HEBREWS 13:2

Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.

TO PONDER

We are told that it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery, to become an expert in any field. (“Outliers” Malcolm Gladwell).

While Malcolm Gladwell popularised the “10,000 hour rule” in his book, Paul was already talking about this principle thousands of years earlier when he was discussing the need to practice hospitality in a letter I mentioned earlier this week. He tells the church plant in Rome to intensely practice expansive hospitality in-house, amongst fellow believers to make this type of hospitality second nature, a natural response. 

In today’s verse Paul encourages the church in Jerusalem to continue in practicing expansive hospitality to each other but also to strangers, to share meals with even the non-Hebrews, to help meet the needs of the stranger, to treat the outsider as family.

The Jerusalem church was the original church, the first church dedicated to following the teachings of Jesus, a church burdened with staying true to God’s commands, but a church struggling with an "us and them" mentality.

Paul encourages the Hebrews (Jewish people) to continue in practicing expansive hospitality to each other (fellow Jews) and to also to take it outside the walls, expand it beyond their comfortable community to the strangers. Today I would encourage you to re-read this verse and imagine Paul is talking to you about LifeWay’s Table Moments, sharing 600 meals, across all of our sites, by inviting the stranger to your house for a meal demonstrating expansive hospitality.

PRAYER:  Mighty God, I give you thanks that even when I was a stranger to you, you reached out to me, demonstrating your unconditional expansive hospitality inviting me to your table welcoming me as family, no longer a stranger.  Amen.

Today's devotion written by Danny Brock, LifeWay WestSide.