Migrant Ministry Testimony Service

What does it actually mean to love a stranger? The New Testament word for hospitality is a compound of two Greek words -- phileo, meaning brotherly love, and xenos, meaning stranger or foreigner. Put them together and you get something that cuts against the grain of our natural instincts: a call to extend the same warmth and affection we reserve for those closest to us toward people who are nothing like us. This message pushes us to examine whether we are living that out. Romans 12:9-13 lays out the marks of a true Christian, and hospitality sits right there in the list alongside fervent prayer, genuine love, and patient endurance in suffering. It is not an optional add-on for the especially outgoing among us -- it is a defining characteristic of what it looks like to follow Christ. We are also reminded of the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10, where Jesus dismantles every attempt to draw a comfortable boundary around who qualifies as our neighbor. The table becomes a powerful symbol throughout this message -- a place where backgrounds blur, where the gospel moves freely, and where the kind of love Christ demonstrated becomes visible and tangible. The question left ringing in our ears is this: who are we refusing to sit down with, and what does that refusal say about the condition of our hearts?