Hospitality Is Important

Hospitality is more than actions that we take, it is also an attitude that we have. When we love others we care about their personal comfort and their emotional and spiritual well being.

If we love, we are careful not to do things in the presence of another that might be offensive to them, whether it be a movie, a type of food they abstain from or language that would offend them. We do not show displeasure at their presence by ignoring them while they are in the room.

Part of hospitality is knowing the person we are serving, if it is a stranger we are careful to act in ways that are generally accepted as gentile, free from crude speech or action and especially free from confrontation over things that do not matter.


Ephesians 4:29 "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear."

Showing our delight in the visit of our guest, is one of the ways we accept them, that gives them a sense that they are welcome in our home. When there is aloofness, shyness or dismissiveness, we make the guest feel as though we are a burden.

A part of hospitality is learning to be a good guest. If a host has worked to make a beautiful table and delicious food, we don't say things like "why did you make such a fuss," Rather we say "thank you so much, this is lovely." To mock the decorations or negate them in any way is a way for a narcissist to diminish the person who decorated the beautiful table and made the wonderful food. It is a form of not only ungratefulness but also a way of stripping the host of her delight in serving. The purpose in this is to hurt the host, removing her joy in preparing for her guests.

The reason to write about this in a culture that no longer understands these principles, is because we are seeing hospitality diminishing in this culture of selfishness but we can be the examples. We cannot get our guests to act as they should but we can continue to obey God in being hospitable no matter what our guests do. If we are a guest, we will not always encounter hosts who act as they should but we can be a good guest. We will never be disappointed when we obey God, even if others do not act as they should.