God through our relationship with others

WEEK: 1

Topic: God through our relationship with others

SUBTOPIC: Showing hospitality

Objectives: At the end of this lesson, pupils should be able to

1 explain the term ‘hospitality’.

2 identify the need for being hospitable.

3 explain why we should be kind to people.

4 give instances in the Bible of people who demonstrated hospitality.

Guide to Bible passages (Luke 10:30; Genesis 18:1-10; Hebrew 13:2; 1Kings 17: 7-16; Matthew 25: 31-46, Leviticus 25: 35; Titus 1:8; Deuteronomy 15: 11; 1Timothy 3:2; and Romans 12:13)

CONTENT

MEANING OF HOSPITALITY

Hospitality means helping and caring for visitors. When we show hospitality, we should do it willingly and with love, because the Bible says that we should practise hospitality without complaining.

 

The need for hospitality

There are people who might be far from home, or who suddenly get into difficult situations. Examples are travellers and accident victims or victims of an armed robbery attack. Such people need to be helped by anybody that comes across them.

There is a story in the Bible about a Jewish man travelling from Jerusalem to Jericho who robbers attacked. They took everything he had and left him badly wounded by the roadside. His fellow

Jews saw him and did not help him. It was a Samaritan who helped the man. The Jews hated Samaritans. What the Samaritan did was hospitality and that is why he is called the Good Samaritan in the Bible.

We have some poor or less privileged people among us who do not even have food, clothes and shelter and are, therefore, in need of help. Examples are orphans, abandoned children and widows. We also have sick people that need to be cared for, especially HIV/AIDS patients and physically challenged people like the lame and the blind.