Read: 1 Peter 4:9-10

The Gift of Hospitality is the particular ability that God gives to certain members of the Body of Christ to joyfully open their home and/or church facilities and provide for the needs of others, from a loving, welcoming atmosphere to food and accommodation. People with the gift of hospitality easily make visitors, guests, and strangers feel relaxed and accepted. They make them feel at home.

1 Peter 4:9 reads, “Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.” Thus, on one hand, hospitality is a duty of all followers of Christ, so no one should refuse to utilize it with the excuse that he or she is not gifted for hospitality. And, on the other hand, hospitality is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, as soon as Peter opened the theme of hospitality, he switched to the topic of the gifts of the Spirit, so the very next verse (1 Peter 4:10) reads, “Just as each one has received a gift, minister it to one another…” Hospitality is a gift, and those with it accommodate others without extra effort. In fact, it energizes them as they do so.

What is your reaction to the news that guests are coming your way? If your reaction is to worry about everything being in place, clean, and decorated, and about the best dish to serve, then you might have other gifts. Hospitality is not the prideful presentation of self. It is the purposeful sharing of your nest. It is the tenable love of strangers. In fact, the word hospitality in the original Greek text, filoksenoi, means “love of strangers”.

By the definition of the word “stranger,” we do not know who they are. So, Hebrews 13:2 reads, “Be sure to welcome strangers into your home. By doing this, some people have welcomed angels as guests, without even knowing it.”

The Early Church gathered in both the temple and in the homes of believers. “Day after day they met together in the temple. They broke bread together in different homes and shared their food happily and freely. “ (Acts 2:46)

Cveta’s and my experience is that the Lord equipped us with the gift of hospitality as one of the key methods of the church-planting strategy. For decades, we moved from one cultural context to another (we moved forty times, across two continents and four countries), starting churches in our living rooms.

The Apostle Paul, closing his epistle to Colossians, sends his special greetings “to Nympha and the church that meets in her home.” (Colossians 4:15) Here, no comment on Nympha’s gift of hospitality is needed. It is evident that hospitality is one of the primary ways Christ has chosen to build His church.