When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back, and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you; for you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. —Luke 14:12-14, NKJV
[In reference to the Bible text above:]
These are guests whom it will lay on you no great burden to receive. You will not need to provide for them elaborate or expensive entertainment. You will need to make no effort at display. The warmth of a genial welcome, a place at your fireside, a seat at your home table, the privilege of sharing the blessing of the hour of prayer, would to many of these be like a glimpse of heaven. —The Adventist Home, p. 448
The privilege granted Abraham and Lot is not denied to us. By showing hospitality to God’s children we, too, may receive His angels into our dwellings. Even in our day angels in human form enter the homes of men and are entertained by them. And Christians who live in the light of God’s countenance are always accompanied by unseen angels, and
these holy beings leave behind them a blessing in our homes. —The Adventist Home, p. 445
Christ keeps an account of every expense incurred in entertaining for His sake. He supplies all that is necessary for this work. Those who for Christ’s sake entertain their brethren, doing their best to make the visit profitable both to their guests and to themselves, are recorded in heaven as worthy of special blessings. —The Adventist Home, p. 450
As those whom God has called and chosen, we are under obligation to become intelligent in regard to the difference between eating to live and living to eat. Look at the world and see the worship that is paid to eating, drinking, and dressing. It is carried into every phase of life. Needless worries and burdens are brought upon the family by wishing to be hospitable in entertaining visitors. They overwork to prepare a great variety for the table. An overabundance is eaten. The digestive organs are given too large an amount of work to do. The distended stomach cries out for relief, “Hold, hold, put no greater burden upon me than I can carry;” but the protest is unheeded. These dinners and teas and
suppers are a burden and an injury. —Letters and Manuscripts, vol. 14, letter 123