A Biblical response to the refugees being resettled with some practical application of Scripture

1. Refugee Crisis
How should the Church respond to the Refugee Crisis: A look at the
Biblical response and a survey of the cultural implications

2. What is a refugee?
• The 1951 Refugee Convention spells out that a refugee is
someone who "owing to a well-founded fear of being
persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality,
membership of a particular social group or political
opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is
unable to, or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail
himself of the protection of that country.“
• In 1980 the United States adopted the same definition.

3. What is important in the definition
•Refugees under the UN definition is
someone that is oppressed
•Refugees are sojourners / foreigners

4. What does the Bible have to say?
• Deuteronomy 16:11“You shall rejoice before him—you, your son, your
daughter, your male and female slaves, the Levites in your villages, the
resident foreigners, the orphans, and the widows among you—in the
place where the LORD chooses to locate his name.”
• Deuteronomy 24:17 “You must not pervert justice due a resident
foreigner or an orphan, or take a widow’s garment as security for a
loan.”
• “The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native
citizen among you; so you must love him as yourself, because you were
foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.” (Leviticus
19:34)

5. What does the Bible have to say?
• Jeremiah 7:5-7 “You must change the way you have been living
and do what is right. You must treat one another fairly .Stop
oppressing foreigners who live in your land, children who have
lost their fathers, and women who have lost their husbands.
Stop killing innocent people in this land. Stop paying allegiance to
other gods. That will only bring about your ruin. If you stop doing
these things, I will allow you to continue to live in this land which
I gave to your ancestors as a lasting possession.”

6. What does the Bible have to say?
• Ezekiel 22:7 “They have treated father and mother with
contempt within you; they have oppressed the foreigner among
you; they have wronged the orphan and the widow within you.”
• Ezekiel 22:29 “The people of the land have practiced extortion
and committed robbery. They have wronged the poor and needy;
they have oppressed the foreigner who lives among them and
denied them justice.”
• Zechariah 7:10 “You must not oppress the widow, the orphan,
the foreigner, or the poor, nor should anyone secretly plot evil
against his fellow human being.’”

7. Why?
• “The LORD is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in
times of trouble.” (Psalm 9:9)
• “The LORD works righteousness and justice for all who are
oppressed.” (Psalm 103:6)
• ““You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a
sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.” (Exodus
23:9)

8. Do you fear the Lord?
• “I will come to you in judgment. I will be quick
to testify against those who practice divination,
those who commit adultery, those who break
promises, and those who exploit workers,
widows, and orphans, who refuse to help the
immigrant and in this way show they do not fear
me,” says the LORD who rules over all.” (Malachi
3:5)

9. Something curious
• Did you notice the sojourner was constantly linked with widows
and orphans?
• Taking care of the oppressed whether they were widows, orphans,
poor, or foreigners is the call for all of God’s people
• James goes as far to say that if you are not involved in doing so
you do not really know who God is, let alone what He requires of
you.

10. James 1:27
• “Pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God our Father, is this:
coming to the help of orphans and widows in their hardships, and
keeping oneself uncontaminated by the world.” (James 1:27)
• Why did James not make mention of the foreigner?
• Was James releasing Christians from the command of helping the
foreigner?

11. The Context of the book of James
• Who was the book written to?
• James 1:1 gives us the answer
• “From James,... Greetings to the twelve tribes of the Dispersion.” (James
1:1b)
• What is meant by dispersion?
• James is writing to Jews that believe in Messiah that live outside of Judea

12. Why is this significant?
• The Old Testament verses are written to Jews living in the promise
land and the command to take care of the foreigners among you
presupposes living in the land of Israel
• James is writing a rebuke
• It is wrong to rebuke someone for not fulfill a command they cannot fulfill
• James’ audience may have not needed to be rebuked in the this area
• James’ audience were foreigners themselves

13. How does this apply to us today?
• What does James mean by religion?
• What is the role of the Holy Spirit in a believers life?
• How does this relate to refugees?

14. What does James mean by religion?
• We have all heard the cliché “I am not religious, I am in a personal
relationship” – The very idea of religion has become a stigma in
Christianity but that is not how James used the term.
• Religion is a good word but it has been used to mean legalism or
false religion. True religion is having a right understanding of who
God is and the proper response to Him and His commands as King.
• James is saying if you think that you are saved from your sin and
trespasses and have the indwelling of the Spirit of God and you
are far from the very things God says he is near then the Holy
Spirit is not in you and you only think you are saved.

15. What or who is God near?
• “The LORD is near to the brokenhearted And saves
those who are crushed in spirit.” (Psalm 34:18,
NASB95)
• Those that need refuge (Psalm 73:28)
• The poor, the captive, the blind, and the oppressed
(Luke 4:18)
• “The LORD is near to all who call on him, to all who
call on him in truth.” (Psalm 145:18, ESV)

16. What if the Government lets in terrorist?
• The government is responsible
for restricting evil with the
sword and policy (Romans 13)
• The Church is responsible for
restricting evil with the love of
Christ and the gospel message

17. The Gospel can change a life
• Former terrorist changed by the gospel
• Kamal Saleem
• Walid Shoebat
• Ibrahim Abdullah
• Abdullahi Jirbil
• Taysi abu Saada
• Refugee ministry can save lives both spiritually and physically