America & God (Immigration)

In this series, we have looked at different top issues in the United States and how we as Christians should respond to them. There are some issues we should support, and other issues that we should not involve ourselves in at all. Another issue we are going to look at today is immigration. How should we view all of these immigrants coming into our country? Do they belong here? Should we fight for them or against them? 

Especially along the southern border of our country, immigration is a hot topic. Many Americans say immigrants should move here. Others say they take American jobs and should go back where they came from. What is the right mindset to have on this issue? Let’s look at some Old Testament laws concerning immigrants. 

Leviticus 19:33-34 says perfectly how the Israelites were to treat immigrants, “Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land. Treat them like native-born Israelites, and love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners living in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” In this case, they were to treat immigrants like they were part of their own brothers. They were to love them as they would themselves and not treat them horribly and disrespectfully. Exodus 22:21 and Exodus 23:9 also speak on his subject of treating them right. However, all of these verses, when mentioned immigrants, have something in common. They all reference the fact that the Israelites were also once immigrants. Since they too were immigrants in the land of Egypt, they know what it’s like to be one, and therefore should be treated with dignity as any other human. Exodus 23:9 says they, “know their heart”. This was the driving reason why they were to treat immigrants nicely, they also were immigrants. 

When Jesus is teaching on the end judgment and about those who would go into eternal life with him and those who were going into eternal judgment, he briefly mentions something about immigrants. When talking to those who followed Jesus he tells them what they did in their life, “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matthew 25:35). He tells them they welcomed a stranger and because they did this, they did the same for Jesus. Are we being welcoming to immigrants? If we are not, are we being welcoming to Jesus? How we treat others go hand in hand with how we treat Jesus. 

Some might say that immigrants are fine but there are too many of them and they steal jobs and our economy and are doing wrong. This mindset is one that is focused on this life only. A proud American citizen who has pride in their country and doesn’t want to see it fall apart. It is good to be proud of where you live, however, Paul talks about where our true citizenship is. 

In Philippians 3:20 he says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ”. Paul reminds his readers that we are not citizens of this world, we do not belong to this world but to heaven and the kingdom of God. We should not be wrapped up in the happenings of the world because we don’t belong here. We are immigrants in this world because we belong to God. We are waiting for Christ to come back to finally take us home. 

If we find ourselves stressing over the concerns of immigration, let us remember that this is not our country, this country belongs to the world. We belong to heaven, and that is where our focus should be. If we are around immigrants let us treat them respectfully as we would anyone else. If we love them like we would ourselves or our neighbor, we are loving Jesus.