Humble Hospitality
Be Encouraged
Our church community is blessed with incredibly hospitable people. I’ve experienced this rich hospitality firsthand on many occasions, as I hope you have as well—the warm welcome of a dinner table, the joyful (maybe intense?) energy of a game night, the deep conversation around a bonfire. It is in these moments where we experience the love of God in real and tangible ways.
Hospitality, when practiced rightly, beautifully adorns the gospel message we proclaim. It enfleshes the truths we believe and establishes the safety, space, and time needed for gospel growth. It seeks to treat guests like family to enjoy rather than spectators to impress (consider the difference here between hospitality and entertainment).
Furthermore, God uses the modest means of hospitality to build his kingdom and even to entertain angels (Hebrews 13:2). This is one of the reasons why Paul tells Timothy that hospitality is one of the qualifications that every elder of Christ’s church must demonstrate (1 Timothy 3:2). It is not insignificant!
Every extra trip to the grocery store, every extra placemat laid, and every extra blessing prayed is evidence of God’s grace working in and through the people of Emmaus Road Church. For that, we should be thankful and encouraged.
Be Warned!
However, one real danger of living in a community like this is our tendency to cast the sidelong glance at those who do “hospitality” better than us. Maybe they have a bigger or nicer house. Maybe they cook better food. Or maybe they just make it look way too easy. Our envy can begin to simmer.
What do we do with thoughts like these? They are dangerous if left unchecked. The Apostle James warns us that “where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice” (James 3:16).
How do we keep this disorder from creeping into our community? How do we extinguish the embers of jealousy and selfish ambition in our hearts, especially in regard to our efforts at hospitality? Paul gives us the remedy in Philippians 2:3-4. He says:
“Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
Easy enough, right? We should stop doing the wrong things, and we should start doing the right things. We should replace our vice with virtue—train our affections to love what is good and abhor what is evil. Put off selfishness, put on humility. Okay, got it.
It might be easy for us to conceptualize in theory, but difficult for us to do in practice.
So where do we turn when it seems that we can’t get off the hamster wheel of our sinful, selfish selves? And how do we begin to practice humble, selfless hospitality?
Look to Christ
Paul goes on to tell us to look to Christ Jesus. Not only is Christ our savior, but he is also our example. And Paul reminds us that the strength and power to count others more significant than ourselves doesn’t come from within ourselves, it comes when we focus our minds on Jesus. He is the one, who,
“…though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 3:6-8).
So, in your hospitality, do you cast the sidelong glance at others and serve them so that you can look good in comparison? Do you seek to impress rather than enjoy your guests? With selfish ambition, do you count yourself as more significant than those you serve?
What would it look like to cast an upward glance at Christ and serve others in a self-emptying way as he has served you? Would that have an affect on how you show hospitality and who you are ultimately trying to please?
Be Free
When Christ Jesus becomes your focus, you are freed to fumble forward in your hospitality. Not so that you can do it bigger and better than the next person, but so that you can bring glory to God as you serve those around you.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if you are the best at hospitality. What matters is that you have the humble mind of Christ.