The News is bombarded with refugees and foreigners fleeing their native countries stretching from Afghanistan to Venezulea. Sure the fate of these peoples is in the air and they usually flee for their lives. Yet Scripture is clear on how refugees and foreigners are treated such as:
Treat foreigners or refugees as citizens and with love.
The foreigners residing among you must be treated as native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
—Leviticus 19:34
Miscellaneous instructions in the Law made sure foreigners were included in the Jewish community. They included provisions for them to be treated equally under the law and to be included in festivals and celebrations of the community.
Cities of refuge were available to Israelites and foreigners in cases of accidental murder (Numbers 35:15).
Foreigners were to be included in festivals and celebrations mandated in the Law (Deuteronomy 16:14; 26:11).
Some of the tithe collected by the priests was to be used to not only feed them and their families, but also to help provide food for foreigners, widows, and orphans (Deuteronomy 14:28-29).
Also, farmers were instructed to leave the gleanings of their fields for the poor and the foreigner (Leviticus 23:22). And to treat the stranger as they would the poor among the Israelites (Leviticus 25:35).
All believers are to show hospitality to strangers.
Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers for by doing that some have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
—Hebrews 13:1-2
In this passage and a few others (Romans 12:13; 1 Peter 4:9; 3 John 1:5-8), hospitality is held up as a mark of those who follow Jesus. The church was to support one another, including strangers who came to worship with them. This became especially important once the Jews were forced from Jerusalem and Palestine in 70 A.D. by the Romans. Then and now the church should be a welcoming community.
All believers are strangers on Earth.
… live out your time as foreigners here with reverent fear.
—1 Peter 1:17
This is a principle for God’s people of all times. Moses instructed the Israelites not to sell any of the land permanently, because the land belonged to God and they were only foreigners living there (Leviticus 25:23).
Think of how graciously God treats us, the foreigners living in his world. His kindness to us can guide our thoughts and actions towards those living as strangers among us.
All believers in Jesus Christ belong to the kingdom of God.
Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.
—Ephesians 2:19
This verse follows the great passage that lays out how we have been saved by faith in Jesus (2:8-10). In it, the terms “foreigners” and “strangers” are used as metaphors for our condition before our faith in Jesus Christ. Before we believed, we were outside the covenant and considered foreigners or strangers in God’s kingdom (2:11-13). But because of our faith in him, we are now part of God’s community — strangers who have been welcomed in.
live out your time as foreigners here with reverent fear.
—1 Peter 1:17
This is a principle for God’s people of all times. Moses instructed the Israelites not to sell any of the land permanently, because the land belonged to God and they were only foreigners living there (Leviticus 25:23).
https://www.worldvision.org/refugees...about-refugees
The land which people live on is truly owned by God, and it is us who are temporary dwellers of the land. Those that are strangers and outsiders we are to treat them with dignity and compassion.
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