Encouragement Study: Edition #7

Matthew 25:35

For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in...

-I wanted to focus on this verse, since I have been studying the whole passage the last couple of days, this verse stuck out at me... in fact, it was just a part of the verse that caught my eye. "I was a stranger and you invited me in...". When was the last time I had a stranger in my home? When was the last time I really had anyone I didn't know or barely knew in my house?

So, what is a stranger?

Stranger: xenos (pronounced: xen'-os)

• Foreign (literally alien, or figuratively novel); by implication a guest or entertainer: host, strange (stranger).

So, a stranger could simply mean a stranger. Alien can mean someone that you do not know... like this is a foreign or alien concept...

Stranger (noun):

• A person with whom one has had no personal acquaintance.
• A newcomer in a place or locality.
• An outsider.
• A person who is unacquainted with or unaccustomed to something (usually fol. by to).
• A person who is not a member of the family, group, community, or the like, as a visitor or guest.

Being encouraging means having people you do not know in your home. Weird.