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1 Peter 4:9 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
⁹Be hospitable to one another without complaining.

In this verse, the author, Peter, urges believers to show hospitality to one another. Hospitality, in this context, refers to the act of welcoming and showing kindness to guests or strangers. Peter advises believers to do this without grumbling or complaining. He urges them to be gracious and generous hosts, even if it requires some effort or sacrifice on their part. The message of this verse is that believers should be willing to open their homes and hearts to others and to do so with a spirit of joy and gratitude rather than with complaints or resentment.

Earnest love, which seeks the good of others before one’s own, finds practical expression in hospitality (v. 9) and in using every gift ‘for one another’ (v. 10). Hospitality, though a Christian duty, is to be offered ungrudgingly to one another without resenting the time and expense which may be involved. The words translated ungrudgingly are more literally ‘without grumbling’ or ‘without murmuring’ (the term is used to refer to repeated words of complaint, often spoken to others with the result of stirring up rebellion: Exod. 16:7–9; Acts 6:1; Phil. 2:14; cf. the verb in 1 Cor. 10:10). Such grumbling is ultimately a complaint against God and his ordering of our circumstances, and its result is to drive out faith, thanksgiving, and joy. Though hospitality to all people is certainly pleasing to God, Peter’s emphasis on hospitality to one another—that is, to other Christians within the household of faith—is consistent with the rest of the New Testament (cf. Gal. 6:10).^[1]

By Wayne A. Grudem and Edward D. Andrews

^[1] Wayne A. Grudem, 1 Peter: An Introduction and Commentary, vol. 17, Tyndale New Testament Commentaries (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988), 181.