Throughout the Bible, God makes His welcome towards strangers unmistakably clear. One key example of this is how God instructed His people Israel to treat the foreigners who lived amongst 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 19:34

God starts off by saying foreigners are to be treated as “native-born”, which in itself goes against our cultural instinct to protect our local way of life. But then He goes to the next level, saying “love them as yourself”. Foreigners and strangers in our communities aren’t just to be viewed as someone else’s problem. They are people who need care, hospitality and honour. In many cases they are people in need of safety and protection.

God also reminded His people that they “were foreigners in Egypt”. Jacob and his sons had fled as refugees to Egypt to escape famine in their own land. Initially they became part of the Egyptian system, but after a time their descendants, the people of Israel, were effectively cut off and forced into slavery. Having been outsiders and ‘undesirables’ themselves, the Israeli people should have had compassion for the strangers in their midst.

God finished the command with “I am the Lord your God”. This command shows God’s character. His love and compassion for outsiders is something He wants His people to imitate. It is part of His very nature.

It wasn’t just the people of Israel who knew what it was to be strangers. Let’s look at Abraham for example. God told him, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you” (Gen. 12:1). From that day, Abraham never had anywhere to call home.

Let’s consider Ruth as well. She was from Moab, yet abandoned her ‘gods’ and people, saying to Naomi, her Israeli mother-in-law: “Your people will be my people and your God my God” (Ruth 1:16). The Bible later describes the kindness, compassion and genuine concern Ruth received from Boaz, once she was in Israel, despite the fact she was a foreigner and an outsider. Through his actions, Boaz characterized the love of God towards those who have no support or protection of their own. He doesn’t turn them away; He welcomes them in and provides for their needs.

Throughout the Bible, many of God’s people lived as strangers to ‘normal’ society in some way. It’s no coincidence that so many of God’s people lived as outcasts and foreigners. They are a pattern and example given to us so we might understand what it actually means to belong to God and to love strangers as He does.