Foreigners

Lately, one of the big controversies here in the United States has been the fact that people are coming into our nation from other countries illegally. I’ve seen many articles posted on Facebook on this topic and have heard several people complain about it, and at the same time, I’ve heard stories from the other side of the argument. For my post this week, I decided to suggest a new perspective that we, as Christians, should see. Colossians 1:21-23 says, “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation—if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” We originally came from the realm of sin (the world), but through Jesus, we were able to enter into the Kingdom and Family of God. We were foreigners. Now, we are a part of the Kingdom of God, but we are living in the world. Because of this, we still are foreigners. In fact, that is what we are called to be—in the world, but not of the world. We came to God and became a part of His family because we knew of the spiritual blessings we could find in Him. This is the same reason we have foreigners coming into our nation—to escape the suffering they have in their own countries to experience the blessings we have in ours. However, I am not saying that they are right to do so illegally because as we have obligations that we must fulfill in order to become a part of God’s family, there are legal obligations for them to become citizens of this nation. Now, I would like to go back to the passage from Colossians 1. Look at verse 23 where it says “This is the gospel that you heard and has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven…” Today, has the gospel really been preached to every creature under heaven? You are probably saying that yes, there are missionaries who go and tell people about Jesus, but the answer is “no!” We are all called to be missionaries. You don’t even have to go to another country to be a missionary. The United States is currently considered the “world’s third largest mission field.” Christians are responsible for the work, and because we don’t seem to want to leave the comfort of our home, maybe God is bringing people from other countries to us. James 2 shows that faith without works is dead. We have to do certain things to be Christians; having faith is a big part of that. If we aren’t doing the work of Christ, then our faith is dead. If our faith is dead, we are foreigners to God who try to receive the blessings of being a Christian similarly to those who come into this nation illegally. So who is the real foreigner?

“God defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.” Deuteronomy 10:18-19