How Scripture Calls Us to Treat Immigrants

In a time when immigration sparks heated debates and partisan protests, it's easy to overlook one voice that speaks with enduring clarity: the voice of Scripture. Long before the issue of immigration made headlines, the Bible spoke with unmistakable authority and compassion on how God’s people are to treat immigrants, refugees, and foreigners.

This isn’t merely a political issue it’s a moral one. And for Christians, it’s a deeply spiritual one. Scripture consistently calls believers to show love, justice, and hospitality to those who are strangers in the land. Not just because it’s charitable, but because it reflects the very character of God.

Here are twelve passages where the Bible speaks directly to the treatment of immigrants and what they teach us today.

1. Love the Foreigner as Yourself

“When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Leviticus 19:33–34)

God’s command here is not abstract. He tells His people to remember their own story. They too were once outsiders vulnerable and displaced. That memory should produce compassion, not hostility.

2. Leave Provision for the Foreigner

“Do not reap to the very edges of your field… Leave them for the poor and the foreigner.” (Leviticus 19:9–10)

God’s law provided a built-in system of care for the poor and the immigrant. It was an act of worship to leave behind resources so that others could live with dignity.

3. God Himself Loves the Foreigner

“He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner… And you are to love those who are foreigners.” (Deuteronomy 10:18–19)

Loving the immigrant isn’t just something God commands it’s something He Himself does. And as His people, we’re called to mirror His heart.

4. Ignoring the Poor Is a Grave Sin

“This was the sin of your sister Sodom… they did not help the poor and needy.” (Ezekiel 16:49)

Sodom’s downfall wasn’t just about immorality it was about indifference. Ignoring the needy, including the foreigner, is a spiritual offense.

5. Do Not Oppress the Foreigner

“Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners.” (Exodus 23:9)

God calls His people to empathy. Their past suffering is to be their present compass in how they treat others who suffer now.

6. Do Not Deny Them Justice

“I will be quick to testify… against those who… deprive the foreigners among you of justice.” (Malachi 3:5)

Injustice toward immigrants is not ignored by God. In fact, He places it among the most serious of societal sins.

7. Honor the Faith of Foreigners

“Do whatever the foreigner asks of you… so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name.” (1 Kings 8:41–44)

King Solomon prays that God would honor the prayers of foreigners demonstrating that access to God’s mercy and grace was never restricted to ethnicity.

8. Keep Your Door Open

“No stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler.” (Job 31:32)

Job describes hospitality as a mark of his faithfulness to God. His care for strangers was not optional it was essential.

9. Welcome the Stranger

“I was a stranger and you invited me in…” (Matthew 25:35)

Jesus identifies Himself with the outsider. When we welcome immigrants, we welcome Christ Himself. And when we ignore them, we ignore Him.

10. We Are One Body in Christ

“We were all baptized by one Spirit… whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free.” (1 Corinthians 12:12–14)

In Christ, all divisions dissolve. Citizenship, ethnicity, and background no longer separate us we are one family in Jesus.

11. Love Your Neighbor as Yourself

“For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:14)

There’s no asterisk next to “neighbor.” The command to love includes those different from us, those who are new, and those who are seeking refuge.

12. Have Mercy on the Stranger

“Which of these was a neighbor to the man?” The expert replied, ‘The one who had mercy.’ Jesus told him, ‘Go and do likewise.’” (Luke 10:29–37)

In the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus redefines neighbor not by geography or race, but by compassion. The true neighbor is the one who stops, helps, and sacrifices.

More Than a Political Issue

In a time when immigration is debated in courtrooms and legislatures, the Church must remember that it’s first and foremost a spiritual matter. God is watching not only how we treat the foreigner, but how we talk about them, think about them, and advocate for them.

The Bible does not provide a blueprint for immigration policy. But it provides something even more enduring a call to mercy, justice, and love.

We love the immigrant because God first loved us when we were strangers to His grace.

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