You must not oppress a foreigner, since you know the life of a foreigner, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. (23:9)
I know that immigration and illegal immigration are hot button issues that have a chance to rile people up, but I think it is something Christians desperately need to consider their stance on. There is a temptation to side with conservative politicians and decry the number of illegal aliens crossing our borders, and I’m not saying that taking such a stance on the issue is necessarily wrong. But I do think we need to consider how we as Christians, the Church, the body of Christ, are going to treat foreigners in our land, whether they be legal or illegal. My own personal opinion as one who has gone through the immigration process with my wife is that we need to make it easier for people to get here legally (because it is a giant pain in the neck) to reduce the temptation to come illegally, but that is somewhat irrelevant. What really matters is how these people will be treated because they are already here, and they will continue to come here.
Even though we were never foreigners in the land of Egypt, the Bible does call us foreigners and sojourners here on Earth. This is not our home. In some respects we should be experiencing the life of a foreigner and should thus be able to sympathize with the immigrants and aliens in our country. Our area is very diverse and filled with people from Russia, India, Africa, and other parts of the world. These people may be without family and friends and experiencing some form of culture shock. What will our response to them be? Will we cry out that they are watering down our white anglo-saxon protestant culture? Will we shun them and make them feel like outsiders because they are different or new? Or will we welcome them, befriend them, and show them that the Church is a place where there is no black or white, slave or free, male or female (Gal. 3:28)?
As Christians, we are the closest thing to Christ that some people will ever experience. Will we make them think of Jesus as one who would stand up and shout at them to go home? Or will we show them the Jesus who has his arms open wide to welcome any and all into his kingdom?
You must not oppress a foreigner, since you know the life of a foreigner…