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Hospitality: Welcoming All the People
 (1 Thessalonians 1:1-10—Preacher: Ps Paw Liang)

This opening tells us much about hospitality both in Paul’s and the Thessalonians believers’ life. What does it mean to be truly welcoming, receiving all people and their gifts, even as we serve a living and true God and wait for the coming again of Christ in final glory? 


Paul wrote this letter to comfort and encourage the church he had founded (Acts 17) in facing adversities and persecutions. He started by affirming and recognizing the gifts of the Thessalonians: your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul also about God's love for them by giving them the salvation in Jesus Christ. 

 The church isn’t perfect, but Paul chose to see the people through the lenses of God’s grace—to see them as the gifts from God. What’s more natural for you:  To give words of affirmation and appreciation or words of critics? How can we make it as a habit?  Pray that the Holy Spirit will help us to recognize and affirms the others of the gifts they have been extending to us!

Jesus left us with two commandments: Love others as yourself (Mat 22) and love one another as how I have loved you (John 13:34-35). Love requires us to accept and to welcome others into our lives. To see welcome their person and the gifts they have to offer, sometimes the challenges they might bring to us as well.

Word, Obedient, and Model
The word of God comes with the power of the Holy Spirit and it requires our ‘obedient’ to live according to God’s word. This group of believers had observed how Paul lived out his faith—you know how we lived among you for your sake. They accept the word of God and learnt from Paul to live it out in the midst of severe suffering with the joy given by the Holy Spirit. And so you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia (vv6-7).


Many people, especially the young people are leaving the church. One of the main reasons is that they need to see that the Gospel is real. God is real. His love is real. The power of the Holy Spirit becomes real when those who accepted the gospel live it out. Living models are necessary! The Thessalonians “heard and saw” the power of the Gospel in Paul – they lived it out and become a model for the surrounding churches.  Paul also affirmed that the Thessalonians are ‘obedient disciples”.  

Showing the spirit of hospitality.
We need to show our spirit as loudly and as passionately as possible. The early Methodists were named “the enthusiast” for their passion for Christ and for people. How about us today? People saw the living faith in the life of the Thessalonians. What will people remember about you, when they cross your paths?

Let the spirit compel us to welcome others—affirm and appreciate each other as gifts from God. May the passion of Christ help us to show our spirit as loudly and as passionately as possible—so people will know that the Spirit of Christ, His love, His hope living in us!

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