“Lord, but When Did We See You?”

My love for refugees grew out of my love for cross-cultural engagement. The daughter of a missions pastor, I had the privilege to travel internationally from a young age, meeting people from other parts of the world and learning about their cultures. I spent my undergraduate and graduate work focusing on refugee studies wherever possible, and I’ve worked directly with refugees both internationally and in the U.S., most recently with CWS Harrisburg, a refugee resettlement office in central Pennsylvania. These words are coming from a place of deep care for people I love.

My heart breaks as I see some fellow American Christians forget scripture’s fundamental call to welcome and have compassion toward refugees and immigrants. Instead of compassion and a posture of welcome, there is hostility and apathy towards immigrant groups. Never have I seen public sentiment toward refugees and immigrants so callous, fear-centered, and troubling.

My brothers and sisters in Christ, we cannot allow our political leanings to shape our opinions toward immigrants and refugees more deeply than the foundational text of our faith, the Bible. I write this as a reminder – or perhaps for some an invitation to think for the first time – about the many ways scripture directs Christians to interact with those from other lands – those often referred to in the Biblical text as the “sojourner,” “foreigner,” or “stranger.”

Can You Define Immigrant?

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word gār is most often used when referring to those coming from other lands or people groups. We see it translated into English words such as “sojourner,” “stranger,” “newcomer,” or “foreigner.” This word is used nearly 100 times throughout the Old Testament, mostly in the context of God providing guidance to his people on how to treat the gār in their midst.

Understanding the meaning of the word gār is important because it reminds us that our modern categories used to differentiate immigrant groups – refugee, asylum seekers, undocumented migrant, etc. – did not exist in the Biblical text. Therefore, God’s commands in scripture regarding the gār did not offer exceptions on how to treat people based on their method of arrival or immigration status.

The same applies today. The people of God were – and are – commanded to treat the foreigner, the newcomer, the immigrant, with compassion, welcome, and love, regardless of modern definitions used to try to categorize him or her. The commands given to God’s people to welcome the stranger imply a universal calling to move towards immigrants with special concern.

I see many American Christians in my circles get hung up on these modern immigration categories – refugees, asylum seekers, undocumented immigrants – in ways that lead them to care for one group and demonize the other. While modern attempts to categorize immigrant groups (learn about these categories here) are helpful for many things, for followers of Jesus, these categories cannot be the primary decision makers for whether or not we “care” or “don’t care” because they did it the “right” or the “wrong” way.

There is one category of immigrant in scripture – gār – and the command is to welcome and love the gār.

Perhaps even more foundational than the command to love the gār, with even wider implications, is the concept of imago dei, which literally translates to “image of God.” This theological concept asserts that every person, regardless of any other defining characteristic (or modern immigration category), is created in the image of God and is therefore loved deeply by God. Imago dei also asserts that, being made in the image of God, every person embodies some aspect – no matter how small – of God’s character and deserves to be treated with dignity and love as a result.

This unchanging truth embraces the gār and is especially countercultural in our political climate today, which so easily ignores and denies the humanity of the “other.” Then again, Christians throughout history have most often been countercultural.

In the Old Testament: God’s Commands

In the early chapters of scripture, God’s people were some of the first to be referred to as the gār and to experience displacement when they moved from Canaan to Egypt in search of enough food to survive a severe famine. They were greeted with kindness, shown favor by the ruler of Egypt, and dwelled peacefully in their new land. But after a few decades, as the people of God grew and prospered, the new Egyptian ruler and his people grew afraid of the growth of God’s people, channeling that fear into strategies designed to oppress and exploit the immigrants in their land. Amid brutal oppression and abuse, God heard the cries of his people and delivered them out of the hand of the Egyptians, promising to bring them to a new place to reside.

And yet, even before God’s people had resettled to a new land, while they were wandering in the desert, it became evident they were already in need of reminders to treat foreigners – the same category they fell into that caused them to be mistreated and oppressed in Egypt – with kindness. God’s people were quick to forget the feeling of being the stranger, the refugee, in a new land.

Out of necessity God offered constant reminders to his people about how to treat foreigners. Here are just three, all echoing the same sentiment. Italics added for emphasis:

• “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Exodus 22:21)
• “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.” (Exodus 23:9)
• “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. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:33-34)

God’s people were – and are today – quick to forget that point. Over 30 explicit commands are given regarding treatment of immigrants in scripture, compelling the people of God to remember their experience of oppression in Egypt and let it influence how they treat those from other lands in their midst to avoid causing a similar harm done to them.

Beyond commands of restriction – “do not oppress” – God’s people were also given commands of what to do with foreigners. God’s people are commanded to:

• Love foreigners as themselves (Leviticus 19:33-24)
• Be charitable towards foreigners (Leviticus 25:35, 23:22)
• Invite foreigners into their faith and into their customs, such as keeping the Sabbath and participating in Hebrew celebrations (Exodus 20:8-10, 12:48, Leviticus 17:12, 22:18, 16:29).
• Hold foreigners to the same standard of treatment as everyone else, especially in regard to rights and laws to live by. (Leviticus 17:8, 24:16)¹

The Old Testament call of God’s people towards the foreigner, the refugee, the immigrant in their midst was clear: welcome them in, offer them hospitality, treat them with fairness, and invite them into your daily life.

In the New Testament: Jesus’ Teaching

In the gospels, Jesus’ teachings take the command to welcome the foreigner, the immigrant, and the refugee a step further. In Matthew 25:31-46, he shares a parable describing what separates “the righteous” from “the cursed.” Each group is addressed in turn. First, the “righteous” are welcomed into the Kingdom of Heaven because, in the words of Jesus, “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger² and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Caring for the foreigner is such a high priority to God that Jesus identifies himself with the foreigner.

Turning to “the cursed,” he declares they will endure eternal punishment as a result of their failure to do these same things: “I was a stranger and you did not invite me in.”

Perhaps the follow-up question from the “cursed” is an attempt to justify, defend, or offer an explanation that this judgement must be a mistake. “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?”

Jesus responds: “Whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me.”

Caring for the foreigner – who is often also hungry, thirsty, sick, or unclothed – is such a high priority to God that Jesus identifies himself with the foreigner. Not only this, but he warns the listeners of this parable that salvation is determined by one’s response to “the least of these.” Those who do not respond to the stranger – the refugee, the immigrant – with welcome are sent to eternal punishment (v. 46).

For followers of Jesus, this raises the stakes considerably. Welcoming the stranger is not just a “nice thing to do;” it is a determining factor in his or her faithfulness to God. To ignore the hungry and thirsty, to refuse the stranger, and to avoid the naked, sick, and prisoner is to ignore, refuse, and avoid the Son of God.

In 2025: Now What?

These specific passages – and countless others found throughout scripture³ – have for centuries guided followers of Jesus on how to engage with foreigners – the refugee, the immigrant, the asylee. And yet, it is an unfortunate reality that the political rhetoric we are steeped in today as American Christians tempts us to minimize scripture’s teaching in favor of name calling, fear mongering, and “other-ing.”

Responding to the God-given humanity (imago dei) in each person, and following scripture’s guidance to welcome the foreigner, the immigrant, the refugee, moves the conversation from a policy issue to a human issue. It ensures that people are not reduced to political talking points. Our faith stands in opposition to this temptation.

The Afghan woman fleeing death threats from the Taliban. The young Venezuelan couple running from religious persecution by their government. The Congolese man who has grown up in a refugee camp due to decades of war. The Guatemalan mother seeking a better life for her children. All are created in the image of God and loved deeply by God. All are the gār. All represent the imago dei.

Ultimately, my brothers and sisters in Christ, to welcome the immigrant and refugee means to practice love, even – and perhaps especially – when it is countercultural, messy, and uncomfortable. This love cannot be done without constantly turning back to God for help, asking for supernatural love in situations where we may not feel compelled to love naturally. To welcome is to put our conviction and love into action.

Welcoming the stranger means becoming proximate to those we may not naturally find ourselves in relationship with, becoming curious about their lives and their families and letting their stories impact our own. It means looking for Jesus in the eyes of the man or woman across from us with whom we do not share a common language or culture. What we do for the stranger, we do for Jesus.

And Jesus is waiting to be welcomed in.

Footnotes

1. This was a particularly countercultural command when it came to administering equal punishments after committing sins/crimes, ensuring that foreigners were not given more extreme punishments than God’s people.
2. Once again, the original Greek word for “stranger” used here also often translates to “foreigner” or “alien.”
3. Additional reading: Jeremiah 7:5-7, Isaiah 58:6-7, Psalm 146:9, Luke 10:25-37, Ephesians 2:11-22, Hebrews 13:1-3, 3 John 1:5

Read how BIC people and congregations across the U.S. are engaging with immigrants and refugees in their communities in the Winter 2025 issue of “Shalom! A Journal for the Practice of Reconciliation.”