Forming Faith Blog

Love Immigrants as Yourself (On Immigration)

Posted on July 8 2025 by Gregory Rawn

God is clear on how we are to treat immigrants: with love. This love is not passive; it is expressed in acts of service and justice.

Two women holding a sign that says "We are all immigrants."
Immigration Series 

Last week, I started a short series on immigration. I’m reflecting on this topic not only because it’s an urgent issue, but also because we are launching a short curriculum called Learning Together: Travelers on biblical immigrants and refugees. The previous blog post was on The Language of Immigration, which focused on some of the language used to talk about immigration, including language used in various Bible translations.

Immigration and the Biblical Story

I don’t think that it’s an exaggeration to say that the biblical story wouldn’t exist without immigration. Even without the spread of humanity after the creation story, the first pivotal act of the ancestors of our faith, Abram and Sarai, was to follow God’s call and immigrate. Abram and Sarai (later Abraham and Sarah) were indeed nomadic (different from immigration), but it all started with a move to a new country, Canaan. 

Abraham’s great-grandson, Joseph, was forcibly moved to a new country (Egypt) by what we now call human trafficking. Thanks to his faith and God’s providence, he succeeded there and invited his family (the family of Israel/Jacob) to immigrate to Egypt, fleeing a famine. The Israelites were subjugated and enslaved by the Egyptian government (more on this below) before being rescued by God, fleeing persecution as refugees. 

In an important story for the life of King David, his great-grandmother Ruth immigrated from Moab to Israel (after her mother-in-law immigrated from Israel to Moab due to a famine). The Israelites were forced to immigrate as they were exiled to Babylonia and later allowed to immigrate back to their homeland. And then, the Holy Family (Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus) were forced to flee for Jesus’ life when King Herod massacred the infants and toddlers around Bethlehem. [Several of these examples are lessons within the new Travelers unit: Abram and Sarai, the Israelites and Moses, Ruth and Naomi, and the Holy Family.]

God Cares for Vulnerable People

If you read the Torah (Law of Moses) and Prophets long enough, it becomes clear that God has a special care for widows, orphans, immigrants, and people in poverty (Zechariah 7:8-10). These groups are vulnerable populations. Vulnerability is the state when someone might currently have the resources they need to survive, but it would not take much for them to fall into poverty. Widows, orphans, and immigrants did not (usually) have a stable income source, as none of them could own land. People with power and privilege were commanded not to take advantage of vulnerable people and instead take care for them.

Grounded in Empathy

The Torah is explicit on the treatment of immigrants:

When an [immigrant]* resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the [immigrant].

Leviticus 19:33

One of the primary reasons given for the just treatment of immigrants is based on the formative story of the Israelites in Egypt:

You shall also love the [immigrant], for you were [immigrants] in the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 10:19

God often identifies God’s self in reference to the enslavement and deliverance from Egypt (see Exodus 20:2; Judges 6:8-9; Hosea 13:4; Psalm 81:10, etc.). So, that experience is foundational to the Israelites. Deuteronomy 10:19 basically says, “You were immigrants in Egypt, and you were oppressed and treated horribly. Don’t do that to others, now that you are the ones with power!” (There is indeed plenty of antagonism toward “the nations” and the Israelites enslaving others in Scripture, but the general principle still holds.)

Love the Immigrant as Yourself

This whole thing of treating others how you would like to be treated (like in the Golden Rule) is clear, but as I was doing research for our new Travelers unit, I discovered something I hadn’t known before. Due to Jesus’ identifying it as the (second) greatest commandment, we are familiar with Leviticus 19:18 (even if you didn’t know it):

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

Leviticus 19:18

This, I knew, but I didn’t know that, only 16 verses later, we are instructed:

The [immigrant] who resides with you shall be to you as the native-born among you; you shall love the [immigrant] as yourself, for you were [immigrants] in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.

Leviticus 19:34

Look at the phrases I placed in bold text. It is the same structure:

You shall love your [Israelite] neighbor as yourself.

You shall love the [immigrant] as yourself.

In the same way that you love your fellow citizen, you are to love the immigrant. And remember that in Scripture, love is not a passive emotion. It is a series of purposeful and active choices. It’s not about feeling; it’s about doing. 

Empathy vs. Othering

Empathy is about imagining yourself in another person’s shoes, to see something from another’s perspective. It is based on a basic similarity, a shared humanity. Empathy says, “You and I have different experiences, but we are ultimately the same.”

While it is not exactly empathy’s opposite, opposing empathy is “othering.” That might be a less familiar term, but it is about viewing someone as fundamentally different than yourself. It’s not just that the other person has had different experiences; they are different, strange, alien (thus my opposition to using the terms “alien” and “stranger” for “immigrant”). In the extreme, the “other” is not considered fully human. “Othering” is dehumanizing.

Cultivating Empathy in Faith Formation

One of the central tenets of the Bible is that all people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). This should affect how we treat each other (see Genesis 9:6 on killing and James 3:9 on speech). So, we should teach this in all of our faith formation settings and cultivate it through practice. 

Since we are ALL made in God’s image, we have that in common. All people are deserving of dignity. We cannot love and worship God with our whole selves and hate—or even feel apathetic toward—our neighbor who bears God’s image.

And, of course, you can address this topic in your faith formation setting by ordering our curriculum units Travelers and even Do Justice (whose first lesson is on the image of God).

Blog Series

Come back next week for my third and final post on faith, politics, and human rights! 

In Christ’s love,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

*To read more about why I’m replacing words with “immigrant” in brackets, see my previous post “The Language of Immigration.”

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