Hospitality Leads To Evangelism

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. – 1 Peter 4:9

From today’s key Scripture passage, it is very clear that in order to live a godly, God-honoring life, we need to be hospitable. But do you know what that means – to be hospitable? It means to open your home. More specifically, it means to open your home without grumbling or complaining.

This was modeled so well for us in Scripture. Remember, at this particular time in history, they didn’t have many hotels, so people had to find other places to stay. As a result, people would often open their homes to travelers. It was part of the culture back then, and there was a lot of fruit that came from practicing this kind of hospitality. With this in mind, Simon Peter implies that we need to open our houses to allow people to stay with us, and we need to do so with a good attitude, without grumbling.

Practicing this kind of hospitality is important for us because it often opens the door for evangelism. Have you ever thought that if someone came and stayed at your house, you would have time with them? You would have breakfast with them, maybe lunch, and possibly dinner with them. That would give you multiple opportunities to find out where they are in their life and in their walk with God.

So Peter is saying that, as you open your house, there will be opportunities to share Christ with others.

Now, you might be saying, “That doesn't really apply to me because most people are not looking to stay at my house.” But this is not a commandment for a select few of Jesus’ followers. God wants us all to be men and women who are hospitable.

So I want to encourage you, at some point in the next week, to choose to practice hospitality. Invite someone into your home. Cook them a meal. Or even just ask them over for a cup of coffee. You never know how God could use this interaction to impact someone’s life and faith forever.