Exodus 22:21
"Remember that at that time you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ."
Ephesians 2:12-13
Refugees are human beings. The Bible teaches us that human beings are created in the image of God. As such being Christians living under the Bible and its teaching we must treat God’s image with the dignity and respect it deserves, recognizing that every person on this planet is loved by God and that Jesus died for them how can we not care about the way they are treated?
As James 1:27 states. Religion that God accepts is to care for widows and orphans in their distress. It kind of speaks for itself. Especially with regards to refugees, many of whom fit into this category. To take it broader which I do and I believe the Bible does even though this passage is very specific, God calls us to care for all people in distress, even the foreigner specifically as can be seen in the Laws given to the Jews during the Exodus (Exodus 22:21). There is no wriggle room, God calls for us to care. Just as the Jews were expected to care for foreigners in the Old Testament we are called to care for all people and in doing so show our faith in Christ in the New Testament.
WE as Christians are asylum seekers in our own right. We are refugees in this world, seeking a better life and future in heaven according to the promises of God. We do not belong here: heaven is our home and where our citizenship is found “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Philippians 3:20)
We are blessed with the good fortune of living in a stable, safe, fertile and prosperous land. Who gave us this land? God did. It is Him who allows us to live here and Him who created it in the first place. Who are we to deny others entry to a land over which someone else is sovereign? More than this, do we really ‘have boundless plains to share’?
The issue of refugees and their treatment by the government of Australia is one which we as Christians should be very concerned about. Here are people fleeing the terrors of their countries of origin, and they rotting in detention because the Australian government does not want to let them in. They are labelled as “queue jumpers” and “job thieves”. To this I say, Australia has one of the longest wait times of any western country, if they wanted to queue jump they’d go somewhere else. If they are taking jobs in Australia it is only because there are jobs to take, maybe the people so worried about their jobs should actually get jobs and they wouldn't be there for the taking. These are resilient people who care enough for their well-being to get on a boat to begin with, they are mostly eager to integrate and learn, if anything they would be a benefit to our society.
Our God is love and we are called to love as He does. Sometimes that is hard but there is no two ways about it (actually, that love is ALWAYS hard – His kind of love is not convenient, nor is it optional). To be concerned about refugees seeking asylum in the country we have been blessed with is to be concerned for what He is concerned about. I implore you to it clear to the Government, the refugees and the people of Australia that our God does not tolerate human rights abuses, by making it clear that neither do we.
"Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God, and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love”
1 John 4:7
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