Who Gets A Seat At Your Table? – Hebrews 13:1-3 | Good News Unlimited

Who Gets a Seat at Your Table? – Hebrews 13:1-3

Jun 9, 2026 23794

We’re pretty good at loving the people we already love. The family. The close friends. The ones who already have a seat at our table. But what about everyone else? Hebrews 13 opens with a challenge we don’t often want to hear, and at its heart is one word: Hospitality.

Hebrews 13:1–3

[1] Let brotherly love continue. [2] Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. [3] Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (ESV)

Love that won’t stay home

We’re at the end of Hebrews now. It’s been an epic journey, and there’s been one message on repeat. Jesus is better. Better prophet. Better priest. Better king. And now the author wants to land the plane. So what? What difference does it make on a Monday morning that Jesus is better?

His first answer is love. But not love as a feeling. Love that actually shows up. Love that opens a door. Love that practises hospitality.

Love for the family

We’ve been adopted into God’s family because Jesus, our big brother, tasted death for us. We didn’t deserve a seat at the table, but he made room.

The encouragement to us in verse 1 is to “let brotherly love continue”. We love the family. We forgive each other. We bear with each other. We keep at it, even when we let each other down.

This is the love Jesus said the world would notice. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35 ESV). Love among brothers and sisters in Christ isn’t an optional extra in the Christian life. It’s the evidence.

Hospitality for the stranger

But it doesn’t stop with the family. In verse 2, we read, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers.”

Notice the shape of the command. It’s negative. Do not neglect. Because hospitality is so easy to neglect, isn’t it? It’s easy to get caught up in our own lives. Our own jobs. Our own families. Our own priorities. Hospitality almost always comes at an inconvenient time. It almost always costs something.

Rosaria Butterfield has a wonderful book called The Gospel Comes with a House Key. She writes about what she calls “radically ordinary hospitality” and says it “shows this sceptical post-Christian world what authentic Christianity looks like.” The Christian home isn’t a fortress. It’s a gift from God to be used for his kingdom.

As Christ has welcomed us at his table, we open our table to others. We open our homes. We open our hearts. If you’re not sure where to start with hospitality, start small. Just start.

Love for the persecuted

And then the circle widens further in verse 3, “Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them.”

One in seven Christians around the world today is living under the daily threat of persecution. Around 388 million of our brothers and sisters. Imprisoned, threatened, and mistreated for no other reason than they belong to Jesus.

We are one body. When one part suffers, the whole body suffers. We may not know anyone in our suburb who’s in prison for their faith, but we know they exist, and we know they are ours. As Brother Andrew, the founder of Open Doors, once said, “Our prayers can go where we cannot.”

The Good News is…

The good news is that Jesus is the one who first crossed every boundary to love us. He left the family home in heaven to bring us into the family of God. He welcomed strangers and outsiders to his table. He suffered outside the gate to set the prisoners free. Every act of love he calls us to is an act of love he has already done for us.

So we love because we’ve been loved. We welcome because we’ve been welcomed. We practise hospitality because Jesus first practised it with us.

Reflection

Who is one person you could pray for this week from the persecuted church? Who is one person you could welcome to your table?

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