exchange students or other non-Christians who come to study at UVA every year, strangers among us who we can be hospitable to. Refugees, there are actually many refugees here in Charlottesville. And if we could get connected to those communities, great opportunities to be hospitable to those strangers. But perhaps more broadly, we could say even just immigrants in general who are among us, Christian or not, legal or illegal. And this isn't a statement about your opinions about immigration policy. This verse and this devotional are not intended to set the immigration policy of governments. Instead, it's a command to churches and the individual Christians within those churches in terms of how they relate to the individual strangers among them. This is a command to love strangers, fellow image bearers, who are here regardless of where they come from, of what they believe, or of their legal status. Maybe your strangers are your neighbors and you don't know them. or your coworkers or your classmates. This would apply to all of them as well. All of this is a powerful testimony to the gospel itself that has made all of us who were once strangers a part of the family of God. True Christian hospitality to strangers is evangelism. It is evangelism. Now to the second half of that verse. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. This is interesting. So are angels visiting our homes? I don't think we're gonna get to the bottom of that in the next few minutes of this devotional. A few things that do seem clear, angels did appear to Abraham, unaware in Genesis 18, three angels, and Lot in Genesis chapter 19, And the Old Testament and the New Testament alike refer to angels throughout. There are many functions that they're talked about to perform. They're protectors, they're messengers, they're ones who carry out the will of God. According to the opinions of some scholars, as they look at this verse in Hebrews 13, the reference here might be exclusively referring to the examples of Abraham and Lot, that their example of having entertained angels unawares should motivate us today. Others think that it's possible that angel visitations, unawares, are still happening today in an ongoing way. So have we entertained angels? I think it's hard to say. Maybe. I don't know. But one thing is for sure. It is certainly, we have certainly not entertained angels if we are not practicing hospitality to strangers. And I think that is the real thrust of this verse.

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.

Hospitality has been a supernatural blessing to some of the people of God in the past, and it is intended to not just bless the stranger recipient, but also the giver of said hospitality as well. In the parable of final judgment in Matthew 25, Christ gives an even greater motivation for showing hospitality than the possibility of angels visiting our homes. This is the parable that we spoke about last week where the sheep are separated from the goats and then Jesus welcomes the sheep into his father's kingdom. He says,