In this Preacher’s Conference Ladies Session, Anne Welder teaches on the importance of hospitality and shares some practical ideas on making some good preparations for a meal and for overnight guests. Below are her notes:
1 Pet 4:9 says, “Use hospitality one to another without grudging.” Hospitality is warm, hearty friendliness, and favor toward others; and it’s your generous treatment and reception of guests. To use hospitality without grudging means you are not unwilling, reluctant, or sparing in your hospitality. In other words, you are looking for opportunities to be hospitable. Rom 12:13 puts it this way: We are to be “given to hospitality.”
Hospitality in serving a meal. Invite folks to your home and prepare a nice meal for them. These may be regular visitors to church, friends in church, invited guests, neighbors you’d like to get to know better, people to whom you’d like to witness, and so forth. In your home you avoid the distractions that are often present in a restaurant. And opening your home to guests definitely expresses a warmer reception than inviting them out for a meal.
While it is important to serve a good meal and present a nice table, hospitality is not only about the meal and the table. Hospitality provides a unique opportunity for fellowship. So, you want to balance the time you spend for your meal and table preparations with the time for fellowship so that you can visit and enjoy each others’ company.
Consider Martha. In Luke 10:38-42, Martha became so over-whelmed with preparing her meal that she neglected fellowship with Jesus. In verse 40, the Bible says that she was “cumbered about much serving.” The two words to notice are “much” and “cumbered.” You shouldn’t try to do so much that you become cumbered. In verse 41, Martha was “careful and troubled about many things.” She was worried. She was stressed. She was fretting. She had too “many things” to deal with. Therefore, she had no time for fellowship with Jesus.
Martha’s sister, Mary, on the other hand, “sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word,” [Lk 10:39]. She and Jesus weren’t concerned about the meal; they just wanted to spend time together. Thus, Jesus said in verse 42, “Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Your guests might forget, in time, what you served for supper. But they won’t forget your fellowship and hospitality. So, your meal and preparations can be very nice; just keep them simple enough so that you can enjoy time with your guests, and they can enjoy time with you.
Martha obviously learned, from this first experience, how to use hospitality without getting overwhelmed. In John 12:1-3, Martha served supper to Jesus, her brother, Lazarus, and guests [Lazarus “was one of them that sat at the table with” Jesus]. Verse 2 simply says, “Martha served.” She was not cumbered, careful or troubled this time. She was still more involved with the meal and serving the meal than Mary, but there was no fussing this time. And Mary was able to anoint the body of Jesus without distraction. Mary was certainly more into the fellowship than Martha, which shows us that some of us are going to lean more to the serving and some will lean more to the fellowship. That’s fine. Just stay balanced.
You might be hesitant to invite people to your home because you have young children. Don’t worry about your young children; in time, they will get used to how to behave around guests. When we had many guests in Pensacola, we had four children under 8 years old. Even during the blowouts, we hosted the pastors, guest preachers, and their wives.
Hospitality in housing guests. If you have a spare bedroom in your home, you may want to host a guest from time to time. We have had many, many guests stay with us over the years. Your accommodations don’t need to be elaborate, but they should be comfortable and clean.
In 2 Kings 4:8-10, the great woman of Shunem prepared a lodging place for Elisha. His room, commonly called by churches today, a prophet’s chamber, had the essentials. He had a bed, a table, a stool and a candlestick. Truly, a place to sleep comfortably and a place to study quietly are sufficient accommodations. And as you will see, the Lord blesses your hospitality.
In 2 Ki 4:13-17, the Lord blessed the woman of Shunem with a child. And he even brought the child back from the dead in 2 Ki 4:32-37. The Lord protected them during a famine in 2 Ki 8:1-6 and restored her land and fruits when she returned to her home.
According to 1 Tim 5:9-10, an important criterion in determining whether the church should support a widow is “if she have lodged strangers.” Hosting house guests is a responsibility, of course, but it is also a privilege. You can make your guests feel very welcome, and you can build good friendships.
In Acts 16:14-15, consider how soon after being saved Lydia constrained Paul and his traveling companions to come into her house and abide there. As soon as she had been baptized, she opened her home to them with hospitality. We should surely be as willing as she was to host guests.
Conclusion: Today, (in the audio) I’m going to give you some practical ideas on making some good preparations for a meal and for overnight guests. These should help you and help your guests feel welcome and more comfortable while they are with you.