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From Luke’s Journal June 2024  |  Vol.29 No.2  |  Christian Hospitality

“Would takeaway bought-from-the-shops lunch boxes do?”

That was a thought I often had when I first got married. At that time we had just moved into our new home and we wanted to open our home to others. I wanted to be hospitable, but I did not feel competent. Up until then, I had spent most of my living hours studying, working, and sleeping, which left little time for mastery in essential home skills. I was thankful for a very understanding husband, who did not complain about having ‘blackened steak’ and ‘yellow broccoli’ for dinner regularly, but I could not really serve the same to my guests, could I?

Now, decades later, my home skills have improved. My mindset has also changed. Over time I came to realise there are many ways to practice hospitality and being hospitable. Having great cooking skills would be rather handy, but thankfully, it is not a prerequisite for practising the kind of hospitality that God has in mind. What’s more, “out-of-the-box lunches” from the shops can be a great conversation starter.

While hospitality often conjures up images of eating together, entertaining guests elaborately and providing exceptional cuisine is not the definition of being hospitable. According to the Cambridge Dictionary,¹ hospitable is defined as “friendly and welcoming to guests and visitors” and “providing good conditions for living or growing.”

Hospitality is reflected in God’s character from the beginning of creation. The book of Genesis describes God’s extravagant “out-of-this-world” hospitality to humankind. God provided the Garden of Eden for Adam and Eve to live in, inviting them to enjoy His creations, and providing them with everything they needed, offering the perfect conditions for them to thrive and multiply. Not only did God create a hospitable dwelling for Adam and Eve to enjoy in Eden, but Adam and Eve also had the privilege to encounter God personally. God welcomed Adam and Eve into His presence and invited them to experience His goodness.

Later in the Old Testament, God deemed the Israelites as His people and generously welcomed them into a covenant relationship with Him. God relentlessly pursued the Israelites and cared for them. God’s daily provision of manna, quail, and water to the grumbling and ungrateful Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 16) is the perfect example of God’s creative way of demonstrating hospitality. What’s more, God’s faithful provision of manna and quail continued for 40 years, until the Israelites arrived at the border of Canaan (Exodus 16:35).

God’s purpose? To draw the Israelites to Himself by prioritising and attending to their needs.

God’s reason? L.O.V.E. Love.

In the New Testament, the Bible uses the Greek word, “philoxenos”² for hospitable, which means “loving strangers”. Hebrews 13:2 reminds us, “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it”.

Jesus, while on earth, valued hospitality. He taught about being hospitable. Remember the parable of the good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25-37)? In Matthew 25, Jesus also instructed his disciples to “take care of the least of these”. He and his disciples often relied on the hospitality of others as they went from place-to-place teaching. For example, Jesus asked for water from the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4:7-42). Through this, Jesus’s hospitality was also evident, as He invited her to ask and drink from His living water, culminating in Jesus’s declaration, “I, the one speaking to you – I am He [the Messiah]” (John 4:26). Hospitality involves sharing as well as receiving.

Jesus’ purpose? For the Samaritan woman to encounter God, and through her testimony, for other Samaritans to encounter God (John 4:39).

Jesus’ reason? L.O.V.E. Love.

There are many examples in the New Testament of Jesus practising what he taught and showing hospitality to those he encountered. For example, Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding, fed five thousand people with five loaves of bread and two fish (Mark 6:30-44), dined with outcasts (Luke 19:5-6), and welcomed children.

Jesus’s purpose? To draw people to God by prioritising and attending to their needs.

Jesus’ reason? L.O.V.E. Love.

Jesus dying on the cross was THE ultimate act of hospitability, sacrificing Himself to die on the cross for all the sinners of the world.³ Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace you have been saved through faith, it is not your own work. It is the gift of God”.

Grace is God’s hospitality toward all mankind.

The reason? L.O.V.E. Love.

Love is the root of hospitality and central to being hospitable. God is love (1 John 4:16). The Bible tells us we are to love God and love others, including strangers and enemies. Matthew 5:43-48 says, “For if you love those who love you, what reward will you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don’t even the Gentiles do the same?” For Christians, being hospitable is an expression of God’s love. As believers, we are to imitate Christ. 1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us”.

After Jesus’ ascension, His disciples continued to live hospitably, accepting and displaying hospitality. Peter in 1 Peter 4:9 says to practice hospitality “ungrudgingly”. In thinking about Mark 10:28-30 in terms of hospitality, Dr Rosaria Butterfield, author of The Gospel Comes with A House Key wrote, “The gospel comes with a house key, and that key unlocks the “hundredfold” of God’s provision of family and community for others. Hospitality is the ground zero of the Christian life”.⁴

As Christians, living in 2024, how do we practice being hospitable? What does hospitality look like in this digital age in which privacy is prioritised, and everyone is busy and preoccupied?

Typically, when we are asked, “Do you practice hospitality?”, most of us would respond with an affirming, “Yes”. We would all like to think of ourselves as hospitable, right?

When we are asked how we practice being hospitable, we might say something like:

“At church, we welcome new families by inviting them to be part of our fellowship groups. We welcome them into our homes and spend time getting to know them and extending practical help to them. For example, how to enrol their children into the local school, or babysit for them. At work, we welcome new colleagues by helping them with their onboarding or asking them to have lunch together. We might create opportunities for them to meet others and invite them to be a part of our projects”.

Or we might admit that we would like to be more hospitable when we become more successful, more influential, or have more to share. In the words of Christian author Barbara Johnson, “The key [to hospitality] is not success but kindness. Success simply gives you a broader platform from which you may look for opportunities to do good, to respect others, and to show love…Determine to do what you can do. Go the second mile…”⁵ Genuine hospitality is fuelled by generosity regardless of how much or how little we have. Genuine hospitality prioritises others over us. In this way, we glorify God and draw others to Him.

Hospitality is often thought of as actions, but it can also be practised as an attitude. To have an attitude of hospitality means we are fully present, listening to understand, prioritising psychological safety that invites open sharing, inclusivity of diversity, and genuinely caring about others, including both their feelings and their needs. To practice hospitality as an attitude goes beyond the sharing of possessions to the higher calling of sharing ourselves.⁶ What’s more, an attitude of hospitality means not letting our friendliness and willingness wane, regardless of the response. To keep on being hospitable, in action and in attitude is challenging, but also possibly life-transforming.

John Piper in his writings mentioned “strategic hospitality”. It refers to using our abilities, time, possessions, and ourselves to “draw people into a deep experience of God’s hospitality”.⁷ It may involve extending hospitality to other believers, and through conversations, create collaborative opportunities to build capacity and spur each other on in the work of God. It may involve greeting non-believers, making the effort to remember their names and unique personal details, engaging them in conversations over weeks or months, and transforming the relationships from “strangers” to “friends”. Through personal and deliberate exchanges and sharing in each other’s lives, we may consciously or unconsciously encourage others to draw near to God.

Here are two strategic hospitality ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

Invest in the next generation of healthcare professionals

• Have you ever contemplated engaging in sessional teaching at a local Medical or Dental or Allied Health program, or welcoming students into your clinics for placements and experiential learning, or employing medical students to work in your clinics part-time as a medical scribe? By sharing a few hours of your time with students each week, not only will you contribute to their professional knowledge, ethical reasoning, and clinical insights as you discuss cases, but you will establish close relationships with the students which will enable you to influence their development, their ways of thinking and their future as a health professional. In sharing your experiences and your values, you may well encourage a student (or even a few) to draw near to God. You may also encounter students who are Christians, and your sharing and support will encourage them to shine God’s light and share God’s love among their peers.

Contribute your knowledge capital

• In this digital age we live in, you can now contribute to developing countries by sharing your explicit and tacit knowledge, skills and expertise online to assist or mentor others including educators, clinicians and researchers in developing countries, to assist in their upskilling and help build capacity for change. Socially, knowledge capital is the key driver for growth, progress and innovations that ensure a competitive edge and economic growth.⁸ Sharing knowledge capital aligns with being hospitable. For example, I am a member of the Oral Health Action Network (OHAN), which aims to improve oral healthcare by supporting organisations and individuals in low-resource settings through advocacy, networking, capacity building, and research. Right now, we are developing an evidence-based oral health curriculum in collaboration with a university and a non-government organisation in Nepal. Once completed, the resource will be translated and used to upskill health workers employed by the Nepal Ministry of Health and adapted for use in other regions. OHAN originated from a writer’s group that a senior colleague and fellow CMDFA member connected me to. Our team members live in different parts of the world. Over time, we have progressed from strangers to colleagues working alongside each other, to friends sharing life and hope, all out of “the box” (the router)!

How are you practising Christian hospitality as a healthcare professional or student? We would love to know what “out-of-the-box” hospitality opportunities you engage in! If you would like to invite fellow Christian healthcare professionals and students to join you in your Christian hospitality endeavours, please share your ideas with us via: lukesjournalcmdfa@gmail.com. Brothers and sisters, as you commit to practicing Christian hospitality in traditional and creative ways to draw others to God, I pray that God will give you courage and bless your efforts. And yes, please pray for me too!

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Acknowledgements

Bible passages were taken from Today’s New International Version (TTNIV)/The Message REMIX Parallel Bible. USA: Zondervan, 2005.

References

1. Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Cambridge Dictionary 2024. https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/hospitable.
2. Bible Hub 2024. https://biblehub.com/greek/5382.htm.
3. Wilderboer I. What is Christian Hospitality? Christian Living. The Gospel Coalition Canadian Edition. 31 July 2023. https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-is-christian-hospitality/.
4. Butterfield, R. 10 Things You Should Know about Christian Hospitality. Crossway USA. 08 April 2018. https://www.crossway.org/articles/10-things-you-should-know-about-christian-hospitality/
5. Johnson B. Boomerang Joy. Joy that Goes Around Comes Around. US: Zondervan, 1998. p.225.
6. Hernandez, W. Reaching In, Reaching Out. Henri Houwen’s Spiritual Insights for Humble Hospitality. Conversations: A Forum for Authentic Transformation. 2012; 10(1): 80-85.
7. Piper. J. Strategic hospitality. Desiring God. August 25, 1985. https://www.desiringgod.org/messages/strategic-hospitality
8. Toope, S. Knowledge Capital and Development for All. University of Cambridge Vice-Chancellor Address at the China Development Forum, Beijing. March 24, 2018. https://www.cam.ac.uk/about-the-university/how-the-university-and-colleges-work/people/vice-chancellor/speeches/knowledge-capital-development