God Speaking

“Do not mistreat an alien, or oppress him, for you were aliens in Egypt”

(Exodus 22: 21)

Racism and violence against others are escalating in our country, with immigration rising rapidly due to ugly warfare throughout the world, and people are fleeing to safer places. Unfortunately, many of the inhabitants are not receiving them in a welcome manner. In the book of Exodus (22: 21), where Moses was speaking for God, God was telling the children of Israel that the loving thing was to welcome those different people and not oppress them. Unfortunately, today it is not only those who are a different nationality that are treated badly but those who differ in any way such as the poor, the homeless, or those who are addicted to drugs, others who are in a different class in society, those lacking in education, or those living in a lower neighborhood. 

Many years ago, my husband and I volunteered in a Christian mission that was an outreach to poor people living on the street, or those trapped in their drug / alcohol addiction. This city in Canada had a large population of native people, as well as a big prison on the outskirts of the city which discharged prisoners at the end of their sentence, they were virtually turned out on the street, and many had no place to go. This is the point in time when the Mission stepped in and helped with food, clothing and helped many get back on their feet. When we first started to get to know these people and the sadness of their stories, we were horrified to be made aware of the discrepancy between how we lived and how these unfortunates struggled.

This had a powerful effect on how we lived the rest of our lives!

Again, right from the beginning, God entreated his followers to love their neighbors 

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”  (Leviticus 19: 18)

Jesus elaborated on this command with a definite message to his followers. 

“A new command I give you. Love one another as I have loved you, so you must love one another.”  (John 13: 34)

Jesus is our example of how to love and modelled it by who he loved for everybody to see. Loving and saving a hated tax collector in front of a huge crowd, even inviting himself to stay with him overnight. (Luke 19:2)

Again, he answers a wealthy young man who inquired about who was his neighbor by telling the story of the good Samaritan, also hated, and despised by the Jews, who stops to help a Jewish man attacked by robbers (Luke 10: 30).

We, as followers of Jesus, need to remember not to be selective about who we love or show God’s love to. One of the saddest stories I heard at the Mission, was of two men who told me they believed in Jesus, and I asked them had they found a church to go to. They just looked at me in disbelief and said who would let us in the door looking like this. They were scruffy and were still struggling with addiction and I thought about the church we were going to with well-dressed people all living in wealthy places. Later I cried and asked God to forgive us. My husband and I did share this news with our church and several people began to help the Mission, so let us love one another … whoever they are!