Generosity and Hospitality

Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. - Romans 12:13

For the early Christians, sharing with the poor was related to the practice of hospitality. They were adjacent thoughts, just like we see in Paul’s letter to the Romans above. They naturally follow one after the other.

Interestingly, so much of American church history has been obsessed with a reading and re-reading of Romans around the issues of predestination, salvation, and even issues of LGBTQ inclusion. And yet, we so easily forget that the occasion for the letter was largely as a thank you to the Romans for their generosity to the poor (see Romans 15:23-29). It’s become easy to skim over those parts of the letter that ask for radical practices of generosity and hospitality.

But the church through the ages has typically followed closely to this vision of radical welcome. One early church leader put it this way:

One in mind and soul, we do not hesitate to share our earthly goods with one another. All things are common among us but our wives. - Tertullian, writing in the 3rd century

Why do you think we’ve moved away from this vision of hospitality and care for the poor? Talk with Jesus about any ideas that come to mind around what it might look like to live into this profound vision of hospitality and care.