St. Paul about hospitality: between generosity and the mind

Abstract

The conclusion that can be drawn from St. Paul’s letters is that hospitality was practiced with regard to three groups of people: the preachers of the Gospel (including St. Paul), fellow-Christians and “others” who did not belong to the Church. Source texts also point to the fact that hospitality had the boundaries. Therefore, hospitality was practiced within the framework that is summarized by the article’s subtitle: “Between generosity and the mind”. In this context the author of the article points to four texts from St. Paul’s letters, in which the implementing rules concerning hospitality are included. Christians are bound by the option toward generosity, charity (Romans 15,7–12) that has to be verified by the mind (Romans 12,1–2). The decisions of Christians have to take into account the socio-political context (Romans 13,1–7). At the same time Christians should implement “higher justice” resulting from the Gospel into reality settled by state authorities (1 Corinthians 6,1–11). In the final part of the article the author applies these rules to the problem of refugees.