Gifts of the Spirit: Serving Others and Hospitality

We are looking at the spiritual gifts we are given.

This week, we are going to focus on serving others and hospitality.

Serving—Romans 12:6 says, “or ministry, let us give ourselves to our ministry”.  Serving another is ministering to that person.  I remind myself of that every day when I am

serving others is a gift of the spirit

working at the nursing facility.

“Since there are many types of ministries and service to the Church, this then describes a broad array of gifts rather than a single gift.”

Barnes says, “It is applied to all classes of ministers in the New Testament, as denoting their being the servants of Christ; and it is used particularly to denote that class who, from this word, were called deacons, i.e. those who had the care of the poor, who provided for the sick, and who watched over the external matters of the church…it is used to denote the ministry, or service, which Paul and the other apostles rendered in their public work. In a few places this word is used to denote the office which the deacons fulfilled.”

Render Service—1 Peter 4:11 says, “Whoever serves [the congregation] is to do so as

Jesus served others…he washed the disciples feet

one who serves by the strength which God [abundantly] supplies, so that in all things God may be glorified [honored and magnified] through Jesus Christ.”  {AMP version}

Hospitality—1 Peter 4:9-10 says, “using hospitality one to another without murmuring.”

Hospitality is defined as “the friendly and generous reception and entertainment of guests, visitors, or strangers.”  I have several dear friends who are blessed with this gift.  When I am with them I always feel welcome, love, accepted and wanted.  This is one of the gifts I wish I had been bestowed.

Barnes says, “Without grudging. Greek, “without murmurs;” that is, without complaining

hospitality is a generous reception of guest, visitors and strangers

of the hardship of doing it; of the time, and expense, and trouble required in doing it. The idea of grudging, in the common sense of that word-that is, of doing it unwillingly, or regretting the expense, and considering it as ill-bestowed, or as not producing an equivalent of any kind-is not exactly the idea here. It is that we are to do it without murmuring or complaining. It greatly enhances the value of hospitality, that it be done On our part with entire cheerfulness. One of the duties involved in it is to make a guest happy; and this can be done in no other way than by showing him that he is welcome.”

Helps—1 Corinthians 12:28 uses the word “helps” as those “God hath set in the church.”

“This gift has to do with service to the sick and the poor. Possessor of this gift has a “spiritual burden and a God-given love for the needy and afflicted”.”

Barnes’ Notes on the New Testament says, “This word occurs nowhere else in the New

How do you help and serve God’s kingdom?

Testament…and denotes, properly, aid, assistance, help; and then those who render aid, assistance, or help; helpers. Who they were, is not known. They might have been those to whom was entrusted the care of the poor, and the sick, and strangers, widows, and orphans, etc.; i.e., those who performed the office of deacons. Or they may have been those who attended on the apostles to aid them in their work…but the word means, in general, those who in any way aided or rendered assistance in the church, and may refer to the temporal affairs of the church, to the care of the poor, the distribution of charity and alms, or to the instruction of the ignorant, or to aid rendered directly to the apostles…Probably many persons were profitably and usefully employed in various ways as aids in promoting the temporal or spiritual welfare of the church.”

There are some who are much more willing and able to serve others than some people.  Service is putting aside your needs and wants to be there for others.   If this is done as a spiritual gift you usually see agape love played out in front of your eyes.

Even if this is not a gift, it is a characteristic we can all strive for in our lives.

Do any of these spiritual gifts relate to you?

*Definitions taken from the Foundations of Pentecostal Theology

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