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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Peter 4:9 - 4:9
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
9. φιλόξενοι. The duty of hospitality to strangers, commended by our Lord, Mat 25:35, is also enjoined in Rom 12:13 and Heb 13:2. In 1Ti 3:2 and Tit 1:8 it is demanded as one of the special qualifications for an ἐπίσκοπος. In the primitive Church Christian travellers would be exposed to certain annoyance and possible danger unless the Christians of the place received them into their houses, and without such aid the missions of itinerant preachers (ἀπόστολοι) would have been almost impossible (cf. Tit 3:13; 3Jn 1:6-8; 3Jn 1:10; Phm 1:22; Rom 16:1; 1Co 9:4-14). At the same time such hospitality must have been a somewhat serious tax upon Christians who were by no means well off, and from the regulations given in the Didache we gather that there was before long a real danger that unscrupulous strangers might impose upon the generosity of the Church.
So here St Peter urges his readers to exercise hospitality ungrudgingly, remembering that any gifts which they possess, whether in worldly goods or faculties for service, are only entrusted to them as stewards to use them for God. For the duty of giving cheerfully, cf. 2Co 9:7; Rom 12:8. In this latter passage, as here, charitable duties are coupled with those of preaching, teaching or ministering, as varied χαρίσματα given by God to the several members of the Body of Christ.
For γογγυσμός cf. Php 2:14.