# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_2019_S245
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

II. A
THEOLOGICAL
—COMMISSION ON THEOLOGY AND CHURCH RELATIONS
Bible Study and DOCUMENTS­Discussion Guide

245

IMMIGRANTS

AMONG US

A LUTHERAN FRAMEWORK FOR ADDRESSING IMMIGRATION ISSUES

A Bible Study and Discussion Guide

CONTENTS

A LUTHERAN FRAMEWORK FOR ADDRESSING IMMIGRATION ISSUES

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1: Immigrant Neighbors Past and Present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Biblical teaching on loving our neighbor

2: God’s Law, Civil Law and the Neighbor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Obeying the Fourth and Fifth Commandments

3: Living in God’s Two Realms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Citizens of heaven and earth

4: Who is My Neighbor? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Our vocation, or calling, to serve our neighbor

Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

THE LUTHERAN CHURCH—MISSOURI SYNOD

1: Immigrant Neighbors
Past and Present
“For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: ‘You shall love
your neighbor as yourself ’”(Gal. 5:14).

Introduction
“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed me” (Matt. 25:35).

T

his discussion guide is based on

Immigrants Among Us: A Lutheran Framework
for Addressing Immigration Issues, a 2012
report by the Commission on Theology and Church
Relations (CTCR) of The Lutheran Church—Missouri
Synod (LCMS). Concerning that CTCR report, Mark
Amstutz, author of Just Immigration: American Policy
in Christian Perspective, comments, “Owing to the care
and depth with which this study was undertaken, it
stands as a model of how to assess a complex publicpolicy concern from a biblical perspective. Indeed,
of all the church pronouncements and studies on US
immigration that have been published in the past two
decades, the Missouri Synod’s report represents the most
sophisticated and nuanced integration of biblical analysis
with the challenge posed by contemporary immigration
concerns, including the problem of unlawful migration.”1

The number of immigrants among us has increased,
and the church is aware of the need to witness among
people of all nations through its ministries of mission
and mercy. The church must also consider its response
to the needs, struggles, treatment, well-being and hopes
of immigrants. The presence of immigrants who live
in the United States illegally or without proper legal
documentation has raised questions for LCMS workers
and congregations concerning the church’s response to
immigration issues in our day. The CTCR report Immigrants Among Us and this guide, prepared as a shortened
version of this report to facilitate study and discussion,
are offered to help congregations and individuals address
these important issues.

The Immigrants Among Us report does not present an
official position of the LCMS regarding current debates
on immigration. There are social, political and legal
issues that are not decisively addressed by the Word of
God and about which Christians may disagree. Immigrants Among Us is intended as a helpful resource for
considering these challenging issues. The report helps us
to see why thoughtful Christians may come to different
conclusions about immigration and reminds us that both
the immigrant and our fellow citizen are neighbors we
are called to love.

1
Mark R. Amstutz, Just Immigration: American Policy in Christian
Perspective (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2017), 208.

IMMIGRANTS AMONG US

|

INTRODUCTION

2

Holy Scripture does not address the specific question
of the church’s attitude toward illegal or undocumented
immigrants, but it does speak to the basic attitude of
God’s people toward immigrants (aliens, sojourners,
strangers) who live among them. Recognizing this helps
us to avoid giving absolute biblical answers to an issue
Scripture does not directly address. Biblical values can
and should inform our attitudes toward and actions
among immigrants, even as we wrestle with challenging
social and political questions.
Immigrants are included under God’s command to
love our neighbor as ourselves. “Neighbor” (the Hebrew
word rea) in God’s command applies first to the people
of Israel, but also includes those outside of the covenant
community, including the ger or stranger: “When a
stranger sojourns with you in the land, you shall not do
him wrong. You shall treat the stranger who sojourns
with you as the native among you, and you shall love him
as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I
am the Lord your God” (Lev. 19:33–34; see also Lev. 19:18).
Read Matt. 22:34–40. What does it mean to love your
neighbor “as yourself ”?
The Hebrew word ger can be translated in several ways — alien, foreigner, immigrant, sojourner or
stranger — but we must not read into the Old Testament
our contemporary understandings of these terms in
ways that are not faithful to the original context and
usage of the Hebrew word. Immigrants in Old Testament times did not live in our modern era of sovereign
nation-states where immigration of foreign nationals is
regulated according to state law. The commands to love
and welcome the stranger in our midst are God’s law,
but God’s Word also commands us to “be subject to the
governing authorities” (Rom. 13:1). Therefore, we cannot
ignore the demands that civil laws place on citizens
and immigrants in today’s national and international
contexts. We affirm the right of the state to establish laws
and policies concerning immigration, including laws
that limit immigration for the protection and welfare of
its citizens. Matters such as national security and human
trafficking are legitimate and necessary areas of concern
for government leaders, who must seek to restrain evil
and promote good (Rom.13:3–4).
IMMIGRANTS AMONG US

|

In Old Testament times the law of God governed
both the spiritual and temporal affairs of Israel. Aliens or
sojourners did not automatically receive all the benefits
of God’s people. Leviticus 19:33–34 and similar texts
show God’s command to Israel to love and care for the
strangers in their midst, but other texts indicate that not
all foreigners had the same status as Israelites. This may
have been due in part to the link between kinship and
the inheritance and ownership of land that characterized
Israelite and other Near Eastern societies, a network no
longer available to those who were immigrants.
Read Deut. 14:28–29 and Deut. 26:12–13. Which
groups were without land and inheritance? How were
other Israelites to treat them?
Sometimes, however, sojourners and others did
not receive temporal and spiritual benefits because of
the hardness of the Israelites’ hearts toward vulnerable
neighbors even among their own people — a loveless
attitude condemned in Scripture.
Read Deut. 24:14–18; 27:19; Ezek. 22:7 and Zech.
7:8–14. What does God command concerning justice
for sojourners, widows and others who dwell among the
people of Israel?
In the New Testament era, “Israel” refers to the
Church, not to an ancient or modern nation called
Israel (see Rom. 9:6–8). We must be careful not to use the
political laws of ancient Israel as a biblical blueprint for
defending or creating modern nation-state policies or
laws. Christian immigrants belong to the spiritual Israel,
that is to the Church, the Body of Christ. They are our
brothers and sisters in Christ and heirs of all the spiritual rights and benefits of children of God. At the same
time, in terms of today’s earthly nation-states, these same
immigrants may reside in a nation legally or illegally.
As citizens of the spiritual Israel (the church), Christian
immigrants participate in all the spiritual blessings of
God’s people through faith in Christ. At the same time,
under the earthly state and its laws, these same brothers
and sisters do not in every case share with Christian
citizens of the state the same earthly rights and privileges
under the civil law.
We should not use the Old Testament to argue for
love of the immigrant in ways that diminish the importance of the rule of law in nation-states today. We must
also be cautious about using distinctions between Israel
and aliens made in the Old Testament to advocate for
specific forms of immigration law today, or to argue that
such ancient biblical distinctions directly apply to the

1: Immigrant Neighbors Past and Present

3

2019 Convention Workbook