Immigrants and Immigration: Love the Stranger? – The Law of God and Public Policy

Immigrants and Immigration: Love the Stranger?
The Law of God and Public Policy

Do we love those who come seeking the blessings God has granted us?

“For the LORD your God is a God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore.…” Deuteronomy 10:17-19

I rather suspect, given the present crisis of immigration, that immigrants, and especially “illegal aliens,” are near the bottom of the list of most admired people in this country.

At least some of this contempt is understandable. But that does not make it acceptable. Such a view of immigrants is only what we might expect in a society where they are regarded as a serious challenge to economic security. But in an economy driven not by profit but by love, we must not be content with this view.

We may neither understand nor feel completely at ease with people from other countries—with their different languages, garb, customs, and traditions—but as Christians who walk in the Law as Jesus did (1 John 2:1-6), we must love them. If we do not love the strangers and sojourners in our midst—even those who are here illegally—we will not be able to craft just policies concerning them. And, more importantly, we will not represent God’s attitude toward sojourners.

This burden falls, in the first place, on the doorstep of the churches of the land.

People come to America for a variety of reasons, most of them, at least these days, related to the opportunity to pursue material well-being. As we have seen, the idol of material wealth has largely replaced the God of Moses and Jesus as the deity of choice all over the world. But what many regard as the confused and selfish motives of immigrants and illegal aliens do not excuse the people of God from loving them. We must love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and do unto them what we would have them do unto us—regardless of their country of origin or legal status in this country.

Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and study the question for yourself.

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In the Gates is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T. M. Moore, editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001, 2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.