A devotion on Jesus the Refugee and the American border crisis.
A door latch clicks too softly to be brave.
Joseph’s fingers fumble at the wood, searching for the groove in the dark. Somewhere outside, an animal shifts its weight and exhales a wet, tired breath. Inside, the air holds the smell of oil and straw and yesterday’s bread. Mary pulls the blanket higher on the child and follows Joseph into the dark.
“Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt…” (Matthew 2:13).
Flee. It is the word you obey when staying means a grave.
Joseph lifts the child. The weight is small, warm, alive. A heartbeat in his arms. The road waits beyond the threshold, black and unpromising. They step into it anyway. Behind them, a king’s jealousy is sharpening into blood. Matthew tells the end of Herod’s rage with this sentence: “Then Herod… sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem” (Matthew 2:16).
Jesus lived because His family crossed a border to escape violence. He began His earthly story as a hunted child, carried through the night. This scene drags our opinions into the dirt and asks what they are made of. It drags our words about immigrants and refugees out of the realm of slogans and returns them to flesh and fear and responsibility.
Peter speaks and he forces our talk about outsiders to pass through Jesus first.
“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious” (1 Peter 2:4).
Peter begins with Christ. Jesus is a Stone…Christ is bedrock under the whole world, and every life either rests on Him or trips over Him.
This matters for Christians living in America right now, with the air thick from arguments about illegal crossings, asylum claims, overwhelmed systems, border enforcement, and court fights. America feels pulled tight: fear, anger, pity, contempt, all of it crowding the same room. Peter’s first move steadies the heart before it steadies the tongue. Come to Him. Stand on Him. Let Him set the angle of your life.
A living stone gives life to those who come near. Peter says it plainly: “You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house” (1 Peter 2:5). Each believer becomes a living stone because life has been shared from Christ to us.
Peter pushes the image further. “A holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). The Christian has access and can draw near.
That priesthood shapes how we speak and act in the public square. Priesthood means God’s character shows up at the kitchen table and in the voting booth, and cruelty still counts as sin.
Peter quotes the Old Testament and drives the cornerstone down into place: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious” (1 Peter 2:6). Faith is not a foggy feeling. Faith is building your whole hope on that Stone.
Then Peter draws a line through the crowd, “To you who believe, he is precious” (1 Peter 2:7).
The test is treasure. The believer finds Christ precious and if Christ is precious, His voice matters more than the roar of the crowd. His commands shape the posture. His tone governs the speech.
Now Peter turns from Christ to the church’s identity in the world, and the language is bright as a struck match.
“You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).
Christians live inside earthly nations, yet they belong to a higher one. That identity guards us from two temptations that are stalking the American church right now.
One temptation treats law as irrelevant when compassion is stirred. The other treats compassion as weakness when law must be enforced. Peter gives a third way, older than our news cycle and tougher than our tribal instincts. God makes a people who can honor authority and refuse contempt at the same time.
This is where we need careful categories, spoken with humility.
In Scripture, a “sojourner” is a resident foreigner, someone living among a people not originally his own. Refugees are displaced by threat, war, or famine. Immigrants move for many reasons.
In our present situation, people crossing the border illegally are not all the same. Motives and situations vary: persecution, poverty, fraud, trafficking, cartel control, false claims, families with children, and, at times, individuals willing to commit harm. A wise Christian refuses the lazy story that paints everyone with one brush.
Matthew 2 shows a family escaping a violent ruler. That fits the plain sense of refuge. Jesus as a child was carried away from danger. That truth should restrain our speech and sharpen our compassion. A hunted child does not abolish law, and law does not license scorn.
Scripture speaks to both realities.
Peter himself will soon say, “Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution… to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good” (1 Peter 2:13–14). Government has a real task of justice where order is not a dirty word.
So I will say this plainly as a Christian and as an American: I support our laws and I support law enforcement doing their work, including at the border, provided that work is carried out with integrity, restraint, and a respect for human life. Scripture never blesses brutality and never celebrates humiliation. God never gives Christians permission to treat image-bearers like pests.
At the same time, Scripture commands a moral posture toward the foreigner living among us. “You shall love him as yourself” (Leviticus 19:34). That command does not dissolve borders, erase courts, or cancel consequence. It reaches straight into the Christian heart and forbids contempt. It insists on neighbor love even when the situation is complicated.
It also presses us to oppose exploitation. A shadow population becomes easy prey for crooked employers, predators, and traffickers. Christian ethics should crave honest structures that reduce abuse. That is why many believers, weighing wisdom, argue for a clear and workable path toward legal status and citizenship for those who meet defined requirements.
Scripture does not hand us a modern legislative blueprint, but it does give us principles: justice without partiality, honesty, protection of the vulnerable, punishment for wrongdoing. We can advocate for policy solutions that fit those principles without pretending the Bible has already endorsed a specific bill.
Peter’s purpose is not to make us policy experts. He is making us a certain kind of people.
“For this purpose… that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Peter 2:9). Light changes what we love and how we talk. It should also change the way we look at the stranger, the officer, the judge, the neighbor, the frightened child, the hardened criminal.
Peter anchors it in mercy: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people” (1 Peter 2:10). Every Christian was brought in being shown mercy. That memory should lower the fists.
Then Peter closes his paragraph with a word that fits refugees, immigrants, and Christians all at once.
“Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles…” (1 Peter 2:11).
Sojourners live light. Exiles keep their bags ready. Christians do not clutch this world like a man clutches a sinking boat. We pass through as people whose home is ahead.
That identity creates a kind of holiness that is not fragile. “Abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul” (1 Peter 2:11). Fleshly passions are not limited to lust and greed. They include the hunger to mock and the craving to win at any cost. They include the desire to wound people with words and call it courage.
Peter gives a better path: “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable” (1 Peter 2:12). Honor has a voice, a posture, a spine. Speak truth without slander. Refuse language that turns humans into pests. Pray for officers under strain and families under threat. Seek justice with due process. Practice hospitality with wisdom. Support lawful order with clean hands.
Peter even gives hope for the people who misunderstand us: “They may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation” (1 Peter 2:12). The fact is that some who sneer today may worship tomorrow. Some who crossed unlawfully may later walk lawfully, grateful and steady, raising their children in peace, loving Christ, blessing their neighbors.
The night road to Egypt still speaks.
A refugee child grew into the Cornerstone of God’s house. Come to Him. Build on Him. Let your politics sit under His lordship and let your compassion take His shape. Staying warm without going soft.
The Stone is living. The house is living. The priests are living. A hostile world still watches. Give them something true to watch, conduct that smells like Christ, words that carry weight, and courage that does not sneer.
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This is such a hard topic and certainly one where we see the world, using scripture they would normally reject, to bolster their argument. It is certainly a topic that is very complex but also simple. Like Jesus’ teachings are very complex and very simple.
I always think of Joseph and the Pharoah when this topic comes up. Even Joesph, 2nd in command to the Pharoah himself, had to ask permission to invite his family to come into Egypt and reside there.
But you are right about a balanced walk on this subject; keeping our humanity while walking humbly and with justice. It is probably the worst thing about our internet age; opinions galore but lacking wisdom to interpret.
As an American, I have a strong sense of loyalty to my neighbors, citizens. And I do. Somewhere I still think America going in to sacrifice to free Europe and northern Africa from the wickedness of Hitler and his henchmen, was an honorable thing to do, even if we did things wrong. The blood of those murdered cried out to a just and perfect God.
I am bringing up WW2 because some try to say what is happening now with ICE and illegal removal is similar to the Nazis trying to rid the countries of those they demonized. But I think this is very different. The Jews were CITIZENS of their countries, not intruders or invaders.
All of this, then and now, demonstrate that we are in a spiritual war for real lives. The demonic want to retain power and control and who gets hurt in the process is actually a bonus to the demonic, not a tragedy.
There are so many sides to this. What about the people who live along the southern (and northern) borders whose communities were overrun by illegals for whatever reason. There are so many, many, many sides to this issue and Satan is thrilled when he can deceive and manipulate anyone to kill, steal and destroy.
Forgive this, all over the map, comment. I just agree that in the end, what does Jesus say about all of this. He is our perfect example. And I don’t think it is possible to be balanced unless we are spending lots of time talking to Him about all of this.
Sometimes, like in the wilderness, there is a time to strike the rock and a time to speak to the rock. But living in His presence is the only way to discern which is which.
I think it is important to separate out people from groups and from ideology. We try to reach the broken and the lost while we speak out against the wicked deeds caused by the people of the ideologies.
As a follower of Christ, I wrestle with this topic. My heart says we must have compassion while also saying without laws enforced we will have no country left in which anyone can run for safety.
It is a mess. I am grateful for your words. I confess, when I started to read this, I immediately got defensive about which camp you would land. But I am so grateful you landed on Jesus’ ground. He is the ONLY solid rock on which to find safety.
God help us as a nation to fall to our knees. We are doomed if the real Jesus and the real truth is not our true foundation.