As I began to read the Bible through the lens of hospitality, I began to see hospitality in every story. From the very beginning, hospitality has been at the forefront of relationships. God offered the first invitation to community in the garden. The land he created, the food he provided, and even a way back to him when we chose the wrong path.
Throughout scripture, there are more obvious offers of hospitality like Lydia to Paul and his fellow disciples. Then there are the hints that I never considered… like Stephen. In Acts 6, Stephen was ordained with others to be in charge of the food. Wait. Hold up. Pump. The. Breaks. Did you say ordained to be in charge of the food? Yep. Stephen the guy that was stoned for sharing Jesus and healing in his name. Yep. That guy was the food guy, an ordained position in the community of believers.
When you read the qualities of an elder, one of the traits in the list is hospitable. It is such a big deal that we see it over and over throughout scripture. It is way bigger than HGTV or Southern Living. It is the widow and her son prepared to eat their last meal and die, but instead listening to a prophet to share her last bread. It’s represented in Abraham’s generosity in Genesis 18. From creation to the cross we see examples of God’s extension of hospitality to us.
God put the desire in us to share our life. We want girlfriends, couple friends, mom friends, a mentor, an inviting home, a cozy couch, a welcoming table, but as in all things if we aren’t careful we can be focused on the peonies in the centerpiece and not the people in the chairs. We can take a beautiful life that God planned for us to eat together, live together, function or dysfunction together and instead make it a daily pursuit of things instead of a daily pursuit of people.
He told us over and over in the Bible it’s about people. I will make you fishers of men, go into all the world and tell them about me, while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. He also gave us examples of how hard it could be to walk out biblical hospitality through examples like Judas and Saul. We are expected to care for each other in such a way that people are drawn to Christ according to John 13:35.
They will know us by our love!
Go love radically. Be so different with how you care for others that you never have to tell anyone that you are a follower of Christ.
Much Love, Peeps!
Christie Pickard 
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