Unsung Heroes: Hospitality of Lydia — Friday
Acts 16:40
When Paul and Silas left the prison, they returned to the home of Lydia. There they met with the believers and encouraged them once more. Then they left town. (NLT)
In the beginning of Acts 16, Lydia has just met Paul and his companions. She believes the gospel and is baptized, and invites them to be guests in her home. But a LOT of other stuff happens in this chapter after that—including a pretty intense prison experience for Paul and Silas. After they are released from prison, they return to Lydia’s house again and meet with more believers. That would seem to indicate that after her conversion, Lydia’s house continued to be a place where people could hear the good news of Jesus and believers could gather. Her hospitality had significant spiritual influence!
That’s true for us, too. Hospitality isn’t just about being welcoming or serving yummy snacks to your guests. Ultimately, hospitality is about introducing people to Jesus. In the way we serve, in the way we speak, and in the way we show others who Jesus is. That leads to pretty impactful spiritual results. Author Max Lucado once wrote, “Something holy happens around a dinner table that will never happen in a sanctuary.” I think he’s right.
The time when I felt like I most lived up to the story of the woman I was named for was when we were in the thick of the pandemic in 2020. At the time, the city I lived in still had very strict limitations on large group gatherings (including churches), and the church we were a part of usually met in a local high school. Because of those restrictions, we were unable to gather in person for almost a full year. So while we waited, my husband and I decided to open up our home to host a “house church,” and we invited as many young adults as we could think of.
The majority of them were not usually church-goers, and didn’t really know Jesus at all. Over the next several months, as we would gather in a group of about 10 in our house, we’d watch messages together online, study the Bible, laugh a lot, and eat a lot. It wasn’t a sanctuary. It was just our living room and our dining table. But that year, we had a third of that group make the decision to follow Jesus and be baptized. Something happened in their hearts because of a simple dose of hospitality, and a hearty helping of Jesus. He took our small offering and used it to help lead people back to Him. I’ll always be grateful. Hospitality is the stuff of the gospel—don’t forget it!
Friday’s Reflection
Who in your life can you show Jesus to through being hospitable? Make plans today to take a step forward in that.
