Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

GIVEN TO HOSPITALITY

This entry was posted on 02-13-2008 and is filed under uncategorized.

"Given to hospitality" (Romans 12:13-b NKJV).

We are studying the practice of Christian righteousness. A true Christian is given to hospitality. "Given" means just that - we have given ourselves to someone, some thing, or some cause. In this case it is hospitality. The Amplified Version says, "pursuing the practice of hospitality." The Moffat Translation says, "Make a practice of hospitality." Hospitality was the practice of the early Christians. They gave themselves wholeheartedly to the practice of hospitality - entertaining strangers.

The early Christians traveled from city to city. When they arrived, they did not know the Christians in that city. So it was incumbent upon the local Christians to show hospitality to the new Christians who visited their church assembly. Look at 1 Peter 4:9 in the Amplified. "Practice hospitality to one another - that is, those of the household of faith. (Be hospitable, that is, be a lover of strangers, with brotherly affection for the unknown guests, the foreigners, the poor and all others who come your way who are of Christ's body.) And [in each instance] do it ungrudgingly - cordially and graciously without complaining [but as representing Him]."

In my travels I have been the happy recipient of Christian hospitality most of the time. There have been times, however, when it was evident that the church I was visiting was not "given to hospitality." It is one thing to be cordial and friendly to those you know. It is quite another to be hospitable to those "unknown guests...who "are of Christ's body." Let us remember the words of Jesus: "Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to me." Or not!

Hymn/Prayer: "O, to be like Thee! Full of compassion, loving, forgiving, tender and kind. Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting, seeking the wandering sinner to find" (T. O Chisholm).