Jesus Is Not a Political Slogan
Compassion, Authority, and the Misuse of Scripture in Immigration Debates
This piece is written as a pastoral reflection, not a political argument. My aim is not to defend policies or condemn people, but to encourage careful, faithful reading of Scripture in a moment when emotions run high and biblical language is often used loosely. It is an attempt to address how Scripture is being used—and misused—in current conversations about immigration, borders, and government authority.
I write this as a minister who cares deeply about human dignity, biblical integrity, and the difference Scripture makes when it is rightly understood. My concern is not whether Scripture supports our instincts, but whether we are allowing the whole counsel of Scripture to shape our thinking and our faithfulness.
The world we live in today seems out of control. Many of us turn to scripture to bring understanding and peace. Some turn to scripture to manipulate and control. What happens is often a misunderstanding of what scripture says concerning current events and how we are to engage scripturally with those events.
Too often we use scripture to fit our political or social agenda taking it out of context. We pick and choose the scriptures not considering context and attempt to apply it. Though there are times that a single scripture fits for the moment we must always consider context.
It is like the man who used the point and choose method to live his life. Each morning he would get up and grab his bible close his eyes and open the Bible. With his eyes closed he would point to a verse and read it. Whatever the verse said he would live his life by that one scripture for the day. One day he does his normal routine and his finger lands on Matthew 27:5, "So he threw the money into the temple, went away, and hanged himself." The gentlemen says to himself that can't be right. So he closes his Bible and reopens it and with his eyes closed he lands on Luke 10:37, "....Jesus told him, “Go and imitate his example!”
Reading scripture without context and understanding is like living your life like this man. It is a dangerous way to live life. When reading scripture it is always good to understand that scripture in light of the surrounding text and at times in light of when it was written and who the audience is. Aside from just looking at the immediate context we must also consider what the Bible says as a whole. When we understand the whole counsel of scripture we then are able to understand the verse.
One of these situations where I have seen scripture taken out of context by both lay people and credentialed ministers has to do with current events. Specifically dealing with immigration and borders. There has been much being thrown around concerning scripture and immigration. Some speak to Jesus being an immigrant or passages dealing with foreigners in the land. Though this blog may not be comprehensive in the topic we will look at some of the major points that need to be addressed and what scripture says about them.
The Core Confusion
The core confusion concerning our current world (U.S.) events and scripture comes from the collapsing of categories scripture keeps distinct. When these things get blurred what we often hear is, "Jesus said..." when either scripture is silent or what is "said" is taken out of context. Thing that scripture keeps distinct are such things as individual moral obligation versus governmental responsibility, church ethics versus state authority, compassion versus lawlessness or biblical hospitality versus modern nation-state immigration policy. When we attempt to apply one to the other we create confusion not peace.
We will look at specifically what Jesus taught or did not teach and how the Bible as a whole deals with the topic of governments and their rules and policy.
What Jesus Actually Taught (and What He Didn’t)
Let's consider what Jesus taught and what he did not teach. Jesus never addressed immigration enforcement, borders, or civil law mechanisms. We are not dodging but it is an exegetical fact. When people say “Jesus would never support ICE”, they are projecting modern political categories onto a first-century Jewish rabbi under Roman occupation. Yes I believe Jesus was more than just a rabbi he is the messiah. He was also considered a teacher or rabbi.
What Jesus Teaches
What did Jesus teach. He taught love your neighbor. This is often twisted and manipulated by some in order to guilt Christians into submission. It is something to go into depth on in a different blog. Suffice it to say that this is an individual responsibility not a government requirement.
He taught care for the poor and vulnerable. This again is a personal responsibility not a government responsibility. It does not mean that we harbor those who commit crimes even ones considered civil crimes.
Jesus taught personal sacrifice. We simply look to the widow with the two mites who gave all she had not just out of what she had.
Individual moral accountability before God. We will be held accountable before God for our moral choices.
What Jesus Did Not Teach
In his teachings Jesus did not teach that governments must suspend law. In fact dealing with taxes specifically when the disciples asked if they should pay taxes Jesus took a coin and asked whose image was on the coin. The disciples said Caesar's. Jesus responded give to Caesar what is Caesar's.
Jesus did not teach open or no boarders. In fact as we look through scripture what we find is that God defined nations. Borders provided structure and order. We will examine this in more depth later.
Jesus did not teach that governments must suspend law. In fact Jesus submitted to the law and died on the cross.
Jesus did not teach that justice and compassion are opposites. The argument that is often presented is, "If the government is enforcing law, someone is being hurt—therefore it must be wrong." Government exists to administer justice consistently, not compassion selectively—yet justice itself must never become cruel.
Biblically, compassion within justice looks like this, proportional penalties, due process, protection of the vulnerable, restraint from excess force, and mercy clauses such as appeals, asylum and pardons. The challenge is that we confuse compassion with the absence of law.
Compassion is not absence of law. It is not selective enforcement based on emotions, and compassion does not eliminate boundaries. It is definitely not chaos disguised as kindness.
Jesus did not teach that civil authority is illegitimate. He stated to give to Caesar what was Caesar's. He submitted to civil authorities to his death. He did not resist when arrested and even condemned Peter when he cut off the priest's servant's ear.
I want to take some of these mentioned above and deal with them in more detail. Three areas we will look at government, borders, and foreigners (immigrants).
Government
God is a God of order. He affirms order in individuals to government. When it comes to government we see throughout scripture God using nations and governments to address order and chaos. Acts 17:26 along with Romans 13:1 - 6 speaks to the purpose of governments.
Romans13:1 - 6 says, 1 Every person should obey the government in power. No government would exist if it hadn’t been established by God. The governments which exist have been put in place by God. 2 Therefore, whoever resists the government opposes what God has established. Those who resist will bring punishment on themselves. 3 People who do what is right don’t have to be afraid of the government. But people who do what is wrong should be afraid of it. Would you like to live without being afraid of the government? Do what is right, and it will praise you. 4 The government is God’s servant working for your good. 6 That is also why you pay your taxes. People in the government are God’s servants while they do the work he has given them. 7 Pay everyone whatever you owe them. If you owe taxes, pay them. If you owe tolls, pay them. If you owe someone respect, respect that person. If you owe someone honor, honor that person.
We see in these verses the Government exists to maintain order, restrain wrongdoing and to exercise authority. These verse presupposes jurisdiction, law, and limits.
Are there times to disregard the governments' law? Yes when it makes us violate scripture such as during COVID when the government said we could not meet. They allowed protests and riots to happen. You could go to the store but you were not allowed to worship.
Understand your choice to violate law, even for scriptural reasons, does not mean your are exempt from consequences. You have no reason to be afraid if you do what is right.
Scripture is clear—uncomfortably clear for some—that government has a God-ordained role. Romans 13 affirms governing authority as instituted by God. This does not mean governments are always righteous—but it does mean enforcement of law is not inherently sinful.
Borders
Old Testament
Borders After Babel: Limiting Chaos, Not Humanity. Genesis chapters 10 and 11 deals with the Tower of Babel. After the Tower of Babel God disperses humanity to various places around the world. We see languages were divided creating language boundaries. People are separated creating physical boundaries. This is often understood as simple punishment, but biblically it also served as a restraining function. It limits centralized human arrogance, it prevents unchecked domination, and it allowed cultures and people to develop distinctly. Borders in this sense are a grace that limits chaos, not a sin that creates injustice.
Israel was and is a nation with defined borders. In Numbers 34 God defines Israel borders and commands them to defend the land he had given them. God regulated entry and who lived in those lands. You cannot have "foreigners (sojourners)" who were welcomed without borders. In other words if God had not defined borders then there was no need for him to use the term foreigners. We will talk more about foreigners later.
New Testament
Jesus lived within national and regional boundaries. This was evident in the descriptions of the places he went, intentionally crossing boundaries. When he was rejected in Nazareth he stated that a prophet is not accepted in his own town. Ultimately he did not denied the legitimacy of borders.
Jesus did not say borders were immoral or nations were ungodly. He did not even say the law of governments were oppressive by nature. What he did do is addressed how people should treat one another within those structures.
In Acts 17:26 it says, "From one man he has made every nation of humanity to live all over the earth. He has given them the season of the year and the boundaries within which to live."
This is possibly the clearest statement in Scripture stating, 1. Nations are not accidents, 2. Boundaries are not merely a human invention, and 3. God is sovereign over the nations. Paul in this verse is speaking to a pagan audience - not to Israel, not to the church - meaning this is a universal claim, not a covenant specific one like the nation of Israel. Boundaries are part of God's providential ordering of humanity, not a denial of human dignity.
As was stated above, in governments, the New Testament affirms order not the erasure of borders.
1 Every person should obey the government in power. No government would exist if it hadn’t been established by God. The governments which exist have been put in place by God. 2 Therefore, whoever resists the government opposes what God has established. Those who resist will bring punishment on themselves. 3 People who do what is right don’t have to be afraid of the government. But people who do what is wrong should be afraid of it. Would you like to live without being afraid of the government? Do what is right, and it will praise you. 4 The government is God’s servant working for your good.
As was stated above concerning these verses the Government exists to maintain order, restrain wrongdoing and to exercise authority. These verse and those following in Romans 13 presupposes jurisdiction, law, and limits. Without borders, jurisdiction collapses - and so does justice.
To put it simply Heaven has a border and a very strict immigration policy.
The Real Theological Error that is happening is Equating compassion with the absence of boundaries. This is not biblical. God is compassionate and ordered. He is Merciful and just. Personal grace and mercy does not cancel communal responsibility.
This matters because biblical hospitality assumes borders. You cannot meaningfully welcome a guest if there is no home.
Understand I am not arguing borders must be harsh, enforcement must be unexamined, or governments are always righteous. What I am arguing is order is biblical, authority is real, compassion is required, cruelty is condemned and Jesus is not opposed to structure.
Scripture presents borders not as instruments of exclusion, but as part of God’s ordering of human life in a fallen world. God establishes nations and their boundaries, and then calls His people to act justly and mercifully inside that order.
Foreigners / Immigrants
“I Was a Stranger and You Welcomed Me”
“Love Your Neighbor as Yourself”
“Jesus Was a Refugee”
- Matthew 2:13 - 15. Without quoting the whole passage the scriptures are describes what was taking place shortly after Jesus was born. There was a threat to his life so his parents fled to Egypt. When referring to this passage and Jesus' "immigrant" status what is commonly said is, "Jesus fled to Egypt, therefore all immigration enforcement contradicts His life."
What was really happening in this passage? Jesus' family fled to escape imminent death, not economic hardship. They fled to Egypt because it was outside of Herod's jurisdiction. There is no indication they violated Egyptian law. When the danger was over they returned home. This is what would be called divine preservation, not a political analogy.
The theological error in the way this passage is commonly used is an individual is using a narrative description as normative policy. The second error is using Jesus' childhood flight as a template for modern nation-states.
Redemption history ≠ immigration framework.
“The Bible Commands Us to Welcome the Foreigner”
- Leviticus 19:33–34 says, 33 “Never mistreat a foreigner living in your land. 34 Foreigners living among you will be like your own people. Love them as you love yourself, because you were foreigners living in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
This passage is commonly used to state that since Israel was commanded to welcome foreigners that means borders are unbiblical.
What this text actually assumes and we see reflected throughout scripture is the foreigner or as we say the immigrant lived under Israel's laws. They were expected to obey the covenant's civil order. Hospitality existed within boundaries, not outside of them. Israel had borders, laws, enforcement, and consequences for all.
The theological error that comes from trying to fit this into a narrative dealing with immigration is you ignore covenantal context and legal structure. Biblical hospitality was lawful compassion, not open-ended permissiveness.
Foreigners / immigrants were welcomed and they were required to live within Israel's legal structure.
“Jesus Opposed Power and Empire”
There is not one passage of scripture that is used by those trying to use scripture to support their point. This is more ideological than textual. What I have often heard is Jesus would not have supported ICE or Jesus stood against systems like ICE.
There is no scripture that supports this. There is actually more scripture that shows that Jesus paid taxes, acknowledge Roman authority, he did not call for abolition of government, and explicitly rejected the political revolution. Jesus confronted sin not bureaucracy.
The theological error is projecting modern political ideology onto Jesus and baptizing it in scripture.
ICE, at its core, is a mechanism of law enforcement (government), not a theological statement.
The So What
Religious leaders and others throughout history have twisted and manipulated scripture to control people. We are all tempted at times to use Scripture to confirm what we already feel. Herein lies the challenge we face in rightly dividing the scriptures.
Jesus is not a political slogan, and the Bible is not a collection of proof texts for modern debates. Scripture deserves careful reading. Faithfulness in a fractured world requires more than quoting verses that affirm our instincts. It requires humility, patience, and a willingness to let the whole counsel of Scripture speak—even when it complicates our conclusions.
Scripture does have much to say about our lives and our interactions with the world we live in. We must be careful in that application. Though there are many things in scripture that translates into guidance for government, such as, don't kill, there are many things that scripture is quiet on for government. How scripture impacts government is when those in government allows it to personally shape them.
When applying scripture we cannot confuse the roles of the individual, the Church, and the State. Each of these have place according to the Bible. Individuals are responsible for compassion. The Church is responsible for care, advocacy and witness. The State is responsible for law, order and justice. When these roles get confused we can end up with chaos. The way it becomes chaos is when the Bible becomes a weapon rather than a guide or when institutions are asked to do what only people can do.
It would be great if the world were ordered in such a way that compassion alone could govern us. Scripture doesn’t assume that. It assumes sin, conflict, and limits—and so it gives us justice as a restraint, not a cure. Compassion is still required, but it is most faithfully lived out by people, not enforced by institutions.
The question before Christians is not whether we care about the vulnerable—we must. The question is whether we will read Scripture carefully enough to distinguish personal obedience from public authority, and mercy from mandate.
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