The hospitality industry. An inhospitable environment. Southern hospitality. “Thank you for your hospitality.” What’s the key to making that core concept work as it should? Plain and simple: it’s about people.

Hospitality is a Christian virtue because fellowship—a word that means sharing, participation, connection—is a Christian virtue. Hospitality’s not about a house; it’s about people. It’s not about prestige or extravagance; it’s about people. It’s not about entertainment; it’s about people. It’s not even about proper etiquette, cleanliness, dishes, serving, or recipes (cf. Martha [Lk. 10:38-42]); it’s about making genuine, sincere connections with people.

I have been around church families where it was said, “We just don’t really do hospitality. It’s not really our thing.” But there are two big problems with that: 1) That’s essentially just shrugging off one of the Spirit’s commands, essentially saying to God, “We’re simply not interested in doing the thing that you’ve asked us to.” And 2) It betrays disinterest in people—those who are God’s and therefore our siblings in faith, as well as those who are lost and who need our evangelistic guidance to be saved. If we are truly God’s children, we cannot be possessed of a casual, dismissive attitude toward those who are made in his image.

So let’s all look for opportunities to show hospitality—to ‘love strangers,’ sharing what we have with them, welcoming them into our homes, our hearts, and our lives. It’s an expected, commanded part of the Christian life.

“Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” (Hb. 13:2)

- Dan Lankford, minister

Recently, the world was given a great spiritual insight from a surprising source: Disney’s Mufasa. Here’s the truth that one of the songs laid out: “If you wanna go fast, go alone. But if you wanna go far, we go together!” Now, that is some surprisingly Biblical wisdom!

Throughout the Torah, God was trying to teach his people to care for the poor, the orphan, the widow, and the immigrant among them. But again and again, those people were neglected by the well-to-do among Israel. Why? Because, in one preacher’s words, “Kindness is inefficient.” It slows us down in life if we care for those who are needy, elderly, impaired, or weak. And yet, God didn’t guide his people to grow fast in the land they were going to possess; he guided them to “live long in the land” (Dt. 5:33, etc.). If he had wanted them to go fast on the road of life, they would have to ignore many fellow travelers. But he wanted them them to go far, so he taught them to go together.

Throughout the New Testament, the same is true: God wanted the Christians to go far in life; to become a kingdom that would never be shaken (cf. Hb. 12:28). And so, rather than filling his letters full to bursting with strategies for fast growth, hostile takeovers, and cultural transformations from the top-down… he talked to them about how crucial it was that they remain united. Their togetherness is one of the key topics in Romans, 1st Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1st Thessalonians, Philemon, Hebrews, James, and 1st John.

And of course, Jesus himself is the perfect example of this. How much more could he have gotten done in his lifetime if he just 'didn’t have time for' the disciples and their foolishness? What if he had left them and gone to seek out better followers who would learn quicker, be more spiritually-minded, and have more influence? Wouldn't that seem like the more efficient use of his time? Actually, yes. But kindness is inherently inefficient, and Jesus' patience with the disciples is an important part of how he turned twelve ordinary men into the authoritative mouthpieces of his new, heavenly kingdom.

“If you wanna go fast, go alone. But if you wanna go far, we go together!” That sometimes tests our patience. It often requires us to forgive. It occasionally seems like wasted effort. But it’s one of the keys to being God’s people and ‘living long in the kingdom he has given us to possess.’

- Dan Lankford, minister

I once was blessed to hear a podcast conversation between two believers who had grown up attending what we could rightly call typical evangelical churches. Youth groups, concert-style worship music, big organizations, fundraising efforts, sports teams, bookstores and coffee shops in the building… were all part of the norm for their experience with religion and faith. But as adults, they had both left all of that behind and tried to lead a church environment guided by God’s word. What made the difference? Simply: the Bible.

Their experience is pretty typical of what happens for a lot of (though not all) people who grow up in religious families: they are taught religion as a largely feel-good, therapeutic, healthy addition to your life. Few of the tenets of the faith are taught as essentials to life—just “good ideas for a lot of people.” And while the Bible is often referenced, it’s rarely taught. They become what one of the podcast hosts described for himself: post-Bible Christians.

That particular phrase—“post-Bible Christian”—describes a danger that can plague all believers, both from liberal and conservative (and even very-liberal and very-conservative) traditions. Both are tempted to know proof-texts, but not really study and absorb the full context to understand God’s own heart (cf. 1 Sm. 13:14). Both are tempted to treat the Bible as a good motivational book, but not neglect to treat it as the very words of eternal life (cf. Jn. 6:68). Both are tempted to reference the Bible but not know it; to read it but not engage it; to accept it, but find that they do not actually like it.

I hope this reminds us of two things:

1) That if we are people who know the Bible well, we need to be compassionate in our outlook toward those who do not. We shouldn’t look down on them for not knowing (although we might rightly criticize their spiritual leaders for such failures); we should compassionately do our best to lead them deeper into God’s word and toward his heart. We should try to draw them toward a fuller experience with the Bible if at all possible. We should offer to study, to guide, to teach, and sometimes just to read it with them; because so many have so little exposure to the word. (By the way, this is why I started giving page numbers for Bible references when I preach; I want as many people as possible to be able to read along).

2) It should remind us not to get complacent with our own Bible knowledge. Complacency and self-righteousness go hand-in-hand, and they are the companions of spiritual failure (cf. Lk. 18:9-14). Members of the Churches of Christ used to be commonly called “people of the book,” and that was a wonderful reputation... but it’s one that I fear we could lose without deliberate choices. I find that saints in churches like ours—particularly teens and young adults—are often passionate about Jesus and church-related activities, but they don’t know their Bibles nearly as well as a previous generation did (for more specifics on this, see this article from a couple of weeks ago). It’s not just that they don’t know certain distinctive doctrines—it’s that they don’t know the Bible, and they haven’t learned to love it. We may be on track, without some purposeful, prayerful attention from all church leaders (cf. 1 Tm. 4:6-16), to creating our own trend of post-Bible Christianity. That’s a trend that we can counteract, though, and so we must, for the glory of God and the preservation of our souls.

“Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Hb. 4:11-12)

- Dan Lankford, minister

In Christian bookstores, you can often look over the new releases and get a sense of what’s happening in the broader world of all that’s called ‘Christian.' I did that recently at Focus of the Family Bookstore, and here are some of the titles:

• Take Your Life Back; How To Stop Letting the Past and Other People Control You
• I Shouldn’t Feel This Way; Name What’s Hard, Tame Your Guilt, and Transform Self-Sabotage into Brave Action
• I Declare War; 4 Keys To Winning The Battle With Yourself
• The Bondage Breaker; Overcoming Negative Thoughts, Irrational Feelings, Habitual Sins
• Neighbor, Love Yourself; Discover Your Value, Live Your Worth
• Take Back Your Life; A 40-Day Interactive Journey To Thinking Right So You Can Live Right

What’s the common factor here? They’re all promising to help re-gain control of our thoughts; to help us overcome difficult things like guilt, regret, comparison, and tension. They all promise that if we follow the steps, we’ll be free from what’s negative inside us. It says a lot about our cultural moment when this is what Christian writers and publishers know people will buy in order to find help.

What’s the real solution to a mind that is anxious, frustrated, regretful, and restless? What will all the ideas in those books boil down to if they’re correct? Ultimately, they’ll be rehearsing truths from God. Truths such as, ‘Don’t be anxious; trust God’ (cf. Mt. 6:25-34), and ‘Believe it when God says you’re forgiven’ (cf. 1 Jn. 2:12), and “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Tm. 1:7).

What can we do to gain and maintain control of our minds? Ultimately, we gain control by surrendering control—by becoming so thoroughly indoctrinated with God’s ways that “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2:20). Only that will win the battle over self.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Hypocrisy among disciples is one of the greatest detriments to the expansion of Jesus’ reign in the world. It makes the Way look fraudulent when those who claim it aren’t true to it. And just as it fails intellectually, it’s an enormous emotional problem. It’s like a noxious odor to anyone who recognizes it.

I was reminded of this recently when I pulled up behind a minivan in traffic that had a Jesus fish on one side of the rear window… and a decal with a nasty swear word on the other side. On other recent occasions, I’ve talked to some young adults at work whom I know to be active at church… who complain that their favorite local bar has closed down and they’ll have nothing to do on the weekends. On another recent occasion, an acquaintance whom I know to regularly use profanity and follow his lusts freely… told me that he “pastors” a church here in our city.

That sort of thing just stinks to the mind and heart of anyone who genuinely wants Christ to be served. Like the pungent smell of vinegar or ammonia, it shocks the senses of believers, jarring us and making us want to turn away. And it must surely stink similarly as an aroma ascending before God.

And that ought to remind us just how imperative it is that we live lives of holiness and purity. Because if we can sense it in others’ lives, then how much more will they be put off by the same stench of our hypocrisy? We are a living sacrifice to come up as a pleasing aroma before God (cf. Rm. 12:1)—without a hint of off-putting hypocrisy.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Gnosis. Knowledge. Peter says that if we want to grow in Christ we need to grow in our knowledge. Yet, if you listen too much to the echoes of our culture you might find yourself discouraged in that pursuit. Here’s why:

There are many highly respected and highly visible people in our culture who would claim that it’s not possible to know the will of God. Sure, the most basic truths are discernable, like the fact that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead; but beyond those simplest truths God’s will is just kind of muddy. Some claim that the Bible itself is not clear on most issues. Others claim that the Bible is clear, but that we’ll be forever undone by our own bias and prejudice. Still others make the case that God’s word is intentionally left open to interpretation—that God wants us to draw our own subjective conclusions.

To put it simply, we live in a culture that just doesn’t have faith in our ability to know, understand, and correctly apply the word of God. But culture is wrong.

The Holy has told us clearly that we can know the will of God. Remember that Jesus promised that those who continue in His word would know the truth and it would make us free (John 8:31-32). When writing to the Colossians, Paul prayed that church would filled with the knowledge of God’s will so that they could please Him in all respects (Colossians 1:9-12). That doesn’t sound like something you would say if it were impossible to know God’s will. 

More meaningful to me is what John states at the beginning of his Gospel: “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” (John 1:18). The word translated “explained” is the Greek word, “exegeomai,” and it means to open up or unfold. That’s a beautiful idea, isn’t it? Through His life and teaching Jesus has unfolded—He has revealed—the character and the will of God. Be not discouraged in your pursuit of knowledge! You can know the will of God!

- Jonathan Banning

Most Bible readers have heard often about the importance of context when reading and studying. For some believers, that means just a verse or a sentence before and after the specific thing we’re looking at. But often, the context of a particular passage includes a whole section of the book that it’s from.

That’s what we have with this week’s daily Bible readings. All week long, we’re following Israel’s journey from the Red Sea (which they crossed in ch. 14) to Mt. Sinai (where they’ll receive the Law, starting in ch. 20). I recently heard the Exodus simply outlined in three parts: the road out [of slavery], the road between [slavery and freedom], and the road up [to God’s promised rest]. We’re with them on ‘the road between’ right now.

As we said in this week’s Reader’s Guide, this is where Israel will begin to show their true colors… which aren’t pretty. They complain about God when they find places with no water (15:22-26, 17:1-7). And they disobey his simple instructions about manna, messing up in two ways: first, by trying to gather too much and hoard it for themselves (16:19-20), and second, by expecting to gather it on the day when he told them to rest (16:27-30). And if you know the rest of the wilderness story, then you know these events are only the beginning of their problems.

What was their core problem in these events? In all of those cases, they failed to trust that God would provide for them. They complained because they didn’t trust him to provide. They hoarded because they didn’t trust him to provide. They worked rather than rested because they didn’t trust him to provide.

Do we trust him to provide for us? What does our anxiety level reveal as the answer to that? What do our giving-versus-hoarding habits reveal as the answer to that? What do our work-versus-rest habits reveal as the answer to that? How are we doing at putting our full trust in our God while we live in this life—our very own ‘road between’ salvation and promised rest?

- Dan Lankford, minister

One of the main reasons (some might even say the reason) that Jesus so often ran afoul of the religious leaders of his day was this: He had total faith in God’s word and will, and they just didn’t.

When they pointed out what they saw as flaws or sins in his life, he showed them repeatedly that if they truly believed God’s word in their hearts, they would be happy to see his ways, hear his words, and accept his gracious dominion as their Messiah. But instead, they saw him as a sinner, because their faith was in their own ways rather than in what God had said.

Jesus pointed this out to them powerfully in Mark 7. When they criticized him for not living “according to the tradition of the elders” (Mk. 7:5), Jesus showed that they had more faith in that tradition than they did in God’s actual words. And their problem is always the problem when humans go beyond the word of God: we “leave the commandment” (v. 8), we “reject the commandment” (v. 9), and we “make void the word” (v. 13). He was very clear: in believing that their additions were required to make God’s word work as it should, they had rejected him. They lacked faith in him.

Hearing Jesus say that ought to be a check on our own faith. 
Are we satisfied with God’s will just as it is, or do we feel that we need to fence spirituality a little more properly than he has done? We too can fall into thinking that God’s words are sometimes not clear enough or conservative enough, so we make our own ‘traditions,’ thinking that we’re helping him. But let’s be warned: The Pharisees and scribes did that because they lacked faith in God, and we’d better be diligent not to fall into the same trap. Let’ be like Jesus and have total faith in the perfection of God’s word and his will.

- Dan Lankford, minister

Spiritual growth is a never-ending process. It’s like a marathoner’s pursuit of the perfect race—the faster they go, the faster they want to go. There’s always something more to reach for. As Peter said, the attributes of a quality spiritual life are always increasing (2 Pt. 1:8). This can be a daunting reality, but it need not be, because as we work toward growth in one attribute of spiritual life, growth happens in others simultaneously.

Knowledge—gnosis in the Greek—is one of those springboard qualities: when it grows, other growth happens. If we’ll let it, knowledge increases our virtue, steadfastness, self-control, etc. This is what God wants for us and from us. The apostles spoke freely and often about saints growing in the knowledge of God (Rm. 15:14, 1 Cr. 12:8, Ep. 1:17-18, Co. 1:19, Philemon 1:6, 2 Pt. 1:2). They didn’t want them to just believe and remain ignorant—they wanted them to possess deep understanding of God’s word, his will, and his Way.

But someone might be thinking, “Isn’t knowledge bad for Christians? Doesn’t it make people prideful? Aren’t we supposed to be about love and not about knowledge?” I’ll give the benefit of the doubt that anyone who would ask this is well-meaning, but the simple answer is, “No.” There are only a very small handful of times when learning/knowledge is negatively portrayed in the New Testament, and they’re usually when someone had an attitude or faith problem; not that they were just “too smart” (such is the case where Paul said, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up”). Knowledge of God and his word doesn’t inherently make us prideful—that’s a choice that each of us have to make. The pursuit of Bible knowledge, of worldview understanding, and of spiritual discernment ought to be a hallmark of Christians. In fact, that’s God’s stated purpose for church leaders: that they would build saints up “until we all attain to... the knowledge of the Son of God” (Ep. 4:13).

Spiritual growth is a never-ending process, so let’s keep learning, brothers and sisters. Let’s keep adding some more knowledge of the things of God to our faith.

- Dan Lankford

“Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak…” (James 1:19)

——————

Allow me to state something obvious: Some people are good at listening, and others just aren’t. That’s not to say that it’s an unchangeable destiny for either; it’s a skill that can be acquired. But I think we all recognize the varied skill levels when we encounter them.

Some people have a seemingly innate ability to stay engaged when someone is talking to them, to ignore potential distractions, and to truly focus on another person as they speak. They ask questions to show they’re thoughtfully connected. They care sincerely about the other person’s interests (cf. Phil. 2:4). They are slow to bring up their own opinions and interests. And they take the time to listen longer because they want to learn the person, not just to gather information. As a result, they tend to be a hub of deep conversations and close relationships. They possess an aura where powerful, personal, transformative conversations are had.

But for many, that’s just not our natural way. We quick-filter what we think is the relevant highlight of a conversation and then mentally rush ahead. We give follow-up statements rather than asking follow-up questions. We think about what we’ll say next instead of what the person has just said to us. We are quick to criticize or disagree, even before we’ve heard the fullness of the other person’s perspective. And we often miss out on appreciating who the other person is because we don’t really hear them. As a result, our relationships can remain at surface-level. People keep us at arm’s length because they feel that, rather than pulling them close to us by listening well, we have kept them at arm’s length.

Obviously, one of those behavior sets is much more like Jesus’. He always put more stock in individuals than in crowds, and he frequently took time to pause everything else and give his full attention to one person. Think about the afternoon that he spent with Zacchaeus (Lk. 19:10). What was it that made Zacchaeus receive the Lord joyfully (v. 6) and ultimately repent of his sins and turn to a life of generosity (v. 8)? In that story, Jesus paid attention to him. How does one person pay attention to another in that sort of life-changing way? By being “quick to hear” and “slow to speak.”

So here’s some practical advice for all of us to grow in this skill: When someone talks to you, ignore distractions and focus on them and what they’re saying. Ask questions about what they think, what motivates them, and what’s important to them. Listen to their answers when you ask questions—to the information, the tone, and the approach they take. Listen to ideas and beliefs that are different than your own, and don’t always feel the need to correct them right away—often, it can wait. Listen to the person’s heart behind what they say, and learn to see both their good and their flaws with wisdom.

Being heard is often much more important to a relationship than being taught, advised, or even encouraged. Often, the most compassionate and authentic thing we can do is listen skillfully. People who are “quick to hear, slow to speak” are living out the wisdom of God in their relationships, and that sort of behavior always leads us into his good blessings.

- Dan Lankford, minister