A Virtue That Needs Reviving

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It is a simple command: “Practice hospitality.” The great English Bible translator William Tyndale said that Christians should have a “harborous” disposition, a willingness to share house and heart with others.
But we live in a time of isolation. Houses are islands where their residents frantically emerge to shop, conduct their business, and work and then impatiently return home. It is an age when we do not know our neighbors or anyone else outside our own family. Unfortunately, this spirit has infiltrated the ranks of God’s people.
The church exists as a counterculture to the prevailing mood. In a society that can be brutally individualistic, followers of Jesus should cut across the grain and become community oriented. In an ocean full of little islands of families, we should open our homes and hearts to other families. We need to connect.
Here are some suggestions for encouraging hospitality:
• Invite one new family into your home every month.
Play games, talk, study the Bible, or pray. We need to widen our horizons and make new friends. If we do not do this, we are, by neglect, implementing loneliness.
• Plan Sunday dinner at your house once a quarter with a new family.
This is an old custom worth reviving. Few things draw people together better than a shared meal around a common table.
• Visit a neighbor.
Neighborhoods aren’t neighborhoods anymore. They are just collections of houses where people move in and out. Reach out and introduce yourself to a neighbor with a platter of cookies or other sign of good will.
A home can never be happy if it is selfish. Let’s learn to open our door to the stranger. Chances are, that stranger is lonely.
—Paul Woodhouse
Family Newsletter

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