What Would Jesus Do? What Does the Bible Say About Immigrants?

In a new article released by the Christian Broadcasting Network, 69% of white evangelicals have stated that they don’t believe it is American’s responsibility to house refugees^[1]. To be clear, this is an argument for the most desperate immigrants in the world, refugees who are coming from war town countries where they’re killed for simply existing; those who are escaping persecution.

This doesn’t seem to make much sense because we think that The Bible speaks about helping everyone equally. We began to think, what does The Bible say about immigrants? If we understand that, maybe we can understand our actions towards immigrants.

What Does the Bible Say About Immigrants & Refugees?

Religion is such an important part of American culture, the point is not whether that is a good or bad thing, but the point is that religion, especially Christianity, Catholicism and Judaism influence the American public.

But let’s focus on Christianity because most refugees that enter the United States are actually Christians, who are minorities in their own countries, according to a poll by Pew Research [2].

What does The Bible say about immigrants? We focused on the old testament because both Christians and Jewish people follow the old testament.

Deuteronomy 26:5

• Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: “My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous.

This passage speaks of the power of immigration. Jacob travels to Egypt, he was a Syrian. And when he arrives it later becomes a greater nation. Some of the most famous immigrants in America shaped the course of human history.

Deuteronomy 27:19

• “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.” Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”

We should all agree that withholding justice from a foreigner is cursed. Comparing foreigners to fatherless or widows is interesting as well! Foreigners, fatherless children and widows are without an important part of themselves. This passage uses this imagery to make it clear that we should sympathize with foreigners.

Exodus 23:9

• “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.

This is something we forget from time to time. We are either foreigners or our ancestors are. Think about your father, mother, your grandfather or grandmother. At some point in your history, a direct family member was an immigrant. Think about what you say to immigrants because it was said to your family at some point. When discussing what does The Bible say about immigrants, we often forget we have that in us as well.

Sources:

[1]: Christian Broadcasting Network – The Bible says to welcome immigrants. So why don’t white evangelicals?

[2]: Pew Research Center – Most refugees who enter the U.S. as religious minorities are Christians