Philoxenos in the New Testament

Tucked into the New Testament, easily missed, is the concept of “hospitality.” Western culture has almost forgotten this core virtue. You may know the Greek word philadelphia, which means “brotherly love.” The Greek word philoxenia might easily be translated as “love of the foreigner” or “love of the stranger.”

The related word philoxenos is often translated as “hospitable.” But you can see from the word xenos inside it that it is really about welcoming those who are foreigners, outsiders. It’s not about inviting your existing friends over to dinner or even people from your group whom you don’t know.

Philoxenia is about welcome – extending love and care – to those who are foreigners. to those who are foreigners and immigrants, people who are not your people. At the final judgment, one of the criteria Matthew 25 gives for entrance into the kingdom is that you brought the xenos into your group (e.g., Matt. 25:35). You “brought them together.”

Both 1 Timothy 3:2 and Titus 1:8 include philoxenos as a core characteristic of a church leader. Romans 12:13 instructs the churches at Rome to “practice hospitality” as it plays out what it looks like to have the transformed mind of a believer (Rom. 12:1-2) rather than being conformed to the thinking of the world. The world is hostile to outsiders, but this is not the attitude of a Christ-follower.

The very family tree of Jesus in Matthew 1 is presented in such a way as to show that Jesus himself embodies the importance of the foreigner (and women, for that matter). Four times in Matthew’s family tree, he highlights a person who was not from Israel. First, there is Tamar (1:3), who was likely a Canaanite. Then there is Rahab, who was one of the people of Jericho (1:5). There was Ruth, who was a Moabitess (1:5). Bathsheba is not mentioned by name. Rather, she is mentioned in connection with her husband, who was a Hittite (1:6).

Jesus’ very family tree, then, included “outsiders” in a manner that might offend someone who resisted immigrants and foreigners. Rather, Jesus’ very lineage sanctified the non-Israelite. Indeed, this is probably part of Matthew’s point. Jesus’ lineage foreshadowed the inclusion of the Gentile.

There is a good chance that, if you are taking this course, you are not Jewish. In that sense, your very inclusion into the people of God is an instance of philoxenia. We are those who were “far off” (Eph. 2:13) but whom Christ has brought near. We are not the natural branches of the tree of the people of God (Rom. 11:13-24). Our inclusion in God’s people is just another example of God’s love of the foreigner.

We did not mention Jonah in the previous lesson. Jonah’s problem in part was a hatred of the foreigner. Nineveh had not yet become the great oppressor of Israel when God called him to go. Throughout the book of Jonah, it is the outsiders, the foreigners to God’s people, who are the best examples of serving God. The sailors seek God earnestly although they do not know him. The Ninevites similarly seek God although he is not their God.

Meanwhile, Jonah, the one who “belongs,” almost hates his God because his God shows favor to the outsider. Jonah would almost rather die than bring the possibility of salvation to people who are outside of Israel. He almost thinks that favor with God should be automatic for him, while the foreigner cannot possibly attain it. He is mistaken. God does not show partiality (Acts 10:34-35).