Articles

Article 3 of 7 | Welcoming the Stranger, Upholding the Law

by Dr Timothy Mann

We’ve spent two weeks grounding ourselves in the biblical legitimacy of national sovereignty and the moral weight of law. Good. We needed that foundation. But now I want us to sit with something that is just as important, and that far too many Christians who talk loudly about law tend to forget.

Every immigrant, legal or not, is made in the image of God.

That sentence should stop us cold. Not slow us down, stop us. If we can acknowledge that truth and then keep talking about immigrants the way we sometimes do, something has gone badly wrong in our souls.

The Stranger Has Always Had God’s Attention

Exodus 22:21 is direct: ‘You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.’ God isn’t offering a polite suggestion. He’s giving a command, anchored in Israel’s own story of vulnerability. They knew what it felt like to be the outsider, the one with no rights, the one at the mercy of those in power. Because of that, they were to be different.

Leviticus 19:34 extends this even further: ‘The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself.’ Love as yourself. Not merely tolerate. Not merely permit. Love.

This isn’t a New Testament innovation. This is old covenant morality, woven into the fabric of how God’s people were to live in the world. The heart of God for the vulnerable foreigner is ancient and consistent.

Jesus Didn’t Let Us Stay Comfortable

In Luke 10, a lawyer asks Jesus who qualifies as his neighbor, the person he’s required to love. Jesus responds with the parable of the Good Samaritan. A man beaten and left for dead. A priest who crosses the street. A Levite who does the same. Then a Samaritan, the ethnic and religious outsider, stops, pays, and cares.

Jesus wasn’t just telling a nice story about kindness. He was dismantling the boundaries we construct to limit our moral obligation. The neighbor isn’t the person who looks like you, lives near you, or holds the right legal status. The neighbor is the person in front of you who needs you.

This doesn’t answer every immigration policy question. The parable isn’t a policy proposal, but it does govern the posture of our hearts and the words of our mouths.

Contempt Is Not a Christian Option

Let me be honest with you, because this needs to be said plainly. Some of the rhetoric we hear about immigrants, including from Christians, does not sound like people who believe those men and women bear the image of God. Contempt, mockery, and dehumanizing language are not ‘just politics’; they are sins.

James 3:9 is a rebuke that cuts: ‘With it [the tongue] we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God.’ You cannot praise God with one breath and dehumanize His image-bearers with the next without serious spiritual contradiction.

Ephesians 4:15 calls us to ‘speak the truth in love.’ Notice that Paul doesn’t say speak the truth instead of love, or speak love instead of truth. Both. Together. Always.

This means Christians can support firm immigration enforcement,  and we’ll get to why in a future article, while still speaking of and to immigrants with the dignity every human being deserves. Firmness and cruelty are not synonyms. Security and contempt are not the same thing.

Reflection & Application

Think about the last few conversations you’ve had or posts you’ve read about immigration. 

Was the dignity of image-bearers protected or eroded? 

Consider making this a personal commitment: before you share, comment, or speak on this topic, ask yourself, ‘Would this honor someone made in God’s image?’ 

Share this article with someone in your church who you think would be encouraged or challenged by it. 

We need each other to think well about these things.