Category: Spiritual Gifts

What’s In Your Hand?

Background Passages Exodus 4:1-5; Romans 12:6-8; Ecclesiastes 9:10

The bedouin stood on calloused, bare feet with his sandals in his hand, trembling in the glow of the burning bush. Seeing its light. Feeling its heat. Listening to the voice from its flame.

The 80-year-old shepherd heard these words and more…

“I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob…I’ve heard the cries of my people…I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people out of Egypt.”

Moses hid in the desert for 40 years after an unceremonious exit from Egypt. Face to face with the oppression of the people of his birth, he reacted in the heat of the moment, killing the offending Egyptian. Once the son of the Pharaoh’s daughter. Now a old man, tending sheep that didn’t even belong to him. O, how the mighty had fallen.

God spoke to Moses on the slopes of Mount Horeb from a burning bush that was not consumed. The God of his fathers called him to a mission of eternal importance. It was the next phase of God’s redemptive plan. To make it happen, he needed to get his people out of Egypt and back to the land he had promised them. He needed Moses.

This unbelievable experience in the wilderness should have lifted his spirits and emboldened Moses to act. Instead, the miracle on the mountain left him filled with anxiety, offering one excuse after another.

“Who am I? I am no one. Pharaoh will not listen. I know the man.”

God said, “Go!”

“To the Hebrew people, I’m nothing. When they ask who sent me…and they will ask…what do I tell them”

“Tell them I am who I am! Now, go!”

“They’re not going to believe this…not the Hebrew people and certainly not Pharaoh.”

God chose this moment to ask Moses a critical question.

“What is in your hand, Moses?”

Moses looked at his right hand. Fingers wrapped around the thick shepherd’s staff, worn smooth by years of use. His mind raced. This was the tool of his trade. A staff for protection. A staff for balance. A staff for herding. Just a stick.

I wonder at that moment if Moses saw a flash of something more ominous in the staff he held. He was once a prince of Egypt. Perhaps, in that moment, the staff served as a symbol of all that had gone wrong in his life. The perfect manifestation of his failure. He had traded a scepter for a shepherd’s crook so he could herd a flock of sheep that weren’t even his. As he heard God ask his question, “What is in your hand?” Perhaps Moses felt unworthy, certain that God could choose a better man.

Moses swallowed the lump in his throat and said simply…

“A staff.”

Nothing more. Nothing less. An old tree branch whittled and shaped to serve his needs. God knew it could represent something new and different. He just needed Moses to see it, too.

“Throw it on the ground, Moses.”

Moses let it drop. As it bounced on the rocky soil, the staff transformed into a snake. Startled, he took two steps back and stared.

“Now, pick it up.”

As soon as Moses lifted the snake from the ground, it turned back into a staff.

Moses looked in awe at the bush.

“This,” said the Lord, “is so that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers…the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has appeared to you.”

What is in your hand?

What a great question!

I wonder how many of us have starred at the burning bush and heard the voice of God telling us, “I’ve got something I need you to do for me. It’s important. I need you to go….”

I wonder how often you have done what I’ve done and responded immediately with every excuse in the book to avoid doing what God needs us to do. My excuses sound remarkably similar to the ones Moses muttered into the face of a burning bush.

Who am I that you would ask this of me?

  • I’m not capable.
  • I’ve made too many mistakes.
  • I am no longer the man I once was.
  • I’m too old.
  • No one would listen to me.
  • They’re just going to laugh in my face.
  • Find someone else…please.

How like Moses I am at times. Too comfortable in my place. Too embarrassed of my failures. Too willing to believe my mistakes trump my potential. Too unwilling to open myself to God’s transformative power.

Then, the question comes to me just as it came to Moses.

“What’s in your hand?”

When you get down to it, that’s an intriguing question. If we’re honest with ourselves, it’s a question we’ve all heard at some point in our lives. When God asks the question, it deserves an honest look.

Scripture is filled with stories of individuals who possessed no extraordinary gifts. That which they held in their hands was ordinary. Yet, God called. When they quit making excuses, God began to use them. Consider these examples.

Gideon defeated the Midianites with trumpets and lanterns.
Samson slaughtered the Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey.
David took down Goliath with a sling and a stone.
A child with a small basket of bread and fish fed a multitude.

So I ask again, the burning bush question.

What is in your hand?

One of the greatest mistakes we make as believers in Christ is to underestimate who we are and what we have. We hold an old whittled stick…an ability to carry a tune, the skill to bake a cake, the temperament for a kind word, the sensitivity to encourage a troubled soul. Yet, we deem it insufficient, weak, small in comparison to abilities we see in others.

Then, the excuses flow. Maybe, it doesn’t matter as much exactly what is in our hand. Maybe all that really matters is, as one writer said, “how much God is in your stick.”

And, there’s the lesson Moses learned. As long as you hold on to your stick, God can’t demonstrate his power. You’ve got to throw it down. Let it go. Surrender it to God. Once God is in it, his power flows through it.

Then, your ability to carry a tune inspires. Your skill in baking brings comfort. Your kind word changes another person’s outlook on the day. Your encouragement lifts a burden from a neighbor’s shoulders. There is nothing insufficient, weak or small about that.

Whatever is in your hands, when surrendered to God, gets infused with his power that makes a difference. And, people will see what is in your hand and know that God is present in your life.

So, what is in your hand?

The truth is, I can’t tell you. It is a matter between you and God. But, know this. There is something there. God has put something in your hand. It may look ordinary to you, but it was given to you for a purpose. He has gifted all of us, placed something in our hand, to use toward the glory of his kingdom.

Whatever God has placed in our hands we are to use it. Paul wrote about it extensively.

“We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance to your faith. If it is serving, then serve. If it is teaching, then teach. If it is to encourage, then give encouragement. If it is in giving, then give generously. If it is to lead, do it diligently. If it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.” (Romans 12:6-8)

I don’t know what your gift may be, but it does no one any good if you never use it. Each of us has been gifted by God so he can send us wherever he needs us to go. To do what he needs us to do. When we surrender that gift to God, when we throw it down, God’s power is alive through us.

Whatever your hand finds to do; do it with all your might. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)

An unknown poet penned a bit of prose a few years ago entitled, “It Depends Whose Hands It’s In.” It’s not Shakespeare or Byron, but it holds a pretty good message. This is how it starts off.

“A basketball in my hands is worth about $19
A basketball in Michael Jordan’s hands is worth about $33 million.
It depends whose hands it’s in.”

As one who has missed his share of lay-ups, I ask you…

What is in your hand?

Clanging Cymbals

Background Passages: I Corinthians 13:1-13; I Corinthians 1:4-7; 3:1-2 and I Corinthians 12

Thankfully, I never experienced it.

A friend of mine in college was majoring in electrical engineering. His roommate never seemed to get up in time for that dreaded 7:30 a.m. English class. The snooze button on his alarm was his favorite friend.

Desperate, the roommate asked my friend for help. The future engineer purchased one of those cymbal clanging monkey toys and, with expertise beyond my capability, rigged it up to a clock and the light switch across the room. Then, every morning at the appointed time, the monkey would crash its cymbals incessantly until the roommate got out of bed and turned on the light.

Ingenious and diabolically annoying.

I think the arrangement lasted only three days before the monkey and its cymbals were found in pieces in my friend’s bed like the horse head in The Godfather. Message sent and received.

As I said, thankfully, I never had to experience it. I would not have lasted three days. There is a reason you never hear a cymbal solo in the band or orchestra. A cymbal by itself is just noise.

After Paul founded the church in Corinth, he moved his base of ministry to Ephesus. While spending a couple of years in that city, Paul began to hear disturbing reports about the divisions and factions developing in the church in Corinth. He eventually received a letter from the congregation asking for clarity on a number of issues the divided church faced. Paul penned a response (I Corinthians) designed to instruct and encourage a gifted, but fractured group of people who failed to shake the influence of the dominate culture.

Paul recognized that God gifted the people in Corinth to do the work he required of them, telling them they had been “enriched in every way…in all your speaking and in all your knowledge…” and that they “do not lack any spiritual gift…” (I Cor. 1:4-7) Yet, he admonished them for growing no deeper in their faith and understanding over the years.

“Brethren, I could not address you as spiritual but as worldly…mere infants in Christ. I gave you milk, not solid food for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.” (I Cor. 3:1-2)

Their shallow understanding of God’s teaching and an egotistic application of their giftedness, split the church. Paul recognized that the people of the church had grown little spiritually over the years. They took the basics of faith taught by Paul and did little to deepen their understanding. They still thought and behaved as spiritual children.

There is a richness to the Christian faith that makes living the life of Christ a process…a necessary investment of time, study and the lifelong application of our experiences with God that challenges our faith and dares us to dig more deeply into his truth.

What I knew of God’s word as a 9-year-old boy who just accepted Christ should not be the same as what I know almost six decades later. Any deeper understanding of God’s teaching requires effort on my part, the desire to learn from his word, from his revelation and through the private rebellions and the personal restorations I experience as a child of God.

Life compels us to ask the question. From the moment we accepted Jesus into our hearts, have we grown in our understanding of what God desires of us? Are we gnawing on the meat and bone of God’s word or are we still drinking the milk, with a stomach unconditioned for the deeper truths.

The lack of personal spiritual growth in the Corinthian church led to a great many issues Paul tried to address. He wrote to them about their struggles with sexual immorality and marriage and their insistence on personal rights that caused others to stumble in their faith. He spoke to them of worship and how to make the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper meaningful.

Then, in I Corinthians 12, he provided a powerful lesson about using their individual giftedness to benefit the work of the church rather than glorifying the gifted.

“God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that the parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ and each one of you is a part of it. (I Cor. 12:24b-27)

How do you act as one body in Christ, each benefiting from the gifts of the other? Paul answered the question in the “most excellent way.”

“If I speak in tongues of men and angels and have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophesy and can fathom the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains and have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.”

Resounding gongs. Clanging cymbals. Screeching clarinets. Paul says the spiritual gifts God shares with his people will grate on people…will annoy to the point of distraction and division… will cause them to close the door to the faith we practice…unless those gifts are grounded and used in the love of Christ.

Loving others as Christ loves may be the greatest mark of our spiritual maturity, particularly in a world in which hatred and division rules and agape love is in such short supply.

As Paul told the Corinthian church he tells us what that love looks like.

“Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It is not rude. It is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

The deeper we dig into God’s word…the more we imitate the life of Christ…the more we begin to understand how loving one another in Christ lets us see the needs of those around us with selfless clarity.

Love is everything this world is not. When our words and actions do not reflect the kind of love Paul describes, we are little more than clanging cymbals…spiritually inclined, but annoying and hollow sounding.

The Corinthians needed to learn that the things in which they took pride would fade away. They needed to understand that love reigns supreme. As gifted as we may be, as great as our faith and hope are, love is greater. Theologian William Barclay said, “Faith without love is cold. Hope without love is grim. Love is the fire which kindles faith and love is the light which turns hope into certainty.”

Until love waters our souls, the roots of our faith and hope will never stretch deeper into God’s truth. We will miss every opportunity to shine God’s light into the darkness. Paul knew it was the missing piece in the Corinthian church.

God knows it is one piece of our lives that can keep us from fully experiencing God’s blessings and from extending God’s grace to a lost world.

I don’t know about you, but I needed to hear that word this week.

“And now, these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.”

Puzzle Pieces

Background Passage: Corinthians 12

Josiah, my youngest grandson, loves to work jigsaw puzzles. The bigger the better. His self-imposed lower limit is 300 pieces. At six-years-old, he has far more patience at the process than do I. His gift for spatial awareness eludes me. He sees a gap in the puzzle, scans the available, intricately designed pieces and almost always finds the right piece. It’s uncanny.

I kept Eli and Josiah by myself for two days this week while their parents prepared for a new school year and Grandma was out of town. Josiah asked me to work a couple of jigsaw puzzles with him. Though not a big fan of puzzles, I joined him. He put in five pieces for each one I found.

At one point, he held a piece between two fingers, remarking about the “uniqueness of its shape.” He handed it to me and said, “It’s easier to find where they go if they’re unique.” Then, he laughed. What I heard was, “Here, Grandpa, even you should be able to find the place for this one.”

But, he’s right. The most difficult puzzles are those where the shape of every piece is exactly the same. Without realizing it, Josiah reminded me of a beautiful biblical truth. We are each uniquely made by a loving Creator who has a place and a purpose for us all.

The Corinthian church struggled with that concept. Paul found a way to address the issue to prevent the first-century church from tearing itself apart.

Step back into the first century.

Corinth sat on a major trade route. People from all over the world entered its gates. Walked its streets. Engaged in commerce. Bringing with them their cultural, social and religious mores. An ethnically and socially diverse community, the blend of culture created an atmosphere of intense immorality and idolatry.

Corinth’s depraved reputation unnerved Paul prior to his first visit there. In I Corinthians 2:3 he admits, “I came to you (that first time) in weakness, with much fear and trembling.”

Though he had been successful in establishing new churches in other Greek communities, he also faced brutal opposition. It is hard to image any situation causing the faithful and powerful disciple to tremble. Along his way to Corinth, the images of Daniel in a lion’s den surely crept to mind.

Though anxious about the reception his message would receive, Paul preached “not with wise and persuasive words (of man), but with the power of the Holy Spirit,” a God-inspired message that fell on receptive ears and believing hearts.

Just a few years later, word came from Corinth about the struggles of the church. It didn’t take long for some in the church to believe their work, their God-given gifts, were of greater worth and value than others. You see, they began to believe that the shape of their jigsaw puzzle piece made them more important than other more ordinary pieces. With each declaration of supremacy, the wedge of bitterness split them apart.

Paul dispelled that notion.

“There are different kinds of gifts, but the same spirit distributes them. There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of workings, but in all of them and in everyone the same God at work.”

Paul goes on to list a series of unique spiritual gifts of great benefit to the church, but he adds at the end…

“All of these are the work of one Spirit, and he distributes them to each one just as he determines.”

In other words, God gives to you those gifts he needs you to have at a time in your life when you need to have them. It is for you to use to do the work he needs you to do.

Every gift we’ve been given, Paul writes, has been given to us for “the common good,” as a means of building up the church, its members and reaching out to a lost and misguided world. If God grants that gift for a purpose, no gift is more important than the other. No one role more critical than another.

Jigsaw puzzles didn’t hit the market until 18 centuries after Paul’s letter to the Corinthians so he used a different illustration to make his point.

“Just as the body, though one, has many parts…so it is with Christ…If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact, God has placed the parts, all of them, in the body just as he wanted them to be.”

The eye needs the hand and the head needs the feet, Paul said. Every part of the body has a role to play in God’s purpose and plan. If one part feels superior or one part feels it doesn’t belong, if we push aside a part because we don’t care for its looks, or, if every part of the body is exactly the same, the body loses its God-created uniqueness.

Josiah will tell you the unique pieces of a jigsaw puzzle allow us to pull the puzzle together. Each piece connects with those around it. We build around those easily identifiable pieces, making new connections as we go until the puzzle is a completed picture.

In the same way, our individual strengths allow us to find our place in God’s picture. When we are in the right place, properly using the gifts we’ve been given, it allows others to more easily connect to the body of Christ…to find their place in his picture.

The work of the church ought to be about helping others find their place in God’s picture. Celebrating the God-designed differences. Making those critical connections with one another that draw us together in one body, one spirit, rather than ripping us apart. When we find that unique piece, we ought to be able to fit it into the mission and ministry of the church. As Josiah said, “Even you can do it, Grandpa.”

The challenge before the 21st century church is to make new connections in a Corinthian world. Connecting each other into kingdom work and extending beyond the walls of the church to reach those who do not hear God calling them to be a part of his bigger picture.

The diversity of the church is its strength. Your uniqueness and mine play important and distinctive roles in the kingdom of God. When we don’t play our part, or minimize the part of others, or fail to pull all the pieces together, we create a hole in God’s plan…his work remains unfinished.

We find ourselves in a time when the people of God are being pushed into the corner by the world around us. It’s easy to isolate ourselves from those indifferent or intolerant to our faith. Now is not the time to huddle. Now is the time to reach out and find those unique pieces; to begin putting the puzzle together once more.

Every time he works a jigsaw puzzle, I play a game with Josiah. Somewhere in the process, when he’s not looking, I’ll hide a piece. When the work is done, he discovers a hole in the puzzle. The picture is incomplete. I attempt to save the day by “finding” what I’ve hidden and putting in the last piece. We wrestle and laugh as he takes the piece away from me. Finally, he plugs the final piece into its spot and beams.

The angels in heaven beam every time we connect a new piece to the puzzle that is God’s kingdom. Image the celebration that will occur when the heavenly puzzle is complete.

Discerning what is Good, Pleasing & Perfect

Background Passages: Romans 12:1-2; I Thessalonians 5:21-22; Romans 7:15-18: Philippians 1:9-10

While eating out after Sunday evening’s service, a friend of mine spilled a little salt on the table. He quickly took a pinch of it and threw it over his left shoulder, while mocking the age-old superstition. I gave that incident no thought until I saw another friend’s Facebook post this week that led with a picture of Di Vinci’s masterpiece The Last Supper.

Leonardo Di Vinci’s The Last Supper is among the most recognized paintings in history. I cannot imagine how many times I’ve viewed that image. Yet, the story posted on Facebook pointed out a small detail in the painting I never noticed. Near Judas’ right elbow on the table is a depiction of a spilled bottle of salt.

The Facebook story reported that spilling salt has been associated with bad luck for centuries, a sign that the person who spilled it was evil or intended evil upon another. Di Vinci took that small stroke of his brush to paint Judas with wicked intent. Now, I don’t know if that was the message Di Vinci intended or if he just wanted to add an element of realism to the scene. It does make an interesting story.

For my purposes, the salt is a sidebar. Here’s where I’m going with this. It amazes me how often we view something without really seeing it. I looked at The Last Supper hundreds of times and never noticed the salt shaker. Not once.

It happens all the time when studying scripture. I can read a passage over and over again and think I understand exactly what it means. I can read it one more time and find new meaning…a fresh gift of insight God prepared just for me. For this time in my life.

I found one of those special gifts this week. I supposed all of us have our “go to” verses. Scripture we return to time and time again to remind us of critical biblical truth we need to hear. I count among my favorite verses Romans 12:2.

“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”

It reminds me that the world’s ways are not God’s ways. That I am supposed to allow God to transform the way I think and, by extension, the things I do, to separate my thoughts and deeds from those of the world. To live distinctively as a follower of Christ. I’m not always successful at that. I suppose that’s why I have to keep returning to that passage.

When I thumbed across it again this week, my eyes locked on the remainder of the verse that I tend to gloss over. I know I’ve read that part of this verse at points in my life, but it never grabbed me like it did this week.

“…Then you will be able to discern what God’s will is—what is good and pleasing and perfect.”

I get it. Be transformed. Be changed at the deepest level of heart and mind. Allow the spirit of God to help you think differently about the way you see the world and your place in it. It follows on the heels of Paul’s admonition to present ourselves to God as a “living sacrifice.” But, it’s also a verse about using the mind and heart that God has changed to discern what is right for my life…what I can and must do that is good and pleasing and perfect in the sight of God.

The first part is hard enough. Paul acknowledged as much. In explaining our sinful nature, he admitted to the Romans his personal struggle with his choices. “…for what I want to do, I do not do, but what I hate, I do…For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”

We are bombarded with options and opinions, most of which do not reflect the nature of God. We live our lives pressured by peers to satisfy our own desires. We spend an inordinate amount of effort qualifying our actions as if the end somehow justifies the means. Who can blame us when national leaders declare to us that “truth isn’t truth?”

How do we discover what is good and pleasing and perfect among the flood of opinions and options inundating our lives? How do we keep from pulling scripture out of context and using it to justify our actions? How do we discern God’s truth?

Let’s start by defining spiritual discernment. Spiritual discernment is the ability to distinguish divine truth from error and half-truth. Right from wrong. Real from fake. Good from bad. Best from better. It is our ability to separate the enticing from the edifying.

Sounds simple so far. Famed pastor Charles Spurgeon believed if one examined everything carefully, the right choice would be obvious. “If one should set a joint of meat on his table and it smells rather high, I would cut a slice and if I put one bite into my mouth. If I found it far gone, I should not find it necessary to eat the whole round of beef to test its sweetness.” One bite should be enough.

That may be true with many things. “Thou shalt not kill.” “Thou shalt not steal.” With other things, it is less obvious. We are pretty good about welcoming the fog that obscures the truth behind its mist. And, sin is pretty good about putting a positive spin on its message.

When the choices grow more complicated, Paul offers a suggestion. He called upon the people in Thessalonica to “Test everything. Retain what is good. Refrain from every kind of evil.” He’s not saying we should dip a toe into sin to measure its temperature. To just give sin a try and then we’ll know for sure. He’s saying to carefully examine what is before you before you dive in.

The Greek word translated “test” in this passage is the same word he uses in Romans for “discern.” Let’s explore that for a minute.

It is a word that speaks to ore that is cleansed by fire. The impurities removed so all that remains is pure, refined metal. The grammatical use of the word also speaks to a continuous process, suggesting that we should constantly pass everything we hear and read, every action we think about doing, through the purifying fire of all scripture to determine if those thoughts and deeds are consistent with biblical teaching. We keep examining those things until that which is being tested is proven to be genuine and trustworthy.

Once we know that which is being tested aligns with God’s word, it ought to make that thing a part of the pattern for our lives, tucked away in our hearts and applied constantly in the things we say and do. If it failed to pass the examination, set it aside as unworthy of our energy and effort.

Paul tells us that determining God’s will in life requires us to pre-program our minds with Scripture, to live in step with God’s spirit, to control and guide our steps and our thinking so that every critical decision in the face of temptation or every critical choice between what is good, better or best, proves our commitment to living a Christ-like life.

The inner voice of God’s spirit within helps in discerning all matters that impact our spiritual lives…separating what is from God from that which is not. This puts every a of aspect of life under the scrutiny.

Our choices.

Our conversation.

Our standard of living.

Our business.

Our entertainment.

Our friendships.

That which we do openly and that which we do behind closed doors.

Maybe Paul’s prayer to the Philippian church should be our own petition for clarity of choice and the courage of our convictions.

“And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern (test/examine) what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ.”

We are surrounded by the things of this world. We cannot remove ourselves from it, especially if we are to be God’s light within it.

Let’s open our hearts to his word and make it our prayer that God will grant us the wisdom to discern and discover all that is good and pleasing and perfect in his eyes.

Amen?

Amen!

 

Fearless Love

Background Passages: Romans 12:13; I Peter 4:8-10; I John 4:18-20 and III John

“What should we do if we see one of you doing something wrong?” The question from my oldest son came out of the blue at the dinner table when he was about eight years old. My wife and I looked at each other in stunned silence as my mind raced through all the things I might have said or done since I got home that night.

My wife, unfazed by the question and probably with a cleaner conscious than mine, responded first. “You should tell us.” My son turned to me with a stern look on his face, “She talks to strangers all the time.” It seems our talks about “stranger danger” took hold. All I could do was shake my head and say, “I know. I know.”

What Adam observed is true. Robin will strike up a conversation with the woman she’s never met in the grocery line or the man at the doctor’s office…any time, any place, any one. She is outgoing and friendly to all she encounters. My son was right about her actions, but wrong in his interpretation. To my wife, no one is a stranger and all a potential friend.

I believe her ability to notice people, to make them feel special, is a God-given gift. In biblical terms, she has the gift of hospitality. Christian hospitality isn’t about fancy table settings or sumptuous banquets, it’s about servanthood. It conveys the idea of loving others in the name of Christ. While the Bible teaches all of us to love one another and to practice hospitality (Rom. 12:13), there are those whose spirit captures it in abundance.

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.” I Peter 4:8-10

At its core, hospitality frames the loving outreach of the Christian faith…with hands, hearts and doors open to the world. It’s more than just unlocking your home to those in need of a place to stay. It speaks more to making connections with those we encounter…even if the connection is brief.

You’ll find the gift present in the families that welcomed into their homes victims of flood, fire and storm. You’ll find it in the woman who gave up a successful career to open a shelter for abused women and children. You’ll find the gift in the foster parent who loves so unconditionally for an uncertain time.

You’ll find the gift among those men and women who meet the needs of the hurting. End the isolation of the lonely, Embrace the rejected. The gift flows naturally because they love…and they love fearlessly.

John reminds us in his first letter, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us.” I John 4:18-19

That leads me back to the first century to a man referenced just once in the Bible. A minor player with a major role to play. John wrote his third letter not to a church nor to a pastor. Rather, III John is the ancient equivalent to a quick text or email from the apostle to a dear friend named Gaius whose fearless love served as evidence of his gift of hospitality.

Let me give you the setting. During the first century the apostles journeyed through the biblical world planting new churches. As they moved on under the leadership of the spirit, they left those fledgling congregations in the hands of local pastoral leaders. To ensure these new believers stayed true to the teachings of Christ, the apostles would periodically send their personal assistants, itinerant pastors, to continue teaching the deeper truths of the gospel, helping them grow toward a more mature faith.

Inevitably, some of these local leaders felt they no longer needed the help of “outsiders.” John tells us of one such man. Diotrephes, a strong-willed man who enjoyed at little too much his prominent position in the church, constantly belittled the apostles and sent away unceremoniously the itinerant preachers sent by John to minster to the people. Diotrephes so loved “being first” he abused his authority, convincing the congregation to kick out of the church any who opposed him in this matter.

Gaius stood in the gap on behalf of these visiting pastors, defying Diotrephes and undoubtedly incurring his wrath. Yet, John encouraged Gaius to continue “walking in truth” (vs. 3) and praised him for his “faithfulness” (vs. 5).

You see, Gaius had the gift. He could make anyone feel welcomed. With Gaius, conversation flowed easily. There was something in his demeanor that instantly turned the stranger he met in the grocery store, the doctor’s office or the steps of his church into a friend. He was the kind of person who drew the lonely from their solitude.

Gaius saw the good in others and cast aside the arrogance of Diotrephes to embrace the teaching of those visiting preachers. To welcome them into his home. To share his food and provision. To invite others to hear their words of encouragement and hope. If that meant loving those he barely knew when other friends and neighbors called him a fool, that’s what he would do.

You see, like my wife, Gaius never met a stranger. He met everyone he encountered with fearless love and the open arms of Christ. Gaius had the gift of hospitality and he used it to God’s glory.

In the words of Jesus, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother or sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”

Most of us love fearfully, afraid to welcome the strangers we encounter. Always careful to approach only those who look and act like us. Afraid that opening our lives to others make us vulnerable to heartbreak and hurt.

We need to see that John commends Gaius for using his gift of hospitality. Gaius’ heart and home extended comfort and provision to the traveling ministers sent by John to preach and teach in his absence, despite the fact that they were strangers to Gaius. Despite the fact that others turned them away. By opening his home to these brothers, John’s beloved friend became a partner with them for the sake of “the Name” and for “the truth.” Gaius made a difference in sharing the name of Christ and his gospel of truth.

Gaius’ actions thrilled John. He wrote, “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.”

We’ve each been called to love because God first loved us. Those he gifted with the spirit of hospitality take love to a new level and it is fearless. What a changed world it would be if we all put it into practice.

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Author’s Note: This devotional thought is the second in a series of posts about some of the unsung heroes of the New Testament. These men and women, in many ways, carried the responsibility of the spread of the gospel in first 50 years after the ministry of Christ. By putting together the limited biblical references to their work and filling in the gaps with a little imagination, we find ways in which we, as ordinary Christians, can a heart for ministry in the examples they set.