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Is there a mitzvah of welcoming guests who are non-Jews?

I know Avraham welcomed non-Jews into his home, but that could be different for several reasons: There was no formal mitzvah and he was just doing general acts of kindness; there were no halachos at that time specifically instituted for the express purpose of limiting interaction between Jews and non-Jews; there were no Jews to welcome, so perhaps this was a back-up option.

Therefore, if you want to answer based on Avraham's practice you need to explain how it is a justifiable comparison.

Please source your answers.

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    Special case: judaism.stackexchange.com/q/27094
    – Fred
    Commented Jul 18, 2014 at 21:44
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    This question is already included in judaism.stackexchange.com/q/23500. I move to close as duplicate. Anyone else? Pinging @Fred just because you're pingable.
    – msh210 ♦
    Commented Jul 20, 2014 at 5:44
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    @msh210 Maybe close that one and leave this one.....even though that one is more general, this one stands a chance of having the OP accept an answer cuz he's still here....
    – MTL
    Commented Jul 20, 2014 at 14:00
  • @Shokhet et al., I've edited the gentile case out of that question.
    – msh210 ♦
    Commented Jul 20, 2014 at 16:13

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Rabbi Eliezer Melamed of yeshiva.org.il compares Avraham's inviting guests to returning a lost object of a non-jew, in which case Shulchan Aruch (CM 266:1) writes (based on the Talmud Yerushalmy (Bava Metzi'ah 2:5)) that if the intention to return it is in order to sanctify Hashem's name, then it is praiseworthy. So too, Avraham's intention was in order to sanctify Hashem's name, therefore it was a Mitzvah.

Thus, if one's intention by inviting non-jews is to sanctify Hashem's name, then it would, in fact, be a Mitzvah.

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