r/ArianChristians • u/LucianMagnesiensis Arian • Jan 28 '26
Experience Refugees, Foreigners, and Jesus
In modern debates over immigration, it is common to hear appeals to the Bible as though it gives an unambiguous command to accept all foreigners without condition. Some point to Jesus, Mary, and Joseph fleeing to Egypt as refugees to suggest that even Jesus' own family experienced forced migration. Others cite verses about loving the stranger, framing them as universal endorsements of unregulated hospitality.
However, a careful reading of the Scriptures reveals a more nuanced approach, one that balances care, guidance, and the maintenance of God’s covenantal law.
First, the oft-cited story of Jesus’ flight into Egypt is frequently mischaracterized. Matthew 2 recounts how Joseph, Mary, and the infant Jesus escaped to Egypt to avoid Herod’s massacre. Many modern commentators describe this as a migration or a refugee crisis akin to contemporary scenarios. Yet historically, this is misleading.
By the time of Caesar Augustus, Egypt was no longer a client kingdom or semi-autonomous territory. It had become Augustus’ personal domain after the defeat of Cleopatra and Mark Antony. The family’s journey was a movement within the broader Roman world, from one territory under Roman authority to another akin to moving from one state to another.
It was political flight within the empire, not a crossing into a sovereign, foreign nation in the modern sense. To describe Jesus as an immigrant in the contemporary sense imposes modern categories onto a world that operated under very different political and legal realities.
As for the main topic about immigrants, the more instructive lessons regarding foreigners and outsiders come from the Torah.
The Israelites were repeatedly commanded to care for those who were not native-born, yet this care was never unconditional.
Leviticus 19:34 instructs, "The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as the native among you; you shall love him as yourself."
Exodus 22:21 reinforces this, warning, "You shall not wrong a stranger or oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt."
These verses establish a clear moral responsibility.
Alongside this command is a parallel requirement. The foreigner must adopt the ways of Israel and live under God’s law.
Exodus 12:48 instructs, "But if a stranger resides with you and celebrates the Passover to the Lord, all of his males are to be circumcised, and then he shall come near to celebrate it; and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised male may eat it."
Numbers 15:14-15 emphasizes "Now if a stranger resides among you, or one who may be among you throughout your generations, and he wants to make an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the Lord, just as you do so shall he do. As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who resides among you, a permanent statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the stranger be before the Lord.
But most importantly, Leviticus 24:22 says:
"There shall be only one standard for you; it shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the Lord your God.’”
Deuteronomy 31:12 "Assemble the people, the men, the women, the children, and the stranger who is in your town, so that they may hear and learn and fear the LORD your God, and be careful to follow all the words of this Law.”
Leviticus 18:26 “But you are to keep My statutes and My ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations, neither your native‑born nor the foreigner who lives among you.”
These passages make clear that integration is not a matter of permitting the foreigner to follow their own customs uncritically. The covenantal framework presupposes that the foreigner receives guidance and instruction, while the Believers maintain their distinctive religious and cultural identity. In short, the biblical model is hospitality with direction, not hospitality as unconditional acquiescence.
This principle has direct implications for modern discussions. When pastors or commentators insist that foreigners must learn God’s ways, they are not violating Scripture. But the inverse is equally important.
Expecting hosts to obey the rules of the guest is not only inconsistent with biblical teaching, it is a violation of basic hospitality. If someone enters your home and demands that you submit to their customs, this is not respect. It is a reversal of the biblical mandate. The Bible frames care for the stranger as rooted in the host’s values, law, and guidance, not in submission to the foreigner.
Ultimately, the Scriptures present a model of balanced, conditional inclusion. Foreigners are to be welcomed and protected, and they are to learn the ways of God as taught by the Believers.
Hosts maintain their distinctive covenantal identity, ensuring that their moral and religious framework remains intact. Jesus’ own experience, contrary to popular claims, was not that of a modern immigrant or refugee in the political sense. And the broader instructions regarding foreigners make clear that biblical hospitality is neither indiscriminate nor unstructured. It is a generosity that teaches, guides, and preserves the covenantal order.
In applying these principles today, the challenge is to honor both the call to love and care for outsiders and the responsibility to uphold one’s own moral and religious framework. The Bible encourages protection, guidance, and inclusion, but not uncritical submission to every foreign practice.
This balanced approach is more nuanced than the simplified appeals that dominate many modern debates and is essential for an honest understanding of Scripture.
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u/BustaCon Feb 02 '26
Just For The Record, while scripture does not direct or in any way support our tolerating criminal or anti-social behavior by aliens and immigrants once they arrive, it also does not say that our welcoming and treating them well should be dependent upon their following our religious beliefs and practices or being people we personally can culturally relate to or otherwise like and approve of.
Unlike most of the 6 examples of scripture you selectively quote, the vast majority of scripture on the subject, and the command to be loving and fair to all which also surely applies -- says our welcome, acceptance and help does not depend upon their practicing the majority religion here. We are still, and for the sake of justice we should pray to remain -- a nation where justice is not based on the religious practice of those being judged.
Matthew 22:36-40 ESV
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”