The Second Commandment of Marriage:

Hospitality

In our last study, we had the simple command: “Keep loving the brethren!” That command should be one of the easiest. The brethren are those who have things in common with us. As we saw, in our most recent time together, our brothers have a common history of redemption with us, a common hope of expectation with us, and a common current assignment to win the lost. Those with whom we have things in common are easier to love than those who don’t. From the common, easier task of loving the brethren, our text snaps immediately to the opposite extreme.

I was raised in a very hospitable home. We had guests for Sunday lunch almost weekly. Boy, could my mother set a table! The subject of our text, however, even though it shares the same sound and spelling, means something far more than our English word for hospitality does. Last week, the Greek word for love was coupled with the word brothers. This week, that same Greek word for love is coupled with the word strangers.

This latter term has created a great deal of debate among biblical scholars. It can mean foreigner. It can mean alien. It can mean distasteful. It can mean unbeliever or non-Christian. We may not be certain what the term actually means here in this context, but one thing that we can be sure of is that it means a person who is certainly not like our brother or us. In other words, we are not just to stop at brotherly love. Anyone can love those who are like us or like our brother; the challenge is to love the unlovely.

Jesus was called a friend of sinners. He ate with sinners. He talked with sinners. He reached out to sinners. He healed sinners. He loved sinners. In saying this, we must add that He hated sin twenty-four seven. Our text today will take us to the difficult assignment of loving sinners, while we maintain an intense hatred for the sin that controls them. In approaching the subject, we must come to grips with the reality that all sinners are not the same.

Since all of us have sinned, and none of us are through with temptations and failures in this world, we could be called “repentant sinners.” The Scriptures, however, prefer to call us “saints,” a term with which none of us feel comfortable. Saints and repentant sinners are the same. Saints are saints not by function, but rather by declaration. This makes up the brethren, which was our subject last time. Today, we move into the other category of “strangers,” as the Bible loves to call them. We must learn how to do the functional surgery that extracts our love for the sinner from our hatred of their sin so that the love can be nurtured. This is not optional.

Aside from receiving the simple command to love the stranger, we are told why; that is a very important and comforting part of our lesson. God is working behind the scenes endlessly. Outside of the range of finite limitation, God is at work, and that is why obedience within finite range is so important.

The Second Commandment of Marriage:

Hospitality

What it is we are required to do?

What are the threats or causes of neglect?

What are the consequences of failure?

What will this do to improve marriage?