Love the stranger

Love ye therefore the stranger: for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. – Deuteronomy 10.19

There is a lot of talk these days about immigration and foreigners and ‘strangers in the land.’ Let me say first of all that these words have nothing to do with modern laws or government policies or government responsibilities.

But leaving that aside there is a principle here that I don’t think we can afford to ignore.

We are to love our neighbours. We are to love our enemies. Doesn’t it only make sense that we ought to love the stranger?

Love is to be the trademark of the believer. It is what should set us apart. What greater opportunity to love than to love the strangers in our midst. Strangers don’t have a home. They don’t have family. They are out of their element. They don’t know how things work. For the most part they don’t know how we do things.

And because of that many people are angry or impatient or resentful of even afraid of the strangers in our midst. From many corners we hear things like

Fear the strangers

Turn the strangers out

Ban the strangers

Don’t thrust the strangers

God says ‘love the strangers.’

I wonder whose advice we should take?