Immigration continues to be a ‘hot button’ issue in political campaigns and forums around the country. How should the church respond?

Professor Daniel Carroll helps us think biblically about immigration and how the church should respond to this complex issue. We’ll review what the bible can teach us about the sojourner with insight from his book Christians At The Border.

Christians were told to fill the earth in Genesis 1:28, Daniel reminds us that this puts the desire of migration into the human soul.

“In this country we move cities, we move across state lines looking for a better life for our kids, a new job. What you’re seeing is the same phenomenon worldwide, but now it’s not state borders; its national borders, so you’re seeing something that’s very human.”

We are reminded that throughout the entire Bible we see God’s concern for vulnerable people.

“In the Old Testament Law, there were 4 categories: There was the widow and the orphan, there was the poor, and the 4th category is lumped with the other 3, the sojourners and the immigrants.”

Along with the Old Testament Law, Daniel explains the origin of the term ‘safety nets.’

“What the law did was put into place a series of what we would call now safety nets. With the expectation of course of these immigrants would integrate into their national life.”

We come to find that the Old Testament is full of migration stories and the use of safety nets.

“If you look at not only the laws but the Old Testament is full of migration stories; Abraham going to Egypt looking for food and willing to lie to get across that border to feed his family seen in Genesis 12. Joseph is another migration story, Daniel, Ruth is a classic one who comes over from Moab as the foreigner and is eventually embraced by the townspeople of Bethlehem. Go to Jesus, fleeing as a refugee with his family from Herod. So you have the stories, you have the laws; you have a demand to be hospitable in both Testaments.”

Daniel reminds us that migration is also used as a metaphor for the Christian Faith in 1 Peter 2:11.

“We all are sojourners; we all are strangers in a strange land. What you’re seeing is that this very human phenomenon and a biblical phenomenon is now being used to describe the Christian faith because we serve another king, we have another citizenship; we should feel strange in this land.

As Christians, we may have forgotten what it means to be ‘strange,’ and need to change our perspective on immigration to mirror God’s heart.

“Maybe God is bringing us immigrants to remind us of what it means to be strange because now we are having to host strangers in our midst, and maybe we have lost the strangeness of this place. Those who are strong evangelical Christians are going to become increasingly strange to the culture around us, and maybe immigrants can actually teach us some things about that.”

Highlight: What it means to be ‘strange’

Reflecting God’s heart for immigrants