"Love the stranger" is one of the most repeated commands in the Old Testament. The Bible speaks with remarkable frequency and consistency about how God's people should treat immigrants, refugees, and foreigners — and the message is unmistakable: they are to be welcomed, protected, and treated with dignity. This is not a peripheral theme. It is woven into the law, the prophets, the wisdom literature, and the teaching of himself.
Love the Foreigner as Yourself
📖 Leviticus 19:33-34 The command is as clear as anything in the Torah:
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.
The rationale is experiential: you know what it is like to be a stranger, because Israel lived as foreigners in Egypt for four hundred years. God's people are not permitted to forget what it felt like to be vulnerable, displaced, and dependent on the hospitality of others. The command to love the foreigner "as yourself" uses the same Hebrew phrasing as the command to love your neighbor — placing the immigrant on equal footing.
God Loves the Stranger
📖 Deuteronomy 10:17-19 Moses describes God's own character as one that is particularly attentive to the displaced:
For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He 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.
When Scripture says God "loves the foreigner," it is making a statement about divine character, not political policy. The God of the Bible identifies personally with the vulnerable, the displaced, and the stranger. And he commands his people to reflect that same love in their own communities.
The Least of These
📖 Matthew 25:35-36 Jesus extends this theme into the New Testament with his parable of the sheep and the goats:
For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger 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.
The word translated "stranger" (xenos) is the root of our word "xenophobia." Jesus identifies so closely with the stranger that welcoming them is equivalent to welcoming him. Refusing to welcome them is equivalent to refusing him. This is not a comfortable teaching, and it was not meant to be.
Ruth: A Foreigner in the Lineage of Christ
📖 Ruth 1:16 The book of Ruth is the story of a Moabite immigrant who left her homeland to follow her mother-in-law Naomi back to Israel. Her declaration is one of the most beautiful expressions of loyalty in all of literature:
Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
Ruth was a foreigner, a widow, and an ethnic outsider. Yet she became the great-grandmother of King David and an ancestor of Jesus Christ. Her inclusion in the messianic lineage is a theological statement: God's redemptive plan has always included the outsider. The stranger is not a threat to God's purposes. The stranger is part of them.
Abraham: A Lifelong Sojourner
📖 Genesis 12:1 Abraham, the father of the faith, was himself an immigrant. God's first command to him was to leave:
Go from your country, your people and your father's household to the land I will show you.
Abraham spent his entire life as a Sojourner — a resident alien in lands that did not belong to him. The author of Hebrews notes that Abraham "lived in tents" because "he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God" (Hebrews 11:9-10). The biblical narrative frames the entire people of God as strangers and pilgrims — which should produce natural empathy for those who are displaced today.
Hospitality as a Christian Virtue
📖 Hebrews 13:2 The New Testament elevates hospitality to the stranger as a fundamental Christian practice:
Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
This is a reference to Abraham's encounter with three visitors at Mamre (Genesis 18), who turned out to be divine messengers. The principle is broader than one story: you never know who you are welcoming. But more importantly, hospitality is not contingent on the worthiness of the guest. It is an expression of God's own generous character.
What This Means Today
The Bible does not provide a comprehensive immigration policy. It does not address border security, visa categories, or enforcement mechanisms. What it does provide is a moral framework: the stranger is to be loved, not feared. The foreigner is made in God's image and deserves dignity. And the people of God, who were themselves strangers and exiles, should be the last people on earth to treat the displaced with contempt. How that translates into specific policy is a matter for wisdom, debate, and honest disagreement. But the direction of Scripture is clear, and it always bends toward welcome.