Evaluating 40 Days of Community

[*NOTE: Quotes from the 40 Days of Community Workbook are blockquoted. The book states that this material was adapted from a book by Karen Mains.]

"We're commissioned to reach out together...by using hospitality."

... we could significantly alter the fabric of society. We could play a major role in its spiritual, moral, and emotional redemption.

This seems to suggest that we are the ones who can alter the fabric of society, which has been the thrust in the all-too-prevalent "kingdom now" theology. Is society going to be redeemed, or are individuals redeemed, being called out of this world? Kingdom Now theology looks for a promised great revival and a bringing down of The Kingdom to earth. In other words, the ruling and the reigning will happen in our society at large. While we all long for true revival and for all to come to salvation, Jesus did say that His kingdom is not of this world--otherwise He would have called His servants to fight and prevent His execution. Even while He was on this earth, few believed and were saved. And Jesus prophecied that in the end times, there will be a great apostasy and a falling away (Matt 24:10, and Paul in 2 Thess 2:3), and you cannot fall away from something you never claimed to belong to in the first place. Jesus' first statement in response to the apostles' question about what the signs of the end of the age were was "see to it that no one misleads you" (Matt 24:4, NASB). I repeat this admonition for your benefit.

Entertaining always puts things before people. ... Hospitality, however, puts people before things.

Good wisdom here. Also, I want to emphasize that our hospitality should be to strangers and those who cannot pay us back (ie. the needy), especially of those who are of the family of Christ.

Verse to Remember: "Open your homes to each other without complaining" (1 Peter 4:9, TEV).

The NASB reads: "Be hospitable to one another without complaint." The TEV takes the liberty of constraining the meaning to opening ones home, although this does not seem to be in the Greek. The Greek for hospitable is "a friend of, loving or kind to" one another--so all those who do not own or live in a home can be hospitable too! :)

The remainder of today's reading had some beneficial admonitions and advice.