Proclamation:
“Keep
on loving one another as brothers and sisters.
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so people
have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” Hebrews 13:1-2 (NIV)
Explanation:
Most
Bible scholars agree that the human author of The Bible Book of Hebrews is unknown. There are those, however, who attribute it to
the Apostle Paul. Regardless of the
human authorship, these words were clearly written under the influence of The
Holy Spirit of God to the believers in early church. After encouraging them to continue to love
one another, the author exhorts them to also be kind to strangers. He tells them that some strangers are angels
and they may have entertained angels without being aware of it.
Application:
When we
think about angels, we usually visualize small or adult size, people-like
creatures with very large or small wings. But not all angels have wings. Some angels are walking around with us here on
earth. Angels are messengers
from God. Smith's Bible Dictionary
defines ‘angels’ as "whoever or whatever God uses to do His will." Pastors are frequently called the angel of a
local church. Since angels can look like
regular people, we should be very careful in how we treat people, especially
strangers, as they may be an angel that is unknown to us. We don't want to miss out on a blessing
because we mistreated one of God's angels.
God may take personally our mistreating one of His messengers. "... as you have done it unto one of
these my brethren, you have done it unto Me." (Matthew 25:40) As believers we need to be careful how we
treat strangers and other people in general. Be kind to strangers, they may be angels with
a message or a blessing from God.
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