The Limits of Hospitality

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Whoever comes to you who does not affirm this teaching should not be received nor welcomed into your home, because welcoming people like that is the same thing as sharing in their evil actions. — 2 John 10-11

The first time I read these verses, I was a bit shocked. Aren’t we supposed to be welcoming? In churches we may not agree with others, but that doesn’t mean we can’t sit at the same table during a potluck, right?

A deeper dive, though, puts things in perspective. There is a limit to hospitality when it bumps up against the core foundation of faith. What is that? An early church elder explained: “Many deceivers have gone into the world who do not confess that Jesus Christ came as a human being. This kind of person is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (2 John 7) He was referring to traveling teachers/preachers who visited congregations, which would house them and invite them to speak in services.

It’s not exactly clear what heresy this elder was writing about, but it’s interesting that he wrote that the foundational teaching in Christianity centers around the fact that Jesus was a real man and not just some disembodied ghost or philosophy. It’s when Jesus is viewed as an invisible law giver who micromanages every aspect of your life–in the kitchen, bedroom, classroom–that trouble arises. Such a Jesus is like a nun on a bad day who follows you around with ruler in hand, ready to whap you when you stray.

Instead, the human Jesus gave us the singular command at the end of his life: “Love one another as I [a real, flesh-and blood person] have loved you.” We’ve seen how Jesus loved. He learned from, listened to, cared for, and–when necessary–confronted the people he met. The elder must have been thinking of that when he wrote earlier, “Little children, let’s not love with words or speech but with action and truth.” (1 John 3:18)

It’s unfortunate and dangerous when people self-make Jesus to condone causes, preconceptions, and prejudices. They can seem quite charismatic in doing so. Ultimately, though, their words and actions point back to themselves. Just as the Pharisees used Moses to look good, some can similarly use Jesus. Self-righteousness and self-aggrandizement know no religious boundaries.

There is a limit to Christian hospitality. We can and should be kind to all people. But there is a rock-solid standard for admission to, and leadership in, the community of faith. If any lift themselves up, cause dissension, and make the church less-loving and less-just: there’s no place in pew or pulpit for that.

Formal excommunication is foreign to United Methodism. There is, though, a practical version. If a fellowship is grounded in the embodied Christ who is filled with grace and truth, then the words of those trying to cause division will simply fall on deaf ears. After a while they will leave. It’s not fun to promote a cause that no one follows.

The Rev. Greg Weeks is a retired clergy member of the Missouri Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, This post is republished with the author's permission from his blog, "Being Christian Without Losing Your Mind."