Guidelines for Hospitality,How to Treat One Another

Guidelines for Hospitality

The same questions crop up in every age, in every place

I have no greater joy than to here that my children are walking in the truth 3 John 4


Romans 12:10-13 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another… given to hospitality. 
Romans 12:13 (Amp) Contribute to the needs of God’s people [sharing in the necessities of the saints]; pursue the practice of hospitality. 

Taken together, this letter and its companion give a balanced view of proper Christian hospitality.

Second John warned against entertaining false teachers.

But 3 John praises a man named Gaius for warmly welcoming genuine Christian teachers.

His actions had been opposed by Diotrephes, a cantankerous church dictator  who was also gossiping against John.

In a very condensed form John's two letters deal with heresy and church splits, two problems that have plagued the church in every age, in every place.

To defend against those dangers, John urges and discernment.

Believers  must know whom to accept and support, and whom to resist.

Scriptural Examples:

1. Abraham 
Genesis 18:1-8 Then the Lord appeared to him by the terebinth trees of Mamre, as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. 

So he lifted his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing by him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them, and bowed himself to the ground, and said, "My Lord, if I have now found favor in Your sight, do not pass on by Your servant. "Please let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree. "And I will bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh your hearts.

 After that you may pass by, in as much as you have come to your servant." They said, "Do as you have said."So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, "Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes." And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate. 

2. Martha 

Luke 10:38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house 

3. Lydia 

Acts 16:14-15 Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, "If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay." So she persuaded us.