This past weeks passage (I Peter 4:1-11) seemed to be full of truths and things to study, ponder, and apply. I found each day that certain phrases would jump off the page of my Bible. Today's phrase is verse 9.
"Use hospitality one to another without grudging."
NKJV: Be hospitable to one another without grumbling.
ESV: Show hospitality to one another without grumbling.
Amplified Bible: "Practice hospitality to one another (those of the household of faith). [Be hospitable, be a lover of strangers, with brotherly affection for the unknown guests, the foreigners, the poor, and all others who come your way who are of Christ’s body.] And [in each instance] do it ungrudgingly (cordially and graciously, without complaining but as representing Him)."
What does that mean?
Hospitality is defined as the friendly reception and treatment of guests or strangers [people]; the quality or disposition of receiving and treating [people] guests and strangers in a warm, friendly, generous way.
Since I do my study in KJV, I also defined grudging. It is an adjective that means displaying or reflecting reluctance or unwillingness.
So, the guests and strangers who enter our home should be willingly and happily received. Generosity and friendliness should mark our acceptance of those who are guests in our home, and I added life. An attitude that is unwilling or reluctant to accept and entertain others is not acceptable.
Application
Ouch, this one hit a little close to my heart. Not because I feel reluctant to be hospitable towards other people. (I actually love it!) But I know that I can feel that way about the people who live in my home every day, my family. There are times when a friendly reception that treats my husband or children with warmth and generosity is far from issued in a way that is not reluctant or unwilling. I have things that I need to do or want to do, and the last thing I feel like is stopping what I am doing and paying attention to them. They will be there later . . . what I have needs to be done . . . the reasoning could go on.
No, I am to stop and welcome them willingly with warm generosity. Whether it is when they come home from work or school or whether they are entering the room I am in from somewhere else in the house. It does not have to be a big production, but the heart attitude of being hospitable without grudging needs to be in my life.
