Plan to Work – The Law of God and Public Policy: On Immigrants and Immigration (5)

Plan to Work

The Law of God and Public Policy: On Immigrants and Immigration (5)

Foreigners who wish to live in this country must be prepared to work.

“And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and the sojourner: I am the LORD.”

As we have seen, God created human beings for work. Working reflects the image of God and allows people to provide for their needs and contribute to the developing goodness of the earth and the wellbeing of neighbors. Any foreigners living for an extended period in this country must be prepared to work. Biblical Law makes only scant provision for meeting the material needs of foreigners out of anything like a public purse. Part of the three-year tithe was set aside for that purpose; in the main, however, strangers, like the poor, were expected to work in order to provide for their needs and contribute to the local economy (Deut. 14:28, 29).

The entitlement mindset in America today has made it possible for foreigners who live here illegally to benefit from public services paid for by American taxpayers, chiefly, education and some forms of health-care. Illegal workers do not pay taxes, and many of them send large portions of their wages back to their native country, to support their families. Thus, the only “good” they are contributing to our society is cheap labor—labor secured, by the way, in many cases contrary to existing wage laws (which are themselves unjust, but they are the law of the land).

Can it be helping to resolve the immigration problem in America that public services are available at little or no cost to foreigners, especially those who are here illegally? I don’t see how, and I can’t imagine that, in the ancient Israelite economy, strangers would be allowed to come to Israel and live off the tithes of the people, without taking up employment to sustain themselves.

If it were generally known, among those considering a visit to America, that all are expected to work in order to provide for their needs, and that no public services are available to them or their children for free—except as local charity was able to provide—I suspect this would cut down the flow of “illegals” into the country. Here might be yet another area of public policy where real immigration reform could be accomplished.

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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.