| The Essential Reforms of HOFCC |
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| HOFCC Core Beliefs | |
| Friday, 21 July 2006 | |
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Page 8 of 8 Reform #7: "Devoted to Ministry Hospitality"Biblical hospitality is an expression of worship toward God as we honor and serve those He has created in His own image. In hospitality our devotion to God is expressed by sharing our time and possessions with others. Far more than mere social recreation, biblical hospitality is central to all that it means to be members of Christ’s Body in a local church, and ambassadors for Christ in a lost and dying world. As hosts we renounce our fear and greed in order to lay down our lives in love for our guests.This is the love that Christ commands. "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35). John later makes it clear that, "If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 4:20) We love God by loving one another. How does this work? It works because all Christian love, at it’s root, is an expression of love for God. We love others as though they were Christ Himself in disguise (Matt 25:31-40). Any other kind of love is idolatry because it places some created person or thing above the Creator. However, it is also true that any attempt to love God apart from loving our neighbor, who bears God’s image, is blasphemy. It dishonors the only representation of God we can actually see. So, the former is the sin of the pagan. The latter is the sin of the Pharisee. Both are wrong. God does not intend our love for Him to be expressed apart from showing loving kindness to one another (see Mark 12:28-34). Hospitality brings them together. In it we show our love for God by the way we love one another as Christ commanded. |
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