For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in. Matthew 25:35
“The New Testament values hospitality highly. Jesus was both a host who received strangers and a guest who received hospitality. He welcomed all at His table: feeding the hungry, healing the sick, and receiving social outcasts such as tax collectors and prostitutes. He instructed His disciples to give a blessing wherever they were received to show that He built hospitality into His mission.”
Emily J. Choge in “Hospitality in Africa” in Africa Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006) 390.
I don’t know about the culture where you grew up, but a common statement to children in America went like this: Don’t talk to strangers. Society deemed this appropriate behavior.
The more I look at biblical teaching from an African perspective, the more I find that Jesus not only talked to strangers, He “built hospitality” toward them into His mission.
They were not peripheral, but central, perhaps to show that God’s love and grace could abound to everyone. He welcomed all to His table and invites us to go and do likewise.
Here’s a challenge for you. Learn someone’s name today. They just might go from a stranger to an acquaintance and even someday become a friend. Jesus wants them in His family, and so should we.