The law as to strangers and the poor encouraged it (Leviticus 19:33-34; Leviticus 25:14-15; Leviticus 25:23, etc.; Deuteronomy 15:7). Exemplified in Abraham, Genesis 18; Lot, Genesis 19; Reuel, Exodus 2:20; Manoah, Judges 13:15; the old man of Gibeah (its inhospitality is instanced as a sign of how lost to all right feeling its people were), Judges 19:17-21. The Lord Jesus illustrates it in the good Samaritan, promises to reward it, and regards its exercise toward His disciples as being towards Himself, and will count it as one proof of the love whose crowning joy shall be the invitation, "Come ye blessed of My Father," etc. (Luke 10:30-37; Matthew 10:42; Matthew 25:43). The apostles urge the duty (Romans 12:13; 1 Timothy 5:10; 1 Timothy 3:2; Titus 1:8; Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 4:9).