who will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

 Not only did the missionaries need hospitality; the local churches also needed it. For two hundred years there was no such thing as a church building. The church was compelled to meet in the houses of those who had bigger rooms and were prepared to lend them for the services of the congregation. Thus we read of the church which was in the house of Aquila and Priscilla ( Romans 16:5; 1 Corinthians 16:19), and of the church which was in the house of Philemon ( Philemon 1:2). Without those who were prepared to open their homes, the early church could not have met for worship at all. 