I have been unusually silent on the subject of immigration, and specifically the issue of aiding refugees who, finding themselves in a desperate situation, want to suddenly emigrate from their native lands by the hundreds of thousands.  In our current events, this means Syrian refugees.  But I also want to address long-standing immigration from our border country of Mexico and other Latin American neighbors.

God has finally given me an understanding of some of the Truth in this matter, in general, and an understanding of how to reconcile living a Christian life while still having safe boundaries, and borders.  I am not a political expert but I don’t believe I need to be.  I am an expert on living with God daily, discerning the truth of His word, and living it out in my life.

In the Great Commission, Christ calls us to go forth and make disciples of all the nations.  Jesus sent His disciples out two by two to preach the gospel taught to them by Him.  He reminds us to love God and love our neighbor.  He illustrates that our neighbor may be an enemy, but if we come upon him and he is in danger, to take care of him like our own family member (the Good Samaritan story).  In the Book of Luke, Jesus also reminds you to love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you; and if someone strikes you, to allow him to strike you again, and to give to everyone who asks of you.

In all of these examples, we go forth.  Poor people or the oppressed don’t usually have occasion or means to travel very far.  The Israelites took 40 years to enter the Promised Land which was adjacent to Egypt, where they had been enslaved.  No one went and got them and carted them into the Promised Land.  They were led there by God, on their own, and defeated their enemies because of God’s favor.  In the Book of Luke reference, if we are individually approached to help another human being, we are commanded to do so, but as an individual, not as a government.  If we choose to travel to another land, then we should be ready to help the people we commune with and among, which is what a missionary does, or a humanitarian relief worker.

When in Acts chapter 3 Peter and John came into the presence of the lame man outside the synagogue in Jerusalem, he asked for alms, and he looked to them to be handed alms, but because they did not have silver or gold, they gave him the blessing of the Spirit of Jesus, and lifted him up for he could then walk.  They could not give him what they did not have, but a blessing in Jesus’ name was better than monetary gifts of any kind!

When other cultures are in trouble and look to us for help, we cannot give them what we do not have (monetary resources), but we can always bless them with the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  If we choose to go to their land, we are commanded to live among them and make believers of them.  We are not commanded to steal gold (make money we do not have) so that we can go after them to bring them to our country, or pay millions of dollars to ‘save’ them!

Furthermore, when peoples have diametrically opposed beliefs to our chosen way of life, which is overall, ‘One Nation Under God,’ we have a responsibility to move away, to keep ourselves far from a false matter, and to avoid them, all of which are biblical commands.  Saint Paul states in Romans Chapter 16:

Romans 16:17-20New King James Version (NKJV)

Avoid Divisive Persons

¹⁷ Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.¹⁸ For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus^[a] Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. ¹⁹ For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. ²⁰ And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

The special interests that influence our government to act contrary to not only Americans’ best interests, but also biblical theology, are surely serving the world and not God, because if anyone is a friend of the world, he is an enemy of God:

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  ~James 4:4

The Farm in Tennessee was a commune that got started in the hippie era of the 70’s.  In the 80’s, many poor people migrated to The Farm for various reasons no doubt in part because they heard no one was turned away.  As part of the Farm’s doctrine in that day, families on the Farm opened their homes and larders to all these strangers who poured in.  Soon all the longstanding Farm families began to starve and the children went without shoes in the Winter.  Many did not work or worked at jobs with no monetary pay, and could not buy necessary resources.  Finally, when the leader was out of town, the rest of the group led a coup to overthrow him!  It seems on the surface that he was leading them to  do God’s will by sharing all they had, and to open up completely to them, but how can it be God’s will that all should starve because of lack?  Instead, the poor need to stay where they are and make the best of their situation where they are, or rely on an individual to help them, or go forth in faith relying only on God, not others, to save them.

When the poor and oppressed descend in droves upon a group of people who are not very stable themselves, financial decline and poverty will ensue.  This also happened in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when the poor of New Orleans emigrated to cities in Texas.  While Texans and other states’ citizens opened their towns to receive them, they might not have known that crime rates would dramatically rise and the way of life they had previously enjoyed would decline, but that is exactly what has happened in those places.

It is not our duty in any way as a nation to provide for refugees in other countries, to bring them to our country, or to pay for their life once here.  At the same time, our country was given to us by God and is founded on His principles.  We should not exclude brethren who desperately want to come here and be a part of our way of life, in every way.  It is not that we earned our land, but that He blessed us with it, and will do so only as long as we live according to His will and word.  Brethren should not come here to live as liabilities, but as assets, contributing at least as much as they take, if not more.

Reasonable measures should be taken to protect what God has blessed us with, and to be good stewards of it.  Not everyone can, nor should, live here.  God provides even the swallows with a nest, and how much more will He provide a man a home, if that man follows Him and listens to His word.

The cold reality that many soft-hearted Americans and Westerners do not want to face is that most people will choose to not follow God and in so doing will choose the path of destruction.  We can not let our eye pity these people to pervert justice, but press on sharing the gospel with those who DO want to hear it.  We have to stand for something, lest we fall for anything, and our republic already chose to stand ‘under God‘.

Amen.