Abraham Sees Three Men Approaching His Tentby Ironbark
13:2Hebrews 13:2
Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for there by some have entertained angels unawares.
The command still holds with undiminished force to welcome unknown visitors and travelers with genuine courtesy and care for their food, shelter and comfort. Heavenly angels come in the form of human beings, conversing and accepting hospitality without being recognized, and they also minister unseen beside faithful Christians. Abraham offered water and food and attended unknown travelers with true courtesy, and Lot brought two unknown travelers into his home in Sodom who then led his household to safety. Hospitality is the shared duty of all God's people, to be given simply, willingly and cheerfully even at a venture without knowing whether strangers are worthy, rather than withheld for fear of deception. What is done for Christ's sake for believers and unbelievers is recorded in heaven and brings blessing and joy, while selfish refusal to welcome guests misses blessing and neglects Christ Himself. Discernment is needed because Satan with apostate angels also appears as men to sow doubt and unbelief, and in the final conflict both heavenly angels in human guise and satanic agents in human form will be active.
Meaning of Words
To entertain strangers is to welcome unknown visitors and travelers with genuine courtesy and to care for their needs for food, shelter and comfort. Abraham showed what this means when he offered water and food to three unknown travelers at his tent and attended to them personally, not knowing they were heavenly messengers. One of them was the Son of God, and another description calls one their glorious Commander. Lot likewise showed kindness to two unknown travelers and thereby brought angels into his home, and the angels he had sought to protect then led him and his household to safety. This welcome is still to be given even when strangers make no request and may never be seen again.
Entertained angels unawares means heavenly angels come in the form of human beings, converse and accept hospitality without being recognized. They have appeared in human form, accepted hospitality in homes, helped travelers, and at times come as weary travelers needing shelter. People may communicate with them without recognizing who they are, and their care and work among people will be fully understood only in the light of eternity. Conversing with an angel in such human guise fills the heart with light and grace and joy, quickens spiritual energies, and strengthens to do the will of God. Unseen angels also accompany faithful Christians and bring blessing to their homes.
The strangers to be welcomed include fellow believers and unbelievers, for hospitality offered for Christ's sake to either is recorded in heaven and brings God's blessing. They include needy travelers in want of shelter and companions or helpers in danger, whom angels visit to encourage and support in God's work. They include needy and suffering strangers who are children of want and sorrow and shall be heirs of salvation, though their identity is not yet manifest. Angels are sent to minister to those heirs, passing throughout the length and breadth of the earth to comfort the sorrowing, protect the imperiled, and win hearts to Christ, passing by no one because God has equal care for all souls He has created. In opening doors in Christ's name to such strangers, believers welcome unseen angels ministering to them, invite the companionship of heavenly beings who bring a sacred atmosphere of joy and peace, and every deed of mercy makes music in heaven.
The command to show this kindness is still binding with undiminished force and has lost none of its force with time. God still places in the pathway of His children opportunities to help that are blessings in disguise, especially in time of trial and want when sympathy and help go to others more needy. Those who improve these opportunities find great joy and receive great blessing, for His power to preserve and bless is no less now than in the days of Elijah.
Discernment is needed because apostate angels have also personally entered families, where they sowed doubt and unbelief that led parents and children to ruin, so care is required in whom people welcome and heed. Both God's angels and Satan with the fallen angels appear on earth as men without being recognized, God's angels working to defeat the enemy's purposes while Satan and the fallen angels seek to deceive. In the final conflict heavenly angels in human guise will be active alongside satanic agents in human form.
Examples in History
Abraham showed what it means to welcome strangers by offering water and food to three unknown travelers and attending to them personally, not knowing that heavenly messengers were among his guests. That welcome was given with true courtesy to those who came to his tent, and one of those guests was the Son of God, elsewhere described as their glorious Commander. Lot likewise showed kindness to two unknown travelers, and that kindness brought angels into his home in Sodom. The angels he had sought to protect then led him and his household to safety from the doomed city, and his hospitality reflected a practiced kindness learned from Abraham that may have spared him from perishing with it.
The visit of those angels to Sodom also shows that angels in the form of ordinary men observe human deeds to determine whether people have crossed the limit of divine patience. For the sake of a few faithful people God restrains calamities and prolongs peace, so that even those who ridicule and oppress the faithful may owe their lives to them. The same principle appeared when God sent Elijah to dwell in the home of the widow of Zarephath in Zidon to be sustained by her. She was not an Israelite and never had the privileges and blessings of the chosen people, but she had walked in all the light shining on her pathway, and when there was no safety for God's servant in Israel she gave him asylum in her home and shared her morsel with him in trial and want, so her life and her son's life were preserved.
Angels also visited Waldensian fugitives unrecognized as strangers, speaking with them as a friend, leading them to places of safety, and renewing their courage. They lifted the faithful by faith to see the white robes, crowns, and palm branches of victory awaiting overcomers before God's throne. The humble, earnest messenger of truth who visited people and then moved on to serve others, in many cases never to be seen again, was so gracious and mysterious that his hearers wondered whether he had been an angel from heaven, and the lasting results of his words will be fully known only at the judgment. So too an angel came in human form to John Wesley's side when a mob threatened him, the mob fell back, and Wesley escaped in safety.
Duty to Entertain
Hospitality is a duty laid on all of God's people, not a task to be assigned to a few nor work to be done only for pay, and it includes welcoming visitors and strangers even when they make no request and may never be seen again. A narrow spirit that demands pay for entertaining God's servants loses the sweetest blessings and turns souls from the truth. Selfishness and refusal to welcome guests cause the loss of blessing, for angels take account of how hospitality is practiced.
That hospitality is to be simple, willing, cheerful and freely given. It is not to be limited by selfish concern for self and family or by reluctance to make room, nor is anything in food or what is needed for comfort to be begrudged. Constant entertaining is not to be treated as a burden with a dejected attitude, for to give it up would be a regretted loss. Ministers with their wives and children are often obliged to entertain in order to exert a good influence for truth, doing so cheerfully and willingly as a pleasure that brings sunshine to those needing help.
Strangers are to be entertained even at a venture, without knowing whether they are worthy. Fear of being deceived must not lead to neglecting strangers or those in need. There is virtue in venturing something, in disadvantaging self to advantage others, and in sacrifice to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and take in the stranger, and in such venturing angels may be entertained unawares. Self-love that lives only for self and refuses this sacrifice leaves no record in heaven of kindly acts.
Part of this duty is accepting responsibility for worthy, self-sacrificing servants of Christ and supporting those who preach the gospel. Taking God's servants into the home and caring for them cheerfully fulfills the gospel requirement, for it is done for Christ in the person of His servants and serves God and His cause. Those so received are entitled to care and have a right to the table and the privileges of the home, yet the obligations are mutual. Guests must bear their share of domestic burdens and duties and must not live only for their own convenience and interest while others are burdened for them, and to the degree hosts favor, care for, and wait on them for Christ's sake, God holds the guests as debtors to those friends.
Ministers bear real additional expense in this entertaining, which requires a financial margin in their remuneration. Sanitariums likewise should be places of welcome for heavenly messengers and homes where those who love and fear God can find shelter. In a home where Christ reigns, angels are guests whose holy presence watches over and hallows the marriage chamber, and they may be received without being recognized. Homes with genuine home religion become places where angels love to dwell when the family keeps a standard of morality and Christian worth instead of copying those who have none, doing the work with patience and perseverance and living faith that takes hold on the strong arm of God, and a home marked by such love and gracious hospitality spreads into neighborhood religion where angels delight to be present.
Ministry of Angels
Unseen angels accompany faithful Christians and bring blessing to their homes, and when strangers are given a seat in the home and a place in the heart they come very near with an answering response in heaven, leaving a blessing behind and bringing a sacred atmosphere of joy and peace. Angels visit as strangers, as weary travelers needing shelter, and as companions or helpers in danger, encouraging and supporting people in God's work, and their care and work among people will be fully understood in the light of eternity. When they come as ordinary human travelers and are welcomed as guests without being recognized, their visits bring help and deliverance to God's people.
Since the proclamation of the third angel's message began, angels have at times come as human beings and conversed without being recognized, as they did with Abraham of old. These visits occur when complaints are brought against God's servants, with angels sent down to investigate their course, sometimes questioning those in error until they reveal all that is in their hearts, and then bearing back to heaven a report relating things just as they exist. Celestial beings in the garb of wayfarers accept the hospitality of human homes, appear in garments shining as lightning, act as guides to benighted travelers, thwart the spoiler's purpose and turn aside the stroke of the destroyer. Though the rulers of this world do not know it, they speak in councils and plead the cause of the persecuted and oppressed in the council-hall and the court of justice, defeating purposes and arresting evils that would bring wrong and suffering to God's children.
Angels of heaven are sent to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation whose identity is not yet made manifest, and in opening doors in Christ's name to needy and suffering strangers believers welcome unseen angels ministering to those children of want and sorrow. They are passing throughout the length and breadth of the earth seeking to comfort the sorrowing, to protect the imperiled, and to win hearts to Christ, neglecting and passing by no one, because God is no respecter of persons and has equal care for all souls He has created. To entertain strangers is to invite the companionship of heavenly beings, who come with praises upon their lips that awaken an answering strain in heaven, so that every deed of mercy makes music there and the Father from His throne numbers the unselfish workers among His most precious treasures. Conversing with an angel in human guise, with Christ and His angels coming in the form of human beings without being recognized, fills the heart with light and grace and joy, quickens spiritual energies, and strengthens to do the will of God. Every person will one day understand this ministry in his own life through the guardian angel who was with him from his earliest moment, watched his steps, covered his head in the day of peril, was with him in the valley of the shadow of death, marked his resting-place, and will first greet him in the resurrection morning to tell the history of divine interposition in his life and of heavenly cooperation in every work for humanity.
Blessing and Accountability
God still places opportunities to help in the pathway of His children, and those opportunities are blessings in disguise. Especially in time of trial and want, when sympathy and help are given to others who are more needy, those who improve such opportunities find great joy and receive great blessing. His power to preserve and bless those who help others is no less now than in the days of Elijah, as shown when the widow of Zarephath shared her morsel with Elijah and her life and her son's life were preserved. Hospitality offered for Christ's sake, whether to fellow believers or to unbelievers, is recorded in heaven and brings God's blessing. Jesus keeps account of money spent in entertaining others for His sake, and a visit that includes prayer may help save someone from death.
Welcoming suffering people is service to Christ even when those who help do not realize they are serving Him. That sympathy with hearts burdened with discouragement and grief, giving to the needy, clothing the naked, succoring the poor, sympathizing with the afflicted and oppressed, and befriending the orphan brings a closer relationship with Jesus. Differences in wealth and circumstances provide occasions to be tested and to reveal and develop character, while angels watch to see whether chances to help others are used. Angels take account of how hospitality is practiced, and selfishness and refusal to welcome guests cause people to miss blessings. Self-love that lives only for self and refuses to venture something, to disadvantage self to advantage others, and to sacrifice to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and take in the stranger leaves no record in heaven of kindly acts. Every deed of mercy makes music in heaven, and the Father from His throne numbers the unselfish workers among His most precious treasures, for in opening doors in Christ's name to needy and suffering strangers believers welcome unseen angels and invite the companionship of heavenly beings who bring a sacred atmosphere of joy and peace.
Refusing hospitality to His people is neglect of Christ. Refusal to sympathize with the burdened, give to the needy, clothe the naked, succor the poor, and befriend the orphan forfeits a habitation in heaven, because what is not done for one of the least is not done for Christ. A household can turn away God's messenger by shutting its doors to a stranger, as Lot's practiced kindness learned from Abraham may have spared him from perishing, while ordinary acts of courtesy and care can bring blessing and hope. Hospitality unites people with believers by a twofold influence over them, linking interest with humanity, and it is to be done willingly without begrudging food or anything needed for comfort and without treating constant entertaining as a burden, so that to give it up would be a loss to be regretted. A narrow spirit that charges for entertaining God's servants and demands pay loses the sweetest blessings, and lack of hospitality turns souls away from the truth. When those interested in truth are received as strangers into a dwelling such as a missionary boat used as a home, angels are present there unawares. Such hospitality draws many through curiosity to come to see and hear, becoming a means of sowing seeds of truth, carrying light where it never shone, and bringing some to first see the light of truth while being entertained.
The command still holds with undiminished force to welcome unknown visitors and travelers with genuine courtesy and care for their food, shelter and comfort. Heavenly angels come in the form of human beings, conversing and accepting hospitality without being recognized, and they also minister unseen beside faithful Christians. Abraham offered water and food and attended unknown travelers with true courtesy, and Lot brought two unknown travelers into his home in Sodom who then led his household to safety. Hospitality is the shared duty of all God's people, to be given simply, willingly and cheerfully even at a venture without knowing whether strangers are worthy, rather than withheld for fear of deception. What is done for Christ's sake for believers and unbelievers is recorded in heaven and brings blessing and joy, while selfish refusal to welcome guests misses blessing and neglects Christ Himself. Discernment is needed because Satan with apostate angels also appears as men to sow doubt and unbelief, and in the final conflict both heavenly angels in human guise and satanic agents in human form will be active.
Meaning of Words
To entertain strangers is to welcome unknown visitors and travelers with genuine courtesy and to care for their needs for food, shelter and comfort. Abraham showed what this means when he offered water and food to three unknown travelers at his tent and attended to them personally, not knowing they were heavenly messengers. One of them was the Son of God, and another description calls one their glorious Commander. Lot likewise showed kindness to two unknown travelers and thereby brought angels into his home, and the angels he had sought to protect then led him and his household to safety. This welcome is still to be given even when strangers make no request and may never be seen again.
Entertained angels unawares means heavenly angels come in the form of human beings, converse and accept hospitality without being recognized. They have appeared in human form, accepted hospitality in homes, helped travelers, and at times come as weary travelers needing shelter. People may communicate with them without recognizing who they are, and their care and work among people will be fully understood only in the light of eternity. Conversing with an angel in such human guise fills the heart with light and grace and joy, quickens spiritual energies, and strengthens to do the will of God. Unseen angels also accompany faithful Christians and bring blessing to their homes.
The strangers to be welcomed include fellow believers and unbelievers, for hospitality offered for Christ's sake to either is recorded in heaven and brings God's blessing. They include needy travelers in want of shelter and companions or helpers in danger, whom angels visit to encourage and support in God's work. They include needy and suffering strangers who are children of want and sorrow and shall be heirs of salvation, though their identity is not yet manifest. Angels are sent to minister to those heirs, passing throughout the length and breadth of the earth to comfort the sorrowing, protect the imperiled, and win hearts to Christ, passing by no one because God has equal care for all souls He has created. In opening doors in Christ's name to such strangers, believers welcome unseen angels ministering to them, invite the companionship of heavenly beings who bring a sacred atmosphere of joy and peace, and every deed of mercy makes music in heaven.
The command to show this kindness is still binding with undiminished force and has lost none of its force with time. God still places in the pathway of His children opportunities to help that are blessings in disguise, especially in time of trial and want when sympathy and help go to others more needy. Those who improve these opportunities find great joy and receive great blessing, for His power to preserve and bless is no less now than in the days of Elijah.
Discernment is needed because apostate angels have also personally entered families, where they sowed doubt and unbelief that led parents and children to ruin, so care is required in whom people welcome and heed. Both God's angels and Satan with the fallen angels appear on earth as men without being recognized, God's angels working to defeat the enemy's purposes while Satan and the fallen angels seek to deceive. In the final conflict heavenly angels in human guise will be active alongside satanic agents in human form.
Examples in History
Abraham showed what it means to welcome strangers by offering water and food to three unknown travelers and attending to them personally, not knowing that heavenly messengers were among his guests. That welcome was given with true courtesy to those who came to his tent, and one of those guests was the Son of God, elsewhere described as their glorious Commander. Lot likewise showed kindness to two unknown travelers, and that kindness brought angels into his home in Sodom. The angels he had sought to protect then led him and his household to safety from the doomed city, and his hospitality reflected a practiced kindness learned from Abraham that may have spared him from perishing with it.
The visit of those angels to Sodom also shows that angels in the form of ordinary men observe human deeds to determine whether people have crossed the limit of divine patience. For the sake of a few faithful people God restrains calamities and prolongs peace, so that even those who ridicule and oppress the faithful may owe their lives to them. The same principle appeared when God sent Elijah to dwell in the home of the widow of Zarephath in Zidon to be sustained by her. She was not an Israelite and never had the privileges and blessings of the chosen people, but she had walked in all the light shining on her pathway, and when there was no safety for God's servant in Israel she gave him asylum in her home and shared her morsel with him in trial and want, so her life and her son's life were preserved.
Angels also visited Waldensian fugitives unrecognized as strangers, speaking with them as a friend, leading them to places of safety, and renewing their courage. They lifted the faithful by faith to see the white robes, crowns, and palm branches of victory awaiting overcomers before God's throne. The humble, earnest messenger of truth who visited people and then moved on to serve others, in many cases never to be seen again, was so gracious and mysterious that his hearers wondered whether he had been an angel from heaven, and the lasting results of his words will be fully known only at the judgment. So too an angel came in human form to John Wesley's side when a mob threatened him, the mob fell back, and Wesley escaped in safety.
Duty to Entertain
Hospitality is a duty laid on all of God's people, not a task to be assigned to a few nor work to be done only for pay, and it includes welcoming visitors and strangers even when they make no request and may never be seen again. A narrow spirit that demands pay for entertaining God's servants loses the sweetest blessings and turns souls from the truth. Selfishness and refusal to welcome guests cause the loss of blessing, for angels take account of how hospitality is practiced.
That hospitality is to be simple, willing, cheerful and freely given. It is not to be limited by selfish concern for self and family or by reluctance to make room, nor is anything in food or what is needed for comfort to be begrudged. Constant entertaining is not to be treated as a burden with a dejected attitude, for to give it up would be a regretted loss. Ministers with their wives and children are often obliged to entertain in order to exert a good influence for truth, doing so cheerfully and willingly as a pleasure that brings sunshine to those needing help.
Strangers are to be entertained even at a venture, without knowing whether they are worthy. Fear of being deceived must not lead to neglecting strangers or those in need. There is virtue in venturing something, in disadvantaging self to advantage others, and in sacrifice to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and take in the stranger, and in such venturing angels may be entertained unawares. Self-love that lives only for self and refuses this sacrifice leaves no record in heaven of kindly acts.
Part of this duty is accepting responsibility for worthy, self-sacrificing servants of Christ and supporting those who preach the gospel. Taking God's servants into the home and caring for them cheerfully fulfills the gospel requirement, for it is done for Christ in the person of His servants and serves God and His cause. Those so received are entitled to care and have a right to the table and the privileges of the home, yet the obligations are mutual. Guests must bear their share of domestic burdens and duties and must not live only for their own convenience and interest while others are burdened for them, and to the degree hosts favor, care for, and wait on them for Christ's sake, God holds the guests as debtors to those friends.
Ministers bear real additional expense in this entertaining, which requires a financial margin in their remuneration. Sanitariums likewise should be places of welcome for heavenly messengers and homes where those who love and fear God can find shelter. In a home where Christ reigns, angels are guests whose holy presence watches over and hallows the marriage chamber, and they may be received without being recognized. Homes with genuine home religion become places where angels love to dwell when the family keeps a standard of morality and Christian worth instead of copying those who have none, doing the work with patience and perseverance and living faith that takes hold on the strong arm of God, and a home marked by such love and gracious hospitality spreads into neighborhood religion where angels delight to be present.
Ministry of Angels
Unseen angels accompany faithful Christians and bring blessing to their homes, and when strangers are given a seat in the home and a place in the heart they come very near with an answering response in heaven, leaving a blessing behind and bringing a sacred atmosphere of joy and peace. Angels visit as strangers, as weary travelers needing shelter, and as companions or helpers in danger, encouraging and supporting people in God's work, and their care and work among people will be fully understood in the light of eternity. When they come as ordinary human travelers and are welcomed as guests without being recognized, their visits bring help and deliverance to God's people.
Since the proclamation of the third angel's message began, angels have at times come as human beings and conversed without being recognized, as they did with Abraham of old. These visits occur when complaints are brought against God's servants, with angels sent down to investigate their course, sometimes questioning those in error until they reveal all that is in their hearts, and then bearing back to heaven a report relating things just as they exist. Celestial beings in the garb of wayfarers accept the hospitality of human homes, appear in garments shining as lightning, act as guides to benighted travelers, thwart the spoiler's purpose and turn aside the stroke of the destroyer. Though the rulers of this world do not know it, they speak in councils and plead the cause of the persecuted and oppressed in the council-hall and the court of justice, defeating purposes and arresting evils that would bring wrong and suffering to God's children.
Angels of heaven are sent to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation whose identity is not yet made manifest, and in opening doors in Christ's name to needy and suffering strangers believers welcome unseen angels ministering to those children of want and sorrow. They are passing throughout the length and breadth of the earth seeking to comfort the sorrowing, to protect the imperiled, and to win hearts to Christ, neglecting and passing by no one, because God is no respecter of persons and has equal care for all souls He has created. To entertain strangers is to invite the companionship of heavenly beings, who come with praises upon their lips that awaken an answering strain in heaven, so that every deed of mercy makes music there and the Father from His throne numbers the unselfish workers among His most precious treasures. Conversing with an angel in human guise, with Christ and His angels coming in the form of human beings without being recognized, fills the heart with light and grace and joy, quickens spiritual energies, and strengthens to do the will of God. Every person will one day understand this ministry in his own life through the guardian angel who was with him from his earliest moment, watched his steps, covered his head in the day of peril, was with him in the valley of the shadow of death, marked his resting-place, and will first greet him in the resurrection morning to tell the history of divine interposition in his life and of heavenly cooperation in every work for humanity.
Blessing and Accountability
God still places opportunities to help in the pathway of His children, and those opportunities are blessings in disguise. Especially in time of trial and want, when sympathy and help are given to others who are more needy, those who improve such opportunities find great joy and receive great blessing. His power to preserve and bless those who help others is no less now than in the days of Elijah, as shown when the widow of Zarephath shared her morsel with Elijah and her life and her son's life were preserved. Hospitality offered for Christ's sake, whether to fellow believers or to unbelievers, is recorded in heaven and brings God's blessing. Jesus keeps account of money spent in entertaining others for His sake, and a visit that includes prayer may help save someone from death.
Welcoming suffering people is service to Christ even when those who help do not realize they are serving Him. That sympathy with hearts burdened with discouragement and grief, giving to the needy, clothing the naked, succoring the poor, sympathizing with the afflicted and oppressed, and befriending the orphan brings a closer relationship with Jesus. Differences in wealth and circumstances provide occasions to be tested and to reveal and develop character, while angels watch to see whether chances to help others are used. Angels take account of how hospitality is practiced, and selfishness and refusal to welcome guests cause people to miss blessings. Self-love that lives only for self and refuses to venture something, to disadvantage self to advantage others, and to sacrifice to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and take in the stranger leaves no record in heaven of kindly acts. Every deed of mercy makes music in heaven, and the Father from His throne numbers the unselfish workers among His most precious treasures, for in opening doors in Christ's name to needy and suffering strangers believers welcome unseen angels and invite the companionship of heavenly beings who bring a sacred atmosphere of joy and peace.
Refusing hospitality to His people is neglect of Christ. Refusal to sympathize with the burdened, give to the needy, clothe the naked, succor the poor, and befriend the orphan forfeits a habitation in heaven, because what is not done for one of the least is not done for Christ. A household can turn away God's messenger by shutting its doors to a stranger, as Lot's practiced kindness learned from Abraham may have spared him from perishing, while ordinary acts of courtesy and care can bring blessing and hope. Hospitality unites people with believers by a twofold influence over them, linking interest with humanity, and it is to be done willingly without begrudging food or anything needed for comfort and without treating constant entertaining as a burden, so that to give it up would be a loss to be regretted. A narrow spirit that charges for entertaining God's servants and demands pay loses the sweetest blessings, and lack of hospitality turns souls away from the truth. When those interested in truth are received as strangers into a dwelling such as a missionary boat used as a home, angels are present there unawares. Such hospitality draws many through curiosity to come to see and hear, becoming a means of sowing seeds of truth, carrying light where it never shone, and bringing some to first see the light of truth while being entertained.