Hospitality
Archimandrite Nikifor’s Biblical Encyclopedia
(Gen. 18:1 and following; Deut. 10:17–19; Heb. 13:2, and elsewhere) — a virtue very widespread in antiquity, even among crude and uncultured peoples; but it was especially exalted among God’s chosen people. The finest examples of it are seen in the history of Abraham, who was once accounted worthy of the honor of receiving the Lord and two angels under the guise of travelers (Gen. 18:1–8); Abraham’s nephew Lot showed hospitality to passing strangers, who were likewise angels (Gen. 19:1–3); Jethro, priest of Midian, cordially received Moses into his house (Exod. 2:20).
Job, in vindication of his own integrity, spoke of hospitality as a virtue he had unfailingly practiced: “The stranger did not lodge in the street: but I opened my doors to the traveller” (Job 31:32). The virtue of hospitality is especially enjoined in the New Testament; the Lord Jesus Christ Himself says: “whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple… he shall in no wise lose his reward” (Matt. 10:42). For this reason, coldness in hospitality is identified by the Lord with coldness toward Himself: “I was a stranger,” He says, “and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not” (Matt. 25:43).
The apostles directly urge this virtue upon the faithful (Rom. 12:13), upon Timothy (1 Tim. 3:2), upon Titus (1:8), and in the First Epistle of St. Peter the Apostle (4:9). To receive strangers and to wash the feet of the saints (1 Tim. 5:10), according to the words of the Apostle Paul, is one of the essential qualities required of a widow, for her to be enrolled among the widows appointed for the service of the Church. The example of the Good Samaritan, presenting an application of the fundamental commandment of Christianity, “love thy neighbor as thyself,” will serve for all ages as a model of Christian love of mankind and of Christianity. In the East, hospitality is still highly valued to this day, especially among the Arabs, and even among the predatory Bedouins.