Entertain Strangers

The Body

This instruction extends brotherly love specifically outward, toward strangers, not merely toward those already genuinely known and established within the community. Be not forgetful suggests this is a genuine temptation, easy to neglect specifically because strangers require more effort, more risk, and offer less immediate relational reward than deepening existing relationships.

Notice the striking reason given: thereby some have entertained angels unawares. This does not mean every stranger is literally an angel, but it does suggest genuine significance can be present in encounters you might otherwise dismiss as merely incidental, ordinary hospitality toward an unknown person carrying more weight than it initially appears.

This closes this final movement’s arc with a needed reminder that outward sending includes genuine hospitality toward strangers, not only formal mission or witness to known contexts, but the ordinary, easily neglected practice of welcoming those genuinely unknown, whose significance may exceed what is immediately, visibly apparent.

Consider today one stranger, someone genuinely unknown to your existing community, and take one concrete step of hospitality toward them, trusting this verse’s suggestion that such ordinary welcome may carry more significance than it initially appears, entertaining, potentially, more than you currently realize.