In today’s sermon, Greg gives us one strategy for outrageous, radical Kingdom hospitality: engage in spiritual warfare to resist Satan’s designs to hold grudges with one another and destroy healthy relationships.
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Warfare Hospitality
• Greg Boyd
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Greg spent some time reminding us that Christ died for every person. We all have immeasurable worth, and as we learned last week, “we are called to see everyone as God sees them. We should see every single person as someone Christ has died for and who is welcomed into God’s family. Hospitality is what it looks like when we live out of this truth.” When we do this we welcome the stranger as one of our own, even if disagree with their beliefs and lifestyle.
The enemy, Satan, desires to bring accusations and mistrust to our relationships. Us/them, right/wrong, insider/outsider are all languages of division. As Kingdom people we speak peace and unity by saying, “you belong here”.
To get to this place though, we need to view a common enemy, which is why Greg spent sometime teaching Ephesians 6:12 — “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
In this passage, Greg shows us that we have a common enemy that keeps us from opening our lives and hearts to people who are different than us. What would it look like if we chose to take the fight to the right person, Satan, and not other people? It would be like Kingdom people engaging in hospitality warfare, because people who are made in the image of God, and are loved with an immeasurable, cross-shaped love, are never the enemy.
When the world feels like it’s unraveling, when it’s messy and full of division, we can reclaim hospitality as a powerful act of resisting the forces that divide us and strip us of our dignity. We get to live out the new Kingdom reality that everyone is on the inside.
Hide Extended SummaryTopics: Hospitality, Identity in Christ, Satan, Spiritual Warfare
Sermon Series: You Before Me
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Focus Scripture:
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Ephesians 6:12
“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world's darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”
6 thoughts on “Warfare Hospitality”
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"Thank you for this ministry! It has transformed my life in some really radical ways. God has broken down so many barriers and exposed so many lies that have taken some serious burdens from my heart. It has given me hope, freedom and purpose I never could have imagined possible."
– Jenny, from Wisconsin
I love you Dr. Boyd for what you have meant to me and my faith in Jesus. I am however disappointed in that you didn’t include in your prayer for abused women that truth would prevail in all circumstances. I appreciated that you have not politicized the gospel in the past, but weather unintentionally done, it seems you have taken a view that truth has already been accomplished in this. It takes on the appearance you have determined guilt. Its very possible that it comes across that way after hearing you, but maybe that’s just me. What about prayer for all people involved?
Brother in Christ
1 out of 7 boys are also sexually abused. And sometimes women do lie because they want to hurt people. We were told this when we took in teenage foster girls from the juvenile court system. We have a friend whose step-daughter lied about him sexually abusing her. You probably remember the 2006 false accusation againt three memers of the Duke Lacrosse team. Some women do lie to accomplish a political goal for example the lawyer’s in Roe v. Wade said the “victim” was raped and it wasn’t true. Jane Roe, Norma McCorvey, later told the truth and became an ardent pro-life activitist. We must pray for all victims of sexual abuse including boys, but no one should be considered guilty without proof. Both men and women are capable of lying.
Hello. I want to first thank Brother Greg for his eye-opening, crucial work in service to the body. Yours is an important voice for us at this time. And this topic of radical hospitality truly goes right to the heart of the Gospel. I wanted to ask a question about some of the not-so-hospitable instructions we read in the NT. Paul, Peter, and John all encourage the believers in the churches they write to withdraw from certain people, avoiding them, even to the point of refusing to have them in our home. I was wondering how these “church discipline” verses factor into the sort of all-encompassing hospitality you are calling us to in this series.
I’ve been wondering the same thing Lucas! Especially now in the current series about our kingdom family. Why do passages such as the end of 1 Corinthians 5 seem so harsh, even ostracizing, in the treatment of people who have committed certain sins such as sexual immorality, greed, idolatry etc. Shouldn’t we welcome people in even in the midst of sin struggles?
These comments may be superfluous by the end of the sermon, or be inappropriate, but the issues are important. Sexual abuse is also perpetrated on males – on vulnerable men and especially boys, generally by men, possibly enabled by women. This may be in environments where wrong perverted views of young men’s autonomy have flourished. All-male schools, RC institutions where the abuses are smothered by those with power. There can be unhealthy ingrained attitudes in a ‘protected’ community.
Love your sermons! The thought that comes to me regarding this sermon is the place in scripture where it says that names will be blotted out of the Book of Life at Christ’s return. That tells me that ALL names will be in the Book of Life in the beginning but those who don’t accept Christ and live as His disciple will be blotted out. It is an all inclusive until His return and names are blotted out.