Christian Living

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Hebrews 13:2 contains a very common command, followed by a very curious reason for obeying: "Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, because by doing so, some have entertained angels without knowing it."

What a mind-blowing statement; taken at face value, it implies that some of the people we have met over the course of our lives may not have been people at all, but angels, come into our path for the specific purpose of giving us a chance to be kind to a "stranger" who was actually an eternal companion of God almighty.

You may remember a movie called "The Truman Show," starring Jim Carrey; the premise was that Truman's life was an elaborately staged television show, and all his "neighbors" and "friends" were actually actors playing the part. Nothing was as it seemed to him. What looked like reality actually wasn't. Yet the idea of this movie may be closer to real life than we think, if the possibility exists that any given person we run in to on a city street might not be a person at all.

A friend of mine from Texas was in a terrible motorcycle accident that killed his wife and caused him to lose a leg. The first paramedic on the scene testified that there was an elderly black gentleman already there when he arrived, tending to my friend. Several other paramedics and firefighters saw this man, and even conversed with him as well, yet he does not show up in any of the accident-scene photos that the medics took, nor did anyone see where he went after the accident. That story gives goosebumps to many people who hear it, because there's an incredible and surreal element in it: the idea that perhaps something is not what it seems to be. I would bet my friend is not the only person with such a story, either, and I would very much like to hear others.

We live in an age where science and rationalism run rampant. The entire scientific method is based on the infallibility of the senses; if something can be seen or observed or measured, then it must be truly real. If our senses cannot be trusted, then the whole scientific method falls through the floor, because the things we think we observe might not be the way we observe them. This idea about any given person you meet possibly being an angel is completely alien to the way we normally think; indeed, it is so far-fetched that I would not be surprised if some people had already dismissed me for a fool and stopped reading entirely.

I'm a big believer in the balance principle: I don't think Christians should talk about something any more or any less than the Bible does, so I'm certainly not suggesting that we make this one verse about stranger-angels into a core aspect of our theology. But doesn't it lend a certain intensity, a new meaningfulness, to your everyday life? How do you know that any given driver on the road isn't an angel, who you're about to treat shamefully? Try this the next time you're walking through Wal-Mart, or in line at the grocery store, or even at the office. "I wonder if that guy's an angel. Maybe it's her. No, I bet it's him." See if it doesn't change the way you treat people, as long as you're thinking about it.

Why would God do such a strange thing, sending angels into our lives so that we could be nice to them or not? I think that he is specifically giving us opportunities to honor him. Ephesians 2:10 says that he created good works in advance for us to walk in. Before we existed, he created ways that we could sharpen our faith and grow closer to him. Angels are simply one way that he carries out those plans, and if the good work that he has prepared necessitates the opportunity to be nice to a stranger, who better to choose?

Yet even if a given person we meet is not an angel, this should in no way change the way we treat them. On the contrary, we should treat people even better, because each human is made in God's image, a creation of his, a soul that will eventually die and go to either heaven or hell to spend eternity. Our kindness may have eternal consequences - as may our hostility. Is it not a far greater honor to be kind to a person, especially a flawed and angry person who is hard to love?

Ultimately the point of this teaching is not that we might meet an angel at some point in our lives. Indeed, if we ever do, we will probably not know, because the whole point of the verse is that some people have entertained angels without ever knowing it. The point is to be very careful how we treat the strangers in our lives, either because they are angels and representatives of God, or else because they are humans who are beloved by God and with whom he is seeking an intimate relationship.

I have heard it said, usually to a woman regarding a man she is about to date, "If he is nice to you but mean to the waiter, then he is not a nice person." I think it is true that the way we treat strangers, the people from whom we have nothing to gain, says a lot about who we are on the inside. When God gives us the test and sends an angel into our lives, let us send that messenger back with a positive report to God.

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