Church of the Vine Articles

Be Hospitable To One Another

  • 03/18/09

Continuing our look at the ‘one anothers’, here is 1 Peter 4:9 from   several versions: 

 

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling (NIV).

Be hospitable to one another without complaint (NASB).

Be hospitable to one another without grumbling (New King James Version)

 

The two key words seem to be ‘hospitality’, and ‘grumbling’ or

‘complaint’.

 

The term ‘hospitality’ usually connotes the idea of having people in your home, to eat and/or stay for a time.  The word ‘hospitality’ itself is rich and provocative.

 

The Greek compound word translated ‘hospitality’, philoxenos, literally means ‘friend’(philo), and ‘stranger’(xenos).  Peter is speaking to Christians, so he assumes that even in the church community, not everyone knows one another.  Perhaps he needs to say this because the church at the time was a mixture of distinct, often hostile people groups(Jew, Greeks, Samaritans, etc.) who before becoming the body of Christ would have never eaten, let alone stayed, with each other! 

 

This is the beauty, power, and genius of the Kingdom of God.  Former enemies, strangers, aliens, like we all were in our relationship to God and each other; these very people are now to offer friendship to each other.  We can remember this when there are people in our lives, both believers and non-believers, with whom we would never spend much time if we were not Kingdom people.  But we are!  And just maybe the thing that  seems the most different or difficult for us is the thing that brings blessing we would never know otherwise. 

‘Grumbling’, or ‘complaint’, carries the idea of ‘murmuring’, especially like a ‘secret debate’.  Peter is saying here that we are to offer friendship to strangers without secretly complaining.  Pretty challenging, but how much like Jesus this is!

 

My own testimony is that Susan and I have been the recipients of hospitality over the years that has both helped us immensely in times of need or hardship, and showed to us God’s love as nothing other than hospitality could have .  I pray that we will grow in our hospitality!

 

Here are some thinking points:

 

  • Understanding the meaning of the word ‘hospitality’, what are ways that we could offer it to one another? 

 

  • How can we help each other learn to offer hospitality to others?

 

  • What are possible remedies to ‘secret complaints’?

 

  • Think of a time when you might have been the recipient of hospitality, especially from someone who didn’t know you that well.  What do you remember? 

       

May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with us.