“For the LORDyour God is a God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore…” Deuteronomy 10.17-19

The Law of God was given to Israel to guide the people of God in learning how to love Him and their neighbors. The Law was not intended as yoke or burden, keeping people from the things they really want to do. It was designed to encourage justice, order, safety, and love within the communities of Israel, and to serve as a witness to the surrounding nations.

We’ve seen that God has much to say about “strangers and sojourners” who, observing His blessings on Israel, come to wander among them for a season or even to make Israel their permanent home. When God blesses a people, the nations can’t help but notice, and many will seek those blessings for themselves.

We take pride in the fact that ours is a “nation of immigrants.” But unless we turn to the counsel of God’s Law that pride in “strangers and sojourners” could turn into suspicion, scorn, and even hate. The Law of God can guide us in thinking about how we as a nation can love those who come to us from other countries with the kind of love that finds favor with God.

Here, based on the brief survey of God’s Law we have been examining in preceding installments, are some thoughts about how to proceed in the work of immigration reform in America today. These guidelines can be transformed into meaningful public policies, if believers are willing to take seriously their role as “we the people” in helping to improve the way we are governed:

1. Encourage a new attitude toward immigrants and immigration. The Church can take the lead here by making love for strangers a hallmark of its local ministries, and by encouraging an attitude of thanksgiving to God both for the strangers in our midst and the abundant blessings of God of which their presence reminds us.

2. Seek local solutions, especially church-based. Again, local churches could render a valuable service to their communities, the nation, and to immigrants from all over the globe if they actually made it part of their ministry to reach out locally to the strangers in their midst with programs and services designed to help them get work and become contributing members of the local community. Churches will have the most success in this effort if they can work together with other churches rather than try to assume all the burden of this outreach alone.

3. Enforce the laws of the land, and rewrite any that unfairly favor immigrants or otherwise exacerbate the problem of illegal immigration. The minimum wage law, for example, encourages illegal immigration and sends jobs out of this country to cheaper labor markets elsewhere. Because certain employers bypass the minimum wage law to pay their illegal workers in cash they also rob the Treasury of tax revenue, thus further straining the tax burden on law-abiding citizens.

4. Review policies on quotas, visiting workers, and foreign students. Create a new status for foreigners who wish to stay in the country on a long-term basis, but without the need or expectation of becoming citizens. Protect the borders, but make the route to citizenship an easier road for those desiring to pursue it.

5. Require all immigrants who intend a long-term tenure not leading to citizenship to maintain a job. Deport without possibility of return any foreigners who show contempt for American law or the immigration policies of the land, and make it stick.

Many of these ideas are already being discussed. The fact that they are should encourage us in two ways – first, that we can join these conversations and make a positive contribution; and, second, that the Law of God remains a potent source of insight and counsel in helping us to bring the blessings of God to our nation.

T. M. Moore

Visit our website, www.ailbe.org, and sign up to receive our thrice-weekly devotional, Crosfigell, featuring writers from the period of the Celtic Revival and T. M.’s reflections on Scripture and the Celtic Christian tradition. Does the Law of God still apply today? Order a copy of T. M.’s book, The Ground for Christian Ethics, and the compilation, The Law of God,and study the question for yourself.