Hospitality Defined: Practical Love in Service to GodSýnishorn

Hospitality: A New Testament Example

She urged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” (v. 15)

We see God’s Spirit at work from start to finish in this New Testament account. The Spirit prevented Paul and his traveling companions from going to Asia and ended up in Philippi instead. Their detour resulted from Paul’s vision of a Macedonian man asking for help. Philippi must have seemed an unlikely place for missionary effort. Paul usually began work in a new town by preaching in the Jewish synagogue—but there was no synagogue in Philippi. There was only a group of women who met by the river to pray.

Among this group at the river was a woman named Lydia. We are told two things about her: she was a “seller of purple goods,” which indicates she was wealthy, and “a worshiper of God” (v. 14). As she listened to Paul’s words, we are told that “the Lord opened her heart.” She and her family were baptized after hearing the gospel. She insisted that Paul and his fellow missionaries stay with her. God’s Spirit provided a welcoming home in an unlikely city for the gospel.

God opened Lydia’s heart, and she opened her home! This was a natural response to the grace and love she experienced in Jesus Christ. It can be a natural response for believers today as well.

Ask God to help you open your heart and home to others as you pray.