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.
Leviticus 19:33-34
In the promised land, there would be many nations. It would belong to the Israelites because that is what God promised to them, but other tribes and other people would live among them, move in, and pass through.
Now God‘s heart is huge. He promised Abraham that all people would come to know him, believe in him, and be saved by him through the Israelite people. So, he is very direct when he tells Moses that there will be foreigners among them and they need to love them as their neighbor. God reminds the people that they were once foreigners in the land of Egypt and a Pharaoh welcomed them there. But we also must remember that the Israelites were enslaved years later by new a pharaoh that didn’t know the history and was afraid of the Israelite people. What did God do in this situation? He humbled The Egyptians with many plagues and set his people free.
God is loving and he is just; he created all people with a purpose and he called them good. He wants us to reflect the love of Christ not to try to play judge ourselves in slave others. We were all foreigners at some point and we need to treat others as we want to be treated.
So, how do we love the foreigner? Love them as a neighbor, love them as yourself.
You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge in the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is filled in keeping this one command: love your neighbor as yourself.
Galatians 5:13-14
God desires for us to walk in the spirit, to bear fruit like the spirit, to be filled with love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control toward others. He wants us to love others that aren’t like us by giving to them, helping them, encouraging them, providing them with what they need so in return they will do the same for others. And in this way they may see your good works and come to know what the kingdom of heaven is to be like. If we do this, then Peace fills our nation, instead of division.
If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
Galatians 5:15
Do to others as you would have them do to you. If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.
Luke 6:32-33
Friends, we have to stop looking at our differences and dividing ourselves into factions. We need to see each other through Jesus’s eyes and see the beauty he created in our differences and truly begin to love our neighbors, the foreigners, and our enemies, WELL.
We were all foreigners once; let’s love the way God loves us.
Running 2 Fly 