Hospitality

Hospitality is commanded and modeled in the Bible. This page lists verses with commands to show hospitality, welcoming strangers, inviting the poor, receiving God's messengers, and examples.

Commands

• Romans 12:13
  Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
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• Hebrews 13:2
  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.
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• 1 Peter 4:9
  Use hospitality one to another without grudging.
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For church leaders

• 1 Timothy 3:2
  A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
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• Titus 1:8
  But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;
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Welcoming strangers

• Leviticus 19:34
  But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
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• Deuteronomy 10:19
  Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
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• Matthew 25:35
  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
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Inviting the poor

• Luke 14:12-14
  ¹²Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. ¹³But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: ¹⁴And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.
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Receiving God's messengers

• Matthew 10:40-42
  ⁴⁰He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. ⁴¹He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. ⁴²And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
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• 3 John 1:5-8
  ⁵Beloved, thou doest faithfully whatsoever thou doest to the brethren, and to strangers; ⁶Which have borne witness of thy charity before the church: whom if thou bring forward on their journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well: ⁷Because that for his name’s sake they went forth, taking nothing of the Gentiles. ⁸We therefore ought to receive such, that we might be fellowhelpers to the truth.
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Examples

• Genesis 18:1-5
  ¹And the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre: and he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day; ²And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him: and when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself toward the ground, ³And said, My Lord, if now I have found favour in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant: ⁴Let a little water, I pray you, be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree: ⁵And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort ye your hearts; after that ye shall pass on: for therefore are ye come to your servant. And they said, So do, as thou hast said.
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• 2 Kings 4:9-10
  ⁹And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually. ¹⁰Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.
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• Luke 10:38
  Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
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• Acts 16:15
  And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there. And she constrained us.
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See also

• Foreigners
• Kindness
• Fellowship
• Service

Notes

1. Verses are quoted in the translation chosen in the Translation menu at the top of the page. See Translations for sources and copyright notices.
2. Each reference links to the full chapter so the verse can be read in context.