<p>11:6 <i>For a friend of mine has arrived from a journey and I have nothing to set before him</i>- Perhaps those not from an Eastern background can never understand the pressing urgency of the hospitality culture; you <i>must</i> feed the visitor. It just has to be done. But he is poor, and he doesn&rsquo;t have any bread. So, he goes to his richer friend, friend number three, and wakes him up, disturbing the whole household, to ask him to give him some bread with which to entertain the first friend.</p><p>The friend who came on his journey with &quot;nothing&quot; is intended by the Lord to be understood primarily as referring to the disciples whom He had sent out on their journey with nothing (&quot;take nothing for your journey&quot;, Lk. 9:3). When He told them to &quot;eat such things as are set before you&quot; (Lk. 10:8), He didn&rsquo;t just mean &lsquo;Don&rsquo;t be picky about your food&rsquo;. He used the same word in Lk. 11:6 to describe how the faithful friend &quot;set food before&quot; his visitor. As they travelled around, the disciples were to be received in the way He was describing. Those in that early brotherhood of believers who received and supported them were to do so knowing that these brethren were in their turn responding to human need, and they could be fellow-helpers in the Gospel&rsquo;s work by showing hospitality. John says just the same: &quot;Because that for his name's sake they went forth alluding to the great commission to go into all the world, taking nothing <i>of the Gentiles</i> i.e. the unbelievers. <i>We</i> therefore ought to help receive such, that we might be fellow-helpers to the truth&quot; (3 Jn. 7,8).</p><p>Does the 'traveller' needing sustenance of Lk. 11:6 refer to our sinful tendencies, in the light of 2 Sam. 12:4? Heb. 5:2 describes those in sin whom the Lord saved as &ldquo;out of the way&rdquo;. The same idea is found in Lk. 11:6 AVmg., where the man &ldquo;out of his way&rdquo; comes knocking on the Lord&rsquo;s door. The image of the shut door is that of rejection; but here the door is opened, and the man given &ldquo;as much as he needs&rdquo; of forgiveness and acceptance.&nbsp;</p>