18 Bible Verses About Welcoming Visitors, and the Word That Means Love of Strangers

Welcoming visitors is a command in the Bible, and the Greek word for hospitality, philoxenia, means love of strangers. The noun is built from philos, friend, and xenos, stranger. It appears twice in the New Testament: Romans 12:13 tells a church to practice it, and Hebrews 13:2 tells believers not to forget it. A related adjective, hospitable, appears in the qualifications for church leaders. The eighteen verses below trace the command from the law of Moses to those leaders. Where…