1 Peter 4:9

Use hospitality one to another without grudging Literally, Be hospitable. The stress laid on this virtue in the New Testament, as in 1 Timothy 3:2; Romans 12:13; Hebrews 13:2, brings before us some of the more striking features of the social life of the Christians of the first three centuries. The Christian traveller coming to a strange city was in a position of no little difficulty. The houses of heathen friends, if he had any, were likely to bring trials of one kind or another. He might be taunted and persecuted for his faith or tempted to "run to the same excess of riot with them." Inns presented too often scenes of drunkenness and impurity, foul words and fouler acts. It was therefore an unspeakable gain for such an one to know that he could find shelter in a Christian home. The fact that he was a Christian, that he brought with him some "letter of commendation" (2 Corinthians 3:1) as a safeguard against imposture, was to be enough to secure a welcome. It lay in the nature of things that sometimes strangers might thus present themselves with inconvenient frequency or under inconvenient conditions, and therefore St Peter adds "be hospitable … without murmurings." Men were not to look on it as a trouble or a nuisance, or think themselves hardly treated. They might be entertaining angels unawares (Hebrews 13:2). Here also God loved a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7).