Love is shown in many ways, and those who have a home can express it by their hospitality. Even if we do not have a home with walls and a roof, we can welcome others into our personal space, to share what we have - maybe a place of refuge, or a meal to share, or company and conversation, sharing our circle of friends, our fellowship, our faith.

Among the qualifications for elders Paul specifies "a lover of hospitality", and under his general exhortations to Christians he lists "given to hospitality" (Rom. 12.13). Peter says, "Use hospitality one to another without grudging", while Heb. 13.2 reads, "Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares". The deliverance of Lot out of Sodom depended upon his hospitality to the angels. In Biblical times the practice of entertaining strangers was a very necessary one, when there was no other provision for lodging travellers as there is in modern society.

Hospitality is usually associated with providing food and lodging, but it is by no means limited to this. If we really entertain others we do more than put a meal in front of our guests. We shower love and attention upon them. We do our utmost to make them welcome and to make them feel at home. Indeed so important are these other factors, especially under present-day conditions, that we should not consider it hospitality without them; neither indeed would it be, for this is the very spirit of hospitality.

But the spirit of hospitality is expressed not merely by inviting others to our houses, for this is often done for selfish motives. We can invite them into our fellowship and into our affections, making room for them and their convictions in the spirit of liberty, even though at temporary inconvenience and sacrifice to ourselves. The spirit of hospitality will create in us an earnest desire that we may be able to give some blessing and help to others on their earthly pilgrimage. It will make us generous, not only in what we give, but in what we allow in our judgment and in our treatment of those from whom we may differ in matters of interpretation. We shall have the spirit of Jesus who taught us to pray, "Forgive us, as we forgive".

The hospitality of the widow was put to the test very sorely when Elijah told her to first bake him a cake out of her last scanty handful of meal upon which the lives of her son and herself were depending. But her compliance in faith with this request brought a reward beyond her dreams. The Shunammite woman, whose hospitality freely provided a little chamber for the prophet Elisha, was also greatly blessed by God, who is no man's debtor, and never overlooks the least service done to those who belong to Him. The spirit of hospitality in our hearts, in seeking to give freely of our love and service, will most surely receive generous recompense from the Giver of every good and perfect gift. (Forest Gate Bible Monthly)