What is Christian hospitality and how important is it? How is God’s relationship to us fundamentally an act of hospitality to strangers? How is hospitality part of the salvation message?

Bible Gateway interviewed Joshua W. Jipp (@TheRealJoshJipp) about his book, Saved by Faith and Hospitality (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2017).

Define what you mean by hospitality.

Joshua W. Jipp: Hospitality is the process whereby space is opened up for a stranger or outsider, such that the stranger is transformed into a friend. Hospitality is not safe, tame, or always domestic. There’s risk involved as we either enter into (as a guest) a space where we’re the stranger, or where we extend welcome to someone who’s not part of our normal, comfortable friendship network. The Bible portrays Abraham, for example, as one whose eyes are attentive toward travelling strangers, who takes the risk to invite them into his space, and who extends kindness upon them through granting food, drink, and shelter (Gen. 18:1-18).

What leads you to say that too few Christians understand how hospitality to strangers and the marginalized is an essential part of the church’s identity?

Joshua W. Jipp: My guess is that most Christians undervalue the extent and forcefulness of the Scriptural teaching of hospitality to strangers. The Scriptures demand that Israel extend welcome to the immigrant because God loves the immigrant and because they know what it’s like to be exploited as a people of immigrants from their time in Egypt (Exod. 22:21; 23:9; Lev. 19:33-34; Deut. 10:17-20). In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus declares that the sheep and the goats will enter into their eternal reward or judgment based upon whether or not they showed hospitality to “the least of these my brothers and sisters” (Matt. 25:31-46). Jesus consistently extends God’s hospitality and his saving presence to those on the margins through sharing meals with sinners, tax-collectors, and the poor (Luke 5:27-32; 7:36-50; 9:11-17; 19:1-10). It’s precisely Jesus’ practice of extending hospitality to “the wrong people,” so to speak, that elicits such anger from some of Israel’s religious leaders and results in the stereotype of Jesus as a “glutton and drunkard, a friend of sinners and tax collectors (Luke 7:34; also, 15:1-2).

Why do you say hospitality is at the heart of Christian faith?

Joshua W. Jipp: I argue that there’s a pattern that pervades the Christian Scriptures that can be summarized in this way: God’s hospitality elicits human hospitality. Stated another way, humanity’s fundamental problem is that it’s alienated from God and from one another. God’s hospitality, made known climactically in Jesus, transforms us into friends (John 15:12-17). This divine hospitality demands that God’s people be characterized by friendship with one another and ever seeking to extend this welcome to others (Acts 2:42-47).

Explain the meaning of the book’s title.

Joshua W. Jipp: The title of the book originates from an early Christian writing called 1 Clement. The author is a bishop in Rome who’s responding to divisions and in-fighting taking place in the Corinthian congregations. One of the antidotes for this internal strife is hospitality. Clement argues that Abraham, Lot, and Rahab were saved due to their faith and hospitality (1 Clem. 10:6-7; 11:1; 12:1-3). It’s interesting that we find a similar theme in the book of James where he argues that saving faith is demonstrated by Abraham, Rahab, and others who have a faith that produces good deeds (James 2:14-26). I take this as a jumping off point for arguing that hospitality is inextricably connected with how a variety of biblical authors depict God’s salvation.

So exhibiting hospitality is not optional for a Christian?

Joshua W. Jipp: Since our identity as the church is rooted in God’s hospitality to us, extending hospitality to one another and to strangers is a non-negotiable practice for God’s people. This is why we find a variety of biblical authors commanding the church to practice hospitality to strangers and upholding it as a necessary virtue for leaders in the church (Rom. 12:13; 1 Tim. 3:2; 1 Pet. 4:9; Heb. 13:2). I believe, therefore, that the church is at its best when it’s seeking to extend God’s presence and gifts to all people, rather than hoarding the gifts of God. The book of Acts tells us that the early church was devoted to apostolic teaching, prayers, and eating together in each other’s homes and that it was in this way that the Lord “was adding to their midst those who were being saved each day” (Acts 2:47).

What is a favorite Bible passage of yours and why?

Joshua W. Jipp: One of my favorite biblical texts is Luke’s depiction of how the risen Jesus reveals himself to the two disciples on the Emmaus road (Luke 24:13-35). The disciples are walking together with the risen Jesus, and it’s not their sight of him before the eyes that enables them to recognize Jesus. Jesus even explains how Israel’s Scriptures had foreshadowed that the Messiah would suffer and then be raised on the third day. But it’s only when the two disciples welcome the traveling stranger into their home and when Jesus breaks bread with them that their eyes are opened and they see that they’ve been traveling, conversing, and now eating with the risen Jesus (Luke 24:31, 35). I love the passage because it’s filled with irony, suspense, and drama. But even more, I love that the resolution of the suspense comes through table fellowship. I believe one of the calls here to the church is that we can continue to know and experience Jesus when we eat together in his presence (so Acts 2:42-47).

Bio: Bio: Joshua W. Jipp has taught New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School since 2012. He completed his PhD at Emory University, ThM at Duke Divinity School, and MDiv at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He is the author of Divine Visitations and Hospitality to Strangers in Luke-Acts (Brill), Christ Is King: Paul’s Royal Ideology (Fortress), and most recently Saved by Faith and Hospitality. He lives in Chicago with his wife and two boys.

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