THE next practical exhortation Paul presents to us is in verse 13, and it is an exhortation to sharing and hospitality. I am ashamed of the way I have approached this part of the letter to the Romans in the past. I have read these exhortations quickly, with the assurance of understanding what is being said, and without facing the challenge which these exhortations have on my personal life. This attitude is perhaps more common with most of us than we are prepared to admit, so it is good now to spend time in meditating on what this exhortation to sharing and hospitality means for each one of us in our daily living.

GOD'S PEOPLE.

The first thing I notice is that Paul speaks of sharing and hospitality to and amongst God's people. The exhortation is not a general one encompassing all human beings we come in contact with. I guess the emphasis on God's people takes into account the attitude of the world to the Christians in Paul's day, which was one of hate and persecution, and many Christians suffered deprivation and loss because the actions of the world against them. This meant that many believers found themselves in poverty and distress because of their faithfulness to Jesus, and it is only right that other members of the family of the church should help them in their distress.

This takes in the teaching in the bible that God's people are a family. When we become Christians through faith in Jesus, then we are adopted into the family of God, and we all are brothers and sisters in Christ, and members of the one family of God. As members of the same family, it is right that there is sharing and caring in the family for those of the family who are in need.

Having said this, we must not simply say that we have responsibility only to other Christians. Jesus taught otherwise in the parable of the good Samaritan. The person robbed and left sorely injured was probably a Jew but he was helped by the Samaritan whom the Jews despised. Paul's teaching here simply tells us that our chief concern and priority is for the family of God, that is other believers who need help, but this must not exclude caring for anyone in distress.

BACKGROUND CONSIDERATIONS.

The next thought this exhortation brings to mind is the fact that all we are, and all we own, belongs to God. God created us, and for this reason we are not our own, but belong to God. Then as Christians we know that we have been bought with the great price of the death of Jesus, and so we are not our own, but belong to the Lord for this reason also. Then it is also true that all we own, and all we are, belongs to God also, and this is because God is the one who has given us these things. Any ability that we have comes from God by sovereign pleasure at our birth. Our possessions also belong to him, because he enables us to work and so earn the wealth we have. All we are and all we possess are God's possessions and they must be held in trust for him. Before we believed we did not think in this way, and the people of the world believe that their life belongs to them to do with as they will, and all they possess is theirs to use as they wish because it is by their own strength they have gained this. As Christians we can't think in this way. We know that all we are and all we have has come to us by God's goodness and gift.

SHARING.

With this mind the exhortation here to share with those who are in need has a totally different aspect. All we are doing is sharing God's possessions with God's people as God has enabled us to be able to do. So having said this there is no doubt that this is not so easy to do as to say. When push comes to shove, and we are actually called to share, many thoughts crowd into our minds. We think of the loss sharing may be to our own needs and comforts. We think of something we would like and think we need, and feel that to share will prevent us being able to obtain that thing. We have the thought of perhaps running out of money in the future, and not being able to pay our bills. All this and much more crowds into our minds. The devil is very prompt and busy to aggravate and stimulate these thoughts, and to cause us to hold back on sharing.

The fact is that sharing is not easy, and when we do hold back and realise our failure to share, we must not despair, but with repentance we must seek to do better in the future.

The secret of sharing may be found in two ways. The first is to exercise and practice faith in the Lord. The Lord has promised to supply all our needs according to the riches that are in Christ Jesus. In faith we need to remember how faithful God has been in the past, and praise him for all his blessings and his faithful supplying of all our needs, and so in faith believe that having been faithful in the past he will continue to be so in the future. Faith is the secret of all Christian living. We live by faith in the Son of God who has loved us with an everlasting love. As we share we believe as Elijah taught the widow of Zarephath to believe, when he said the flour and the oil would not run out until the drought in the land came to an end, and it was so (1 Kings 17: 14).

The other way of bringing ourselves to sharing with confidence and willingness is finding our pleasure and satisfaction in God and the things of God. It is a fact that a good deal of the money and resources we feel we need is to fund enjoyment. These days we see luxuries as necessities, and to do without them seems great deprivation, and we wonder what we will do with ourselves if we do not have them. Then holidays every year are felt as necessities, and even if a holiday may be a necessity, there are always cheaper options. We feel we need times of relaxation with our friends and this requires money. All these things militate against our being able to share generously with others in need.

The answer to this is to be able to find in the things of God the joy and blessing that will cause the need for temporal enjoyment to fade. The secret here is the practice of godliness, for the more we realise the joys of God to be found in the bible, and the more we seek these things, the more delight we shall find in them, and then the things of the world will lose their attraction and power over us. The Chorus “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, 'neath the light of his glory and grace” is in fact so true.

Sharing does not mean that we have to give all our substance away, and leave ourselves in poverty. God does not require this of us. However this thought must not be an excuse for niggardliness in our giving. Our giving must be done with prayer, and in love and trust in the Lord. Then sharing will be balanced and generous, without it leaving us without enough for ourselves.

Then it is important to be sure we are sharing in the right way. We may deceive ourselves that we have the spirit of Paul's exhortation here when we share with others, and not be able to see that our sharing is with those who can return to us what we have shared with them. It is good to share in this way, and it is part of hospitality, but it is not the real spirit of Paul's exhortation here. What Paul means by sharing here is giving to those who are in real need, who will not be able to return any of the gifts and the help we give to them.

HOSPITALITY.

Sharing is not just giving of our wealth and resources, but includes sharing of ourselves in love and giving of ourselves for help and comfort and companionship.

Paul not only speaks about sharing, but includes hospitality. It is easy to understand why he does this, because hospitality goes along with sharing and is an expression of sharing. It is possible to share in an impersonal way. We can give to those in need but stand back from them, and try not to get involved with them. Hospitality is sharing with love and care.

In his first letter to Timothy Paul tells Timothy that, as a minister of Christ and the gospel, he must be hospitable. (1 Timothy 3: 2). Paul told Timothy that, as a minister of Christ and the Gospel, he must be many things if he was to be a good minister to the glory of God, but one of these was to be that he was given to hospitality. It should be a mark of the ministry of the church or Christ, and the congregations which confess Christ in truth, that they show this spirit of concern and love for others.

This hospitality is not just providing the needs of those in want – this is part of sharing, but it must be giving ourselves to others in fellowship and love. Hospitality is giving and sharing of ourselves.

In the early church as we read of it in the book of Acts, hospitality – the sharing and loving expressed to all in the fellowship - was very marked indeed. The fellowship of the church was one big family. They went out of their way to embrace all in the love of the Christ in the family of the church. This must be a mark of the church today. The church must be hospitable.

What does this mean? It means that the church must be giving opportunity for all who come, to have fellowship together, and be given food and drink. Most churches have some sort of hospitality like this in church life today. However, there is one aspect of this which is neglected in such activity which destroys and annuls this as true hospitality. What happens is that people gather together in their groups to have fellowship with those they know, and those who come in are left outside in the sense that they are not included in the groups. So they feel left out, neglected. If they are of a timid nature the feeling becomes even greater. Even people who have given themselves in some service in the fellowship can be left out in this way.