MUSINGS

THE HOSPITABLE GAIUS In Romans 16: 23 Paul speaks of Gaius, a Corinthian, as “my host and of the whole assembly”. Gaius is a model in hospitality. He did not entertain a selected few; his door was open to all. How valuable a part of fellowship is contact and communion in our households; how helpful in maintaining free, happy, neighbourly relations.

We can share exercises, go over the truth, and thus strengthen the bonds which unite us, not socially, but in Christ.

So when Paul wrote the Epistle to the Romans he was, in fact, staying with Gaius (that would have been in the year following the two Epistles to the Corinthians). What conversation there would have been around that hospitable table! How valuable that warm atmosphere would be as the truth in Paul’s two letters, and his current ministry among them, was gone over. That circle of intimacy would certainly help powerfully to dispel any remaining traces of division and partisanship and to unify the saints in the truth.

The Lord values all the labour that enters into hospitality, and, the generous love that provides its best for the saints. Yet perhaps Luke 10: 40 shows a danger of over-occupation with the material side. We could be too much concerned with culinary skills. We need something to eat! but it is really incidental to the fellowship enjoyed. Many of us can recall precious experiences of hospitality where the surroundings and food have been of the simplest—“a meal of herbs where love is”, says Solomon in Proverbs 15: 17. It is a great privilege, but also a responsibility, to have a household. May we hold our houses faithfully so that they may play their intended part in the health of the local company.

FCM