(Further reflection on "Perplexity & Hospitality"--Sunday 25-Feb-2024)
Hospitality is more caught than taught. Having knowledge of it does not always translate into practice. And practicing it does not always mean doing it without complaints. This is why we are called to live it out with joy (cf. 1 Peter 4:9). Jesus had demonstrated and modeled it for us. He was hospitable to us while we were still sinners. He invited us to come to the Father to be with God forever. through His death and resurrection, ascension, and coming back to take us.
Hospitality is one of the active ingredients of living out the Gospel. It welcomes divine appointments and embraces the divine injunction on dietary law. This means what others can eat (even if it is not our preference), we should eat (with the exception Acts 15:20) for the purpose of fellowship and mutual respect. Food can disconnect as well as connect. Hostility chooses the former. Hospitality chooses the latter. A self-centered mindset chooses the former. A Christ-centered lifestyle (heart and mind) chooses the latter. When Christians do not practice hospitality, they might lack understanding of the Gospel or unawareness of nullifying the Good News of Jesus and making Christ a religious figurehead. This is an unknowingly dishonorable way of living, to say the least.
Hospitality, biblically speaking, ushers God's presence into one's life or household as it seeks and brings people to Christ. Practically speaking, if no one (in your office or church) knows where you work and live, something is tragically wrong and the gospel has been inactive or worse still, dead. This is an indicator of your spirituality. So let us examine our life and calendar. Is there time for practicing hospitality? Any space for the gospel to be shared in the home context? Any Christlike heart/mind for the unsaved? And the choice/response is yours.
In Jesus,
--
Pastor Lap
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