A one another command
Use Hospitality to One Another
Peter, writing to believers scattered under pressure, urges them to use hospitality one to another without grudging, that is, without grumbling or resentment. He sets it among the marks of a church living in the last days: loving one another earnestly, opening their homes and lives to one another gladly. Hospitality is framed not as entertaining but as an open-hearted, ungrudging welcome.
“Use hospitality one to another without grudging.”1 Peter 4:9
What it means
To use hospitality is to open your home, your table, and your life to others, especially fellow believers and the stranger who needs welcome. Peter's crucial addition is without grudging: not the resentful hospitality that keeps score, counts the cost, or resents the interruption, but a glad, generous openness. It is not about impressive meals or spotless houses; it is about making room for people, sharing what you have, and treating your space as a place where others belong. In a world of locked doors and guarded lives, hospitality is a quiet rebellion of love. It welcomes the lonely, feeds the hungry, gives the traveler a bed, and offers belonging to those on the outside, all without the sigh that says you are a burden to me.
How Christ did it first
Jesus is the great host who welcomes us to His table though we came as strangers and enemies. He ate with tax collectors and sinners when no respectable person would, receiving the very people society shut out. He fed thousands on a hillside from a boy's small lunch. And He is even now preparing a place for us, promising that in His Father's house are many rooms, that He will receive us to Himself. The whole gospel is a hospitality: God opening His home and His family to those who had no claim on Him, at the cost of His Son. So when you welcome others without grudging, you extend to them the ungrudging welcome Christ first extended to you.
How to live it
Open your door to someone this week, and keep it simple. Invite a person who is lonely or new to share a meal, even an imperfect one; the welcome matters more than the menu. Notice who has nowhere to go and make room for them. Watch your heart for the grudging sigh that resents the trouble, and ask God for a genuinely glad welcome instead. Share what you have rather than waiting until everything is impressive. Belonging, not entertaining, is the whole point.
Questions people ask
What if my home is not nice enough to have people over?
Hospitality is not entertaining, and Peter says nothing about impressive homes. He commands an ungrudging welcome, which a humble apartment offers as well as a mansion. People remember being received warmly, not the state of your carpet. Share what you actually have, keep it simple, and let your open heart do the work. The barrier is usually pride or fear, not the house itself.
Why does Peter add without grudging?
Because resentful hospitality wounds the guest and hollows out the giver. It is possible to open your door while inwardly counting the cost and treating people as a burden, and they feel it. Peter calls for a glad, generous welcome that does not keep score. That gladness is only possible when we remember how freely Christ welcomed us, which turns duty into joy and hosting into love.