Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God. Romans 15:7
“At its core, the practice of biblical hospitality is obeying the command of Romans 15:7 to “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you.” It’s receiving others into our lives — into relationship and, yes, even into our homes. It welcomes Christians as a way to walk in the truth that we’ve been made family through the gospel, and it welcomes non-Christians in an attempt to model and extend the gracious invitation we’ve received from God in Christ.
Leveraging our personal refuges for this mission of welcoming others may feel like a great cost, but it is a cost that is repaid with an abundance of superior joys. Loneliness is traded for community, comfort is surrendered for an eternal purpose, and detached apathy is left behind for a mission meaningful enough to give you life to.
If we walk in this biblical hospitality and view your homes foremost as a gospel weapon, offering our homes for the Holy Spirit to use as He sees fit, then there’s no telling what could happen. It may not transpire fast and it may not be some glamorous story that goes into a book, but God will do what He promised: He will build His church and draw people to Himself through our ordinary faithfulness to leverage our homes for His mission.”
Dustin Willis and Brandon Clements in The Simplest Way to Change the World: Biblical Hospitality as a Way of Life (Chicago: Moody, 2017), 26-27.
My wife and I were watching a movie recently, when the tight-knit group of characters proclaimed, “we’re not friends, we’re family.” They held a bond deeper than friendship. That’s what I recently experienced in Connecticut. There are friends there that have become family to us, thanks to God’s abundant grace to us.
I preached as a guest speaker in Colchester, CT, on Sunday and had (if I am counting correctly) four couples and a total of 11 children, so counting me there were 20 of us for the service and lunch thereafter. I introduced them to the church as my “family” because, in the words of Willis and Clements, “we’ve been made family through the gospel.”
I told them what I will tell you today as readers. When God knits a group of people together who love Jesus deeply, we become family, but it must not stop there. Together, they must open our doors to others. I promised an abundance of superior joys in return and reminded them that their children will live likewise, but only if they show the way.
What about you? Are you using your home as a “gospel weapon”? We tend to think of ours more in terms of a “sanctuary” filled with peace, grace, mercy, love, and generosity. Whatever label you affix to it, leverage your home for God on mission. Use it, like the rest of your earthly wealth, to “make friends” for eternity (Luke 16:9).