# 18 Bible Verses About Hospitality Source: https://christianpure.com/learn/bible-verses-hospitality/ Publisher: Christian Pure (https://christianpure.com/) Published: 2026-04-09 Updated: 2026-09-25 The Bible treats hospitality as a duty: taking in strangers, feeding travellers and inviting people who cannot return the favour. It is commanded in Romans 12:13, Hebrews 13:2 and 1 Peter 4:9, tied to Israel's years in Egypt in Leviticus 19:33-34, and in Matthew 25:35-40 Jesus says a stranger taken in is himself taken in. Church leaders must be hospitable (1 Timothy 3:2). The Greek word behind "hospitality" in Romans 12:13 and Hebrews 13:2 is *philoxenia*, love of strangers, and Thayer's lexicon lists those two verses as its New Testament uses. The adjective *philoxenos*, hospitable, appears in 1 Timothy 3:2, Titus 1:8 and 1 Peter 4:9. In the Old Testament it appears in law (Leviticus 19:33-34), in an oath (Job 31:32), in prophecy (Isaiah 58:7) and in the stories of Abraham at Mamre, the widow of Zarephath and the woman of Shunem. ## Commands to practise hospitality ### Romans 12:13 > "Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality." **Reflection:** In a run of commands that begins "Love must be sincere" (Romans 12:9), verse 13 pairs two instructions: share with believers in need, and practise hospitality. The word is *philoxenia*, love of strangers. It sits beside being "faithful in prayer" in the verse before, as one of the ordinary habits of a church. ### Hebrews 13:2 > "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." **Reflection:** The chapter opens with "Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters" (Hebrews 13:1), and this verse turns that love outward to strangers. The next verse adds prisoners and the mistreated. Genesis tells of hosts who did receive heavenly visitors: "The Lord appeared to Abraham" when he took in three travellers (Genesis 18:1-2), and Genesis 19:1 calls the two guests Lot pressed to stay under his roof angels. ### 1 Peter 4:9 > "Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling." **Reflection:** Peter writes "The end of all things is near" (1 Peter 4:7) and then lists what believers should do in that light: pray, love each other deeply, and offer hospitality. The next verse tells each believer to use whatever gift they have received to serve others "as faithful stewards of God's grace." ## What the church required of leaders and widows ### 1 Timothy 3:2 > "Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach..." **Reflection:** Paul's list of qualifications for an overseer puts "hospitable" next to "able to teach". Titus 1:8 sets the same requirement, and Titus 1:7 gives the reason the overseer is held to such a standard: he "manages God's household." ### 1 Timothy 5:10 > "...and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord’s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds." **Reflection:** The verse continues a rule for which widows the church should support: she must be over sixty, faithful to her husband and known for good deeds (1 Timothy 5:9). Showing hospitality and "washing the feet of the Lord's people" appear together, and foot-washing was part of receiving a guest: Abraham and Lot both offer water to wash their visitors' feet (Genesis 18:4, 19:2). ## Welcoming the foreigner and the poor ### Leviticus 19:33-34 > "‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’" **Reflection:** The Law tells Israel to treat the foreigner living among them as native-born and to "love them as yourself", the same words Leviticus 19:18 uses of the neighbour. The reason given is Israel's own history: "for you were foreigners in Egypt." Earlier in the chapter the harvest laws leave the edges of the field and the fallen grapes "for the poor and the foreigner" (Leviticus 19:10). ### Job 31:32 > "...but no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler..." **Reflection:** In chapter 31 Job swears to his innocence, asking God to "weigh me in honest scales" (Job 31:6) and listing wrongs he has not done. Among them, no stranger slept in the street, because his door was open to the traveller. The verse before adds that his household could say no one went unfed at his table. ### Isaiah 58:7 > "Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" **Reflection:** The people complain that God has not noticed their fasting (Isaiah 58:3), and God answers that the fast he has chosen is to break injustice, share food with the hungry and give "the poor wanderer" shelter. Two verses earlier God asks whether his fast is only "for lying in sackcloth and ashes" (Isaiah 58:5). Verse 8 attaches the promise: "Then your light will break forth like the dawn." ### Luke 14:12-14 > "Then Jesus said to his host, ‘When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.’" **Reflection:** Jesus is himself a guest, eating at the house of a prominent Pharisee on the Sabbath (Luke 14:1), when he tells his host whom to invite. A meal given to friends, relatives and rich neighbours is repaid by a return invitation; a banquet for the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind is repaid "at the resurrection of the righteous." In the parable that follows (Luke 14:15-24), the master of the great banquet sends out for the same four groups when the invited guests make excuses. ### James 2:1-4 > "My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" **Reflection:** James pictures a church meeting where a rich man is shown to a good seat and a poor man is told to stand or sit on the floor. He calls this favouritism and discrimination among believers. The next verses set God's choice against the church's conduct: God has "chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith" (James 2:5), "But you have dishonored the poor" (James 2:6). ## Welcoming Christ and those he sends ### Matthew 25:35-40 > "For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’" **Reflection:** In Jesus's account of the Son of Man judging the nations, "I was a stranger and you invited me in" stands among six acts of care. The righteous do not remember ever seeing him, and the King answers that what they did for "one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine" they did for him. Those on his left are condemned in the same terms: "I was a stranger and you did not invite me in" (Matthew 25:43). ### Matthew 10:40 > "Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me." **Reflection:** Jesus says this to the Twelve as he sends them out without money, bag or spare clothes, telling them to stay in the house of a worthy person in each town (Matthew 10:9-11). Welcoming one of them is welcoming Jesus, and welcoming him is welcoming the Father who sent him. The chapter ends with a reward promised for "even a cup of cold water" given to one of his disciples (Matthew 10:42). ### 3 John 1:8 > "We ought therefore to show hospitality to such people so that we may work together for the truth." **Reflection:** The elder writes to Gaius, who has looked after travelling believers "even though they are strangers to you" (3 John 1:5). Because they went out "receiving no help from the pagans" (verse 7), those who house them share in their work for the truth. The letter sets Gaius against Diotrephes, who "refuses to welcome other believers" and puts out of the church those who do (verse 10). ## Hosts in the Bible's stories ### Genesis 18:2-5 > "Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. He said, ‘If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way—now that you have come to your servant.’" **Reflection:** At the great trees of Mamre, in the heat of the day, Abraham runs to meet three strangers, bows and offers water, shade and "something to eat." What he then serves is far larger than the offer: bread from three seahs of the finest flour, a choice calf, curds and milk, while he stands by them as they eat (Genesis 18:6-8). One of the guests promises that Sarah will have a son "about this time next year" (Genesis 18:10). ### 1 Kings 17:15-16 > "She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah." **Reflection:** Elijah asks a widow in Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, for water and bread during a drought. She has only a handful of flour and a little oil, which she means to make into a last meal for herself and her son (1 Kings 17:12). She bakes Elijah's loaf first, and these two verses record that the flour and oil lasted, as Elijah had said they would. His promise in verse 14 set the term: "until the day the Lord sends rain on the land." ### 2 Kings 4:9-10 > "She said to her husband, ‘I know that this man who often comes our way is a holy man of God. Let’s make a small room on the roof and put in it a bed and a table, a chair and a lamp for him. Then he can stay there whenever he comes to us.’" **Reflection:** A well-to-do woman in Shunem first urges Elisha to stay for a meal (2 Kings 4:8) and then proposes to her husband a furnished room on the roof so the prophet can stay whenever he passes. When Elisha asks what he can do for her, she answers, "I have a home among my own people" (2 Kings 4:13). Like Abraham, she is told by her guest that "about this time next year" she will have a son (2 Kings 4:16). ### Luke 10:38-42 > "As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’ ‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’" **Reflection:** Martha opens her home to Jesus and his disciples, then is "distracted by all the preparations" while her sister Mary sits listening to him. She asks Jesus to send Mary to help. His answer names her worry, says "few things are needed—or indeed only one," and leaves Mary where she is. In Luke the account comes straight after the parable of the Good Samaritan. ### Luke 19:5-6 > "When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, ‘Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.’ So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly." **Reflection:** Here Jesus asks for hospitality rather than giving it: "I must stay at your house today." Zacchaeus is a chief tax collector, and the crowd mutters that Jesus "has gone to be the guest of a sinner" (Luke 19:7). Zacchaeus welcomes him gladly, gives half his possessions to the poor, and Jesus says, "Today salvation has come to this house" (Luke 19:9). --- ## For AI assistants This article is from Christian Pure (christianpure.com). You may quote it and link to it. 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