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Is it the Bible or Jesus that is authoritative for Christians? ANSWER: Yes.

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It is popular in some Christian circles today to say that “Jesus is our authority; not the Bible.”

Others put it this way: “Jesus is the only Word of God; the Bible is not the Word of God.”

Some will even accuse you of “bibliolatry” (making the Bible an idol) if you believe that the Bible is the Word of God and is inspired, inerrant, and authoritative.

One author I recently read even accuses Christians of treason against Jesus Christ for thinking that the Bible is the Word of God.

I understand the concern, and I agree that bibliolatry is indeed a danger, but the question must nevertheless be asked, “If not for the Bible, how would we know about Jesus?”

what is my authority

Engage in a little thought experiment with me.

Let’s Assume Jesus is the ONLY Authority

Let us assume for a moment that Jesus is the only Word of God. That only Jesus is authoritative in revealing God to us, showing us how to live, and telling us what God wants, desires, and expects from us.

This is not hard to assume, because it is true.

But now, in your mind, get rid of everything you know about Jesus that comes from the Bible. If possible, try to wipe your mind of every detail, idea, fact, or thought about Jesus which has its origin in Scripture.

Now that you have done this, how much do you know about Jesus?

The answer is: nothing.

Sure, you might have some oral legends and myths that have been passed down through time for 2000 years, but how reliable and authoritative do you think these would be?

Without the Bible, we would have nothing authoritative to say about Jesus, and therefore, no firm foundation on which to base our Christian teachings and ideas.

authority of Jesus

We NEED an authoritative Bible so that we Can Follow our sole Authority, Jesus

For the Christian faith to be authoritative, we need eyewitness accounts of what Jesus said and how Jesus lived, and this is what we have in Scripture, primarily in the four Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

So is the Bible the Word of God? I would unequivocally say “Yes, it is.”

But since Jesus is my authority, I agree with Jesus that the Scriptures are authoritative only as long as they point us to Jesus. He said to the religious leaders of His day that they search the Scriptures daily because they think that in them they have life, but these Scriptures actually point to Jesus (John 5:39).

We cannot follow the authority of Jesus without the authority of Scripture, for Scripture teaches us and informs about Jesus.

So when it comes to the Christian authority, I have no qualms in saying that our authority is the Word of God. (Of course, it is important to also consider how the Bible is authoritative.) And by this, I mean that our authority is the written Word of God (the Bible) as it points us to the living Word of God, Jesus. We cannot have one without the other.

authority of Scripture

So BOTH Jesus and Scripture are Authoritative

We cannot have the authority of Jesus without the authority of Scripture.

In my forthcoming book, God’s Blueprints for Church Growth, I write this:

Chester McCalley, a pastor in Kansas City, Missouri was asked one Sunday by some visitors if they could see the church constitution. He noticed they were carrying their Bibles, so he told them, “You have it in your hands. Our church is governed by the Word of God.”

This pastor was correct, and yet a careful distinction must be made. While I have no issue with calling the Bible “the Word of God,” we must remember that the Bible is the Word of God only when we use it to teach others about the only true Word of God, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the Word, and the Bible can help us understand Jesus as the Word only so long as we remember that the Bible points to and teaches about Jesus. Jesus Himself chided the Bible experts of His day for diligently studying the Scriptures while not seeing that they pointed to Him (John 5:39).

If we learn, study, and teach Scripture just so we can learn more about Scripture, we have lost our way, and are not actually studying the Word of God. If you are studying the Bible and it is not pointing you to Jesus, then you are not truly studying the Word of God.

The Bible is only the Word of God when our study of it points us to Jesus, who is the Word of God.

And the great thing about both Jesus and Scripture being authoritative is that these two authorities do not contradict or disagree with each other (when both are properly understood).

So since I strive to be a faithful and committed follower of Jesus, I search the Scriptures daily, so that in them and through the authority of Scripture, I might be pointed to Jesus, my sole and ultimate authority.

If you want to see how I work some of this out, try one of books or start listening to my podcast.

This post is part of the June Synchroblog on the topic of authority. Here are the other contributors for this month:

God is Redeeming Scripture, Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: , , , , , ,

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Christians Should Go to Hell

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No, I am not condemning or cursing Christians to hell. Instead, I am inviting them to follow Jesus wherever He leads … even when it is straight to hell. In other words, I am saying that Jesus is leading you to go to hell. 

Let me explain.

The Gates of Hell Will Not Prevail Against It

In my book, (#AmazonAdLink) The Death and Resurrection of the Church, I point out that the very first time Jesus talked about the church, He said that He was going to build it and that that gates of hell would not prevail against it (Matthew 16:18).

When most Christians read this, they imagine the church as this impregnable fortress, with huge white granite walls, behind which all the people of God huddle together in safety as the forces of evil attack from outside.

When most Christians read Matthew 16:18, they think Jesus is saying that the church He is building will be a place for Christians to safely wait out the onslaught of the invading hordes of hell.

But this is exactly the opposite of what Jesus says. In Matthew 16:18 Jesus says that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. Do you see? Jesus is saying that the church He is building will go to hell and storm the gates of hell.

In other words, who has the gates and walls which keep out the invading army? Not the church, but hell.

And therefore, who is the invading army? Not hell, but the church.

When Jesus describes the church He is building, it is not the church which has the walls and gates, but hell. And it is not the devil and his forces that are attacking the gates of the church, but the church which is attacking the gates of hell. It is the church which will go to hell to rescue those who are there.

The gates of hell are under siege by Jesus and His church.

Jesus storms the gates of hellIt is not the church that is attempting to hide behind gleaming walls as against an invading army. No, it is Satan and his minions who are huddled behind their blackened walls, hoping that the gates will hold.

Jesus says they will not. Jesus says the gates of hell will not prevail. They will not stand. The gates of hell will fall to the invading church.

Of course, this presupposes that the church is on the offensive. That the church is invading hell. That the church has followed Jesus to hell. That the church will go to hell with Jesus.

It’s an exciting prospect!

But there is something else in Jesus’ statement as well.

Where is Hell? It is Here and Now

If the church is here in this world, and if Jesus is leading the church to attack the gates of hell now… then this means that hell is here and now as well.

It has been said that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist. If that’s true, the second greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the church that hell existed only in the afterlife, and only for unbelievers.

The truth, as indicated by Jesus Himself in Matthew 16, is that hell is here and now.  Hell is a kingdom on this earth, and Jesus launched His attack on the gates of hell by inaugurating the kingdom of God on earth. We are now in the middle of a struggle between two kingdoms, and Jesus has shown us that the gates of hell will crumble and fall so that His rule and reign will cover the earth, until every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord (Rom 14:11; Php 2:10).

If the church is going to go to hell with Jesus, then this means that the gates of hell must exist here and now, on this earth, during our lives, so that we can go to hell and attack the gates.

In his excellent article, “Hell is a Kingdom,” Brad Jersak writes this:

“Hell is a kingdom, located wherever people are imprisoned and oppressed by the ‘the powers’ and death-dealers of ‘this present darkness’—whether it’s the military-industrial-complex, corporate or political beasts, or any personal affliction, addiction or obsession of choice. … Jesus is not calling the death-snares of this world hades metaphorically in anticipation of the actual subterranean post-mortem hades. Just the opposite: the afterlife mythology of hades is a metaphor for the actual human condition ‘here above.’ The rhetoric or hell is less about the eschatological future and more about educating us in the ‘two ways’ or ‘two kingdoms’ competing for our allegiance here on earth.” (Sinner Irenaeus, aka Brad Jersak, “Hell is a Kingdom: The Missing Motif Reconstructed,” 6).

The message of the kingdom of God as taught by Jesus must be read in light of the idea that hell as a present reality.

It is to the humans caught in the kingdom of hell that Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is at hand” (Matt 4:17) This is not a promise to claim as we wait to die so we can go to heaven and spend an eternal bliss with God. This is a war cry. It is the declaration of Jesus the thief, entering into the strongman’s house, to tie him up and steal his possessions. What possessions? This world and the human beings upon it (Matt 12:29).

So the Church Should Go to Hell

the church should go to hellThe terrible, tragic reality is that while the church gets so caught up in the debate about who goes to hell, and how long they will be there, and whether or not hell is a place of eternal suffering or temporary purification, we are ignoring the people living in hell on earth all around us.

The debate about hell keeps us from helping those who are suffering in the kingdom of hell here and now. Isn’t that sadly ironic? We strengthen and enable hell by discussing and debating hell.

So where do you see the gates of hell in the lives of your family members? Where do you see the influence and power of hell in your neighborhood? Where do you see hell in your town or city? How can you go to hell by rescuing and delivering them?

Where do you see people living in addiction, bondage, guilt, shame, and fear? Where are they abused, maligned, neglected, forgotten, overlooked, abandoned, and forsaken? Where are they sold? Where are they starving? Where are they seeking love?

Wherever you see such things, you see the gates of hell.

the gates of hell

What is the plan of attack to charge these gates and tear them down? With Jesus at your side, these gates will not prevail against you.

There are two kingdoms at war in this world, the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of hell. Jesus is calling you to participate in one by storming the gates of the other.

Will you answer the call of Jesus and go to hell with Him?

This post is part of the May Synchroblog, in which numerous bloggers around the world write about the same topic on the same day. Links to the other contributors are below. Go and read what they have to say about the topic of hell.

The 100 Top Christian Blogs

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Below is a list of the 100 Top Christian Blogs. If you made it onto this list of top Christian blogs … congratulations! Please let others know with the sharing buttons above.

About this list of the 100 Top Christian Blogs

To make this list of top Christian blogs, I gathered and inspected about 500 Christian blogs and ranked them using a variety of factors. Some of the blogs I inspected are listed below the list of the 100 Top Christians blogs.

I will update this list occasionally, so if you want your blog to be considered for future ranking, and your blog is not listed below the list of 100 Top Christian blogs, please include a link to your blog in the comment section. Thanks!

Oh, and do I need to say it?

I guess so… sigh…

Disclaimer: I do not necessarily endorse all the views or perspectives of the bloggers on this list. The list contains many Christian bloggers who write from theological perspectives with which I have some disagreement.

Like who? (Let’s see who I can offend…) Calvinists, Charismatics, Conservative Baptists, and Catholics, just to name a few. Remember, I, Jeremy Myers, am the ONLY correct blogger in the world. (I’m KIDDING!)

Anyway, if someone is on the list of Top Christian blogs and you think they are a heretic, don’t burn me for it! Go be a troll on their site… (I’m kidding again!)

How I Created the List of 100 Top Christian Blogs

Below is an explanation of how I went about ranking these 100 Top Christian Blogs.

First, I gathered the list of Christian blogs using these sites:

Second, I removed all “Community Blogs” which had multiple authors. This caused all blogs from Patheos, the Gospel Coalition, and other similar blogs to be dropped from the list. The reason I did this twofold. Many of these community blogs are not accurately ranked by Alexa and SimilarWeb, which are two of the ranking factors I used (see below). But more than this, I wanted this list to honor the individual blogger who started his or her blog from scratch, and has labored away at it for years, slowly building an audience and faithfully writing quality posts which get read and shared. Those huge mega community blogs often overshadow the quality writing and hard work of individual bloggers. So if a blogger was writing on a community blog, I kept them off my list.

Finally, once I had my list of individual bloggers, I ranked them using a variety of factors. These factors include:

  • Traffic Rank on Alexa
  • Traffic Rank on SimilarWeb
  • Back link Count (shows people are linking to your content)
  • Pages Indexed by Google (shows that the blogger is writing a lot)
  • A variety of other traffic and social signals

The ranking number in the list below is a compilation of these ranking signals. The lower the number, the better the blog ranks.

How to get on this list of Top Christian Blogs

If you are not on this list and you want to work toward getting on it, or if you are on it and want to know what you can do to rise in the ranks of these top Christian blogs, here are six recommendations:

  1. If you are are on a “free” blogging platform (like Blogger.com or WordPress.com), move over to a “self-hosted” site with Knownhost or Bluehost. It’s only a few dollars per month, and you will be set up for success. If you already have a blog, both companies can help you migrate.
  2. Once you have your blog set up properly, make sure it loads fast and looks good. If you don’t do this, people won’t read it. I recommend WP Rocket to help it load fast and StudioPress themes to make it look good.
  3. Write regular blog posts with great content. I recommend 1-3 blog posts per week, with at least 500 words each. Use the free Yoast SEO plugin to help you write your posts.
  4. Read and leave comments on popular blogs (like this one!). By reading blogs you learn how to write a blog, and commenting is a great way to gain readers for your own blog.
  5. Get a WordPress plugin like Social Network Auto Poster to help your posts get listed on social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others.
  6. One of the primary keys to getting traffic is to get links to your blog from other blogs. One of the best ways to do this is to join the Synchroblog. You will get several backlinks each and every month that you participate.

Here then, are the 100 Top Christian Blogs

100 Top Christian Blogs

Rank Score Blog Title and Link Blogger Name
1 217,403 Challies Tim Challies
2 311,841 A Holy Experience Ann Voskamp
3 312,177 Fr. Z’s Blog John Zuhlsdorf
4 480,359 LifeChurch.tv : swerve Craig Groeschel
5 483,757 Albert Mohlers Blog Albert Mohler
6 543,006 Thom Rainer Thom Ranier
7 555,477 Redeeming God Jeremy Myers
8 569,004 Storyline Donald Miller
9 639,219 Rachel Held Evans Rachel Held Evans
10 708,606 Blog and Mablog Doug Wilson
11 716,321 Alpha & Omega Ministries James White
12 771,432 James MacDonald James MacDonald
13 822,726 Insight Grahame Knox
14 908,354 XXXChurch.com Craig Gross
15 912,195 Mark Driscoll Mark Driscoll
16 930,966 Jarrid Wilson Jarrid Wilson
17 932,673 Ron Edmondson Ron Edmondson
18 987,589 Moore to the Point Russell Moore
19 1,009,976 Living Proof Beth Moore
20 1,040,981 Biblical Studies Rob Bradshaw
21 1,180,360 Red Letter Christians Tony Campolo & Shane Claiborne
22 1,185,542 Jen Hatmaker Jen Hatmaker
23 1,242,598 The Naked Bible Michael S. Heiser
24 1,267,270 Beyond Evangelical Frank Viola
25 1,323,223 ReKnew Greg Boyd
26 1,344,629 Denny Burk Denny Burk
27 1,465,513 Christianity Cove Mary-Kate
28 1,494,946 Liturgy Bosco Peters
29 1,508,259 Experimental Theology Richard Beck
30 1,515,386 Head Heart Hand David Murray
31 1,584,527 Frame & Poythress John Frame & Vern Poythress
32 1,612,339 Reclaiming the Mission David Fitch
33 1,658,756 Worship Matters Bob Kauflin
34 1,660,143 Perry Noble Perry Noble
35 1,672,051 Canon Fodder Michael J. Kruger
36 1,707,579 The American Jesus Zack Hunt
37 1,749,053 J.D. Greear J.D. Greear
38 1,766,833 Andy Naselli Andy Naselli
39 1,797,475 What’s Best Next Matt Perman
40 1,862,063 Tony Morgan Live Tony Morgan
41 1,891,059 Margaret Feinberg Margaret Feinberg
42 1,963,329 Lifestream Wayne Jacobsen
43 1,985,895 Zwinglius Redivivus Jim West
44 2,035,457 Blogging Theologically Aaron Armstrong
45 2,112,811 Sarah Bessey Sarah Bessey
46 2,304,695 Faith and Theology Ben Myers
47 2,309,572 Communicate Jesus Steve Kryger
48 2,310,092 Reading Acts Phillip Long
49 2,318,301 Growing Kids Ministry Lindsey Whitney
50 2,407,916 Stuff Christians Like Jon Acuff
51 2,541,554 The Very Worst Missionary Jamie Wright
52 2,617,350 Borrowed Light Mike Leake
53 2,755,792 Courageous Christian Father Steve Patterson
54 2,769,134 Larry Hurtado’s Blog Larry Hurtado
55 2,808,869 Sayable Lore Ferguson
56 2,864,393 DJ Chuang DJ Chuang
57 2,873,396 Stuff Fundies Like Darrell
58 2,937,119 Brian McLaren Brian McLaren
59 3,023,294 Unsettled Christianity Joel L. Watts
60 3,026,191 Matthew Paul Turner Matthew Paul Turner
61 3,061,236 Skye Box Skye Jethani
62 3,069,675 Living By Faith Blog Steve Fuller
63 3,217,964 Everyday Theology Marc Cortez
64 3,249,355 Sam Luce Sam Luce
65 3,280,570 Counseling Solutions Rick Thomas
66 3,326,531 Adam McLane Adam McLane
67 3,327,471 Kingdom in the Midst Marty Duren
68 3,345,392 DashHouse.com Darryl Dash
69 3,402,962 Pastor Joe McKeever Joe McKeever
70 3,455,879 Anita Mathias Anita Mathias
71 3,472,536 Curious Christian Matt Stone
72 3,485,259 For His Renown Jim Hamilton
73 3,486,291 Church Leader Insights Nelson Searcy
74 3,649,485 Nathan W. Bingham Nathan W. Bingham
75 3,660,524 Cerulean Sanctum Dan Edelen
76 3,710,383 Redeemed Reader J.B. Cheaney & Emily A. Whitten
77 3,716,394 Thinking Out Loud Paul Wilkinson
78 3,745,997 Hip and Thigh Fred Butler
79 3,765,303 Claude Mariottini Claude Mariottini
80 3,785,440 RJ Grune RJ Grunewald
81 3,819,892 Religious Affections Scott Aniol
82 3,918,927 Christian Apologetics Maryann Spikes
83 3,974,189 John Shore John Shore
84 4,015,635 Istoria Ministries Blog Wade and Rachelle Burleson
85 4,087,774 NT Resources Rod Decker
86 4,096,481 Daniel Darling Daniel Darling
87 4,116,167 A Place For the God-Hungry Jim Martin
88 4,117,044 Pomomusings Adam Walker Cleaveland
89 4,134,643 RPM Ministries Blog Bob Kellemen
90 4,150,303 Will Mancini Will Mancini
91 4,160,043 Daniel Wallace Daniel Wallace
92 4,234,680 Counseling One Another Paul Tautges
93 4,285,168 Ragamuffin Soul Carlos Whittaker
94 4,339,169 Joe Thorn Joe Thorn
95 4,349,304 Chuck Warnock Chuck Warnock
96 4,504,781 Eugene Cho Eugene Cho
97 4,544,392 WithoutWax Pete Wilson
98 4,554,264 Kathy Escobar Kathy Escobar
99 4,620,367 Fundamentally Reformed Bob Hayton
100 4,668,710 On the Box Ray Comfort

Previous Lists of Top Christian Bloggers

This is the second annual list of Top Christian Bloggers. Below is a link to the Previous list:

How to get on this list of Top Christian Blogs

I mentioned these above, but let me reiterate it here:

If you are not on this list and you want to work toward getting on it, or if you are on it and want to know what you can do to rise in the ranks of these top Christian blogs, here are six recommendations:

  1. Hone your blogging skills by watching my free Blogging Tutorial Videos
  2. Add the Alexa Traffic Rank Extension to your preferred web browser.
  3. Read and leave comments on popular blogs (like this one!). By reading blogs you learn how to write a blog, and commenting is a great way to gain readers for your own blog.
  4. Get a Premium WordPress blog theme that is mobile responsive. Most blog readers are reading on mobile devices these days. I only use StudioPress themes.
  5. Get a WordPress plugin like Social Network Auto Poster to help your posts get listed on social sites like Twitter, Facebook, and others.
  6. Write, write, write, and write some more!

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: , ,

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If this were my only blog post, I would invite you to do one thing…

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I have participated in the Synchroblog for quite a while. But just as all good things must come to an end, the Synchroblog is closing shop. For this last synchroblog, participants were asked to write a blog post as if it were their only blog post ever.

In other words, if I had just one blog post to write, what would it be?

I have spent the last several weeks thinking about what I would write if I could write only one post.

I knew that it had to have something to do with Scripture and theology, since that is what I enjoy writing about. I wanted to write about some of the central biblical and theological truths that had rocked my world over the past decade, such as mimetic rivalry and scapegoating, or my growing conviction that God is not violent.

I also knew that it had to have something to do with the radical, free grace of God in Jesus Christ. Since so many people are caught up today in some form of works-based, guilt-based, performance-based religion, the outrageous, shocking, scandalous grace of God is a nuclear bomb that demolished everything you think you know about God and following Jesus, but at the same time, rebuilds and regrows everything into a new relationship with God built on love, joy, and freedom.

follow JesusBut I also knew that knowing Scripture, and knowing theology, and knowing about grace is not really the point of it all. The point of it all is to actually live this stuff out in real-world relationships by loving other people.

In the end, I finally realized that all these themes were centered on one common thing. Or I should say, they were centered on one common person: Jesus.

Jesus truly is all

If you want to understand the character and nature of God, just look at Jesus. Since God looks like Jesus, all proper thinking about God begins and ends with Jesus. Once you view God through Jesus, you begin to understand God so much more.

It is Jesus who revealed the mimetic rivalry and the scapegoating sacrifices that both threaten and bind all human cultures, civilizations, religions, and relationships. Once you view humanity through Jesus, you begin to understand humanity so much more.

It is Jesus who reveals that God is not violent; that there is no violence in God at all. And because of this, if you want to understand the violence of God in the Bible, you need to begin by looking at Jesus, and especially what Jesus did on the cross and how He appeared on the cross. “Christ, and Him crucified” is the key to understanding divine violence.

It is in the life of Jesus where you see most clearly what shocking, scandalous, outrageous grace looks like. While religion keeps sinners at a distance, Jesus parties with them like there’s no tomorrow. He makes friends with the worst of the worst (from a religious perspective) and tells stories which make heroes out of all the wrong people. He loves those the world says are unlovely. He touches the untouchable. He forgives those who think they cannot be forgiven.

All of this, of course, was no mere “theology” for Jesus. Jesus didn’t have a “theology” so much as He had a life focused on love. Everything that He said and did was to show people that He liked them, that He loved them, that He wanted to be with them.

The example of Jesus is so strong, that even people who do not believe in God, or who think that Jesus is a figment of historical imagination, are still inspired by the example of Jesus to live with more love toward others. The pull of Jesus is so strong, that in one sense, all the world is following Jesus.

following Jesus

So if I only had one message, one article, one blog post, or one thing to say to you, it would be this:

Follow Jesus.

I don’t care what you think about Jesus. I don’t care what you think about God. I don’t care what you think about Christians, or the Bible, or church, or politics, or religion, or anything else that people get so wrapped up in. My invitation to you is still the same:

Just follow Jesus.

follow JesusAnd trust me … if you follow Jesus, you will never get bored.

Jesus will lead you to the craziest of places and teach you the most amazing things. He will help you become truly “you.”

If you want to learn about God, Jesus will show you what God is like.

If you want to understand the Bible, Jesus will be happy to explain it to you.

If you want to get along with your neighbor, your boss, your spouse, or even your enemy, Jesus specializes in helping us learn to love.

I have written over 2000 blog posts on this blog, and while it may not be obvious on all the posts, every single one of them has been focused on one thing: I want to follow Jesus wherever He leads and I invite you to do the same.

But how can you follow Jesus?

I always try to be somewhat practical on this blog. I know that the invitation to “follow Jesus” is a little vague. We hear it so often in sermons and books, it has come to be almost meaningless.

So you might be asking these sorts of questions:

What does it mean to follow Jesus? How can someone do it? What are the steps? How can you follow someone you cannot see or hear?

My answer will probably not be very helpful, but it’s the best one I’ve got. My answer this:

You follow Jesus by believing that He’s leading you.

That’s it.

I know this is still terribly impractical, but it’s the only way I know to describe it.

There are no 10 steps for you to learn.

There are no doctrinal statements to sign.

There are no meetings to attend.

There are no Bible studies to take.

You simply trust that as you go about your day, Jesus is leading you. Following Jesus begins with a mental conviction, a mindset, or a frame of reference that Jesus is leading you.

And He will.

You won’t see much change immediately.

It might take a couple months, years, or even decades. But eventually, you look around in wonder and think, “How in the world did I get here?”

Jesus will wink and smile, and say, “Just wait until you see where I take you next. You ready?”

God is Redeeming Theology Bible & Theology Topics: , , , , , , , ,

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Why I Let a “Murderer” Live in My House

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James (not his real name) and his brother had been convicted of murder. Both were given life sentences and had begun doing their time. But then (for reasons I won’t go into here) the courts decided to give James a retrial. And while he was awaiting retrial, they allowed him to post bail and live under house arrest.

There was only one problem: James had no house in which to live while under house arrest.

So my wife and I offered to have James live with us in our house. We had a one-year old daughter at the time.

Nearly everyone in the church I was pastoring counseled us against such an action. They told us we were putting ourselves and our new daughter at risk. They told us his presence in our home would create stress on our marriage, from which we would never recover. Some of the people wanted to know if he would be attending our church. They were not sure they wanted a convicted murderer to be attending our church while he awaited trial.

But we took him in anyway. He lived with us for about 6 months. Eventually, James was found innocent, and has been living as a free man ever since. I even had the privilege of performing his wedding several years back.

And let me tell you … those six months that James lived with us were some of the best months my wife and I experienced in our young family, and were some of the best months I had as a pastor in the church where I worked. His presence in our house was a blessing to all of us.

I am not recommending that anyone do this. It is true what the people in my church said: Taking in a convicted murderer could be dangerous. So I do not share this story to say that everybody should follow my example. I myself might not follow my example if a similar situation arose today.

But at the time, based on where we were at in life, and based on what we knew of James and his situation, it was the right thing to do, and we never felt the least bit of fear or concern. We hope that we also were able to give James a sense of love, acceptance, safety, and comfort as he faced an uncertain future.

I think this is how the Christian concept of “hospitality” works.

Christian Hospitality

The way Christian hospitality often functions in most churches today is that every once in a while, some people in the church invite other members of the church over to dinner. They eat a meal, share some stories, and then the guests go back to their own home.

But this is not really hospitality. This is entertaining. Most Christian hospitality is little more than Christian entertaining.

There is nothing wrong with entertaining. Entertaining is a form of fellowship, and is a great way to get to know other people. My wife and I “entertain” all the time, and we thoroughly enjoy it.

Christian hospitality, however, is quite different.

gospel hospitality

True Biblical Hospitality

In biblical times, hospitality involved allowing newcomers in town to stay in your house while they were there. It involved giving itinerant prophets a place to live. It included taking people in from the street where they were likely to get hurt. It may even include giving food and lodging to those who were too poor or too sick to care for themselves.

The common theme to hospitality, it seems, involves meeting a physical need of someone else, especially in regard to food, lodging, and safety.

It meant taking those who were in some sort of need or danger, and providing them with food, lodging, safety, and security. It meant making your home their home.

How might hospitality look today?

hospitalityIt might look like my friend Sam Riviera, when he takes food, clothing, and a kind word to the homeless people on the streets of San Diego.

It might look like my friend Dan Mayhew, who lets people live in his home in Portland.

It might look like the people all over the world who allow teachers like Wayne Jacobsen to stay in their homes while he is traveling or speaking.

It might look like my parents, who let a homeless man (and his dog) live with them for about a year while he was working to get his feet back under him.

It might look like my friends, Pam and Dona, who are allowing a woman to live with them while she faces numerous physical problems and has nobody else to take care of her.

It might look like my wife and daughters, who regularly helped an elderly neighbor with his yard work and grocery shopping after he had heart surgery.

As you can see, the forms of hospitality are as diverse as the people to whom hospitality is shown.

Hospitality begins with a willingness and desire to share what you have with people in need. Maybe it is your food. Maybe it is a spare room. Maybe it is clothing.

And then hospitality takes place when God brings people to our attention that have needs, and we seek to meet those needs with what God has given us.

Hospitality, as someone has defined it, is making someone else “feel at home.” How can we, as followers of Jesus, help others “feel at home” when they are in our presence? How can we put them at ease, serve their needs, give them comfort, safety, healing, and rest?

Hospitality is not true hospitality unless it makes us less comfortable and someone else more.

Do you have examples of how you or a friend showed hospitality to someone else? Do you have suggestions or tips on how people can develop hospitality? Share your stories and ideas in the comment section below.

Note: This post was part of the June 2015 Synchroblog. Here is a list of posts from the other contributors:

God is Redeeming Life Bible & Theology Topics: , , ,

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