Then they asked me if they could sleep in our sanctuary that night. We know that you are not a man of God because if you were truly in love with Jesus you wouldn't be married. Well I politely showed them out the door. That's a serious question as John in the text before us lays out his commendation of Gaius because he has been hospitable to traveling missionaries. In fact in verse five John praises Gaius for his extraordinary faithfulness in light of the fact that these missionaries are complete strangers to Gaius.
Xenophobia is a fear of strangers.
In lesser ways you and I manifest that in our lives when you and I tend to gravitate toward people that we know. John praises Gaius because he has hammered out a theology of the stranger that in the name of Jesus Christ propels him toward people he doesn't know. And he ministers to them and by so doing he builds up the body of Christ. That's why I am convinced that one of our goals here at Central has got to be to make sure that we're not just a friendly church but a hospitable church. There is a big difference between the two.