*This is part three of a five-part series on the refugee crisis in the Middle East. If you haven’t yet, I urge you to read part one and part two before reading part three.
I find it interesting how many people thought I was talking about Trump and his ban on refugees when I asked the question, “Can you be a Christian and not accept refugees?”
Perhaps our faith and our patriotism are so intertwined that we think in terms of our government enabling or crippling us from living out what Christ calls us to. When our government prohibits us from doing something, we don’t do it. Or we complain about not being able to do it instead of just living out our faith regardless of the cost.
Why is this? Why can’t we separate ourselves from this earthly kingdom and live for the sole purpose of the Kingdom of God?
The United States government is secular. It is not Christian. It never has been and never will be. Geographical nations are kingdoms of this earth, completely separate entities than the Kingdom of Heaven.
I don’t have a problem with Trump’s ban. It is only a ninety-day ban, and he has a point: we must get a better system in place for “vetting” immigrants. So, from a political stand point, I don’t think it is wrong to pause immigration and reassess things. I especially don’t have a problem with it when these immigrants come from one of the seven countries our nation’s leaders have identified as producers of terrorists. As a secular leader, Trump is making a wise decision. He is doing his job. We as disciples of Christ should honor that without throwing a hissy-fit.
However, too many Christians use the secular government as a mask to hide behind. Like Adam and Eve putting on fig leaves to calm their embarrassment, we point to the government to soothe the shame we feel for not responding to the call of Christ.
When one person expresses disappointment over Trump’s ban, we piously remind them that he is a part of a secular government. He is doing what is best for the nation, we say. We might even chide them for their attitude towards authority. What’s actually happening, however, is we are deflecting responsibility for whether we are following Christ in taking care of the homeless, the orphaned, and the widowed. We overlook the invitation to be the hands and feet of Christ because we are busy pointing out to people that Trump is not leading the Church. And that’s true, he isn’t leading the Church. The government is secular. But that’s beside the point.
In the face of death, too many Christians are turning their eyes away because they are too afraid of what might happen to our economy.
We are willing to let people perish while we spend time perfecting how we bring people into the country.
Can we act this way, and call ourselves disciples of Christ?
On the other hand, few of those upset at Trump for banning refugees actually care about those needing food and shelter. They just don’t like Trump, and his ban provides another reason not to like him. They are using refugees as political fodder, ammunition for their protests against the President.
Or, and maybe more to the point, in America we like doing things in mass. If we can’t clothe the naked, or feed the hungry, or give shelter to the homeless in mass amounts, we don’t feel like we are doing any good. So, we get worked-up over the policies of our government prohibiting us from being “good Christians” and doing “good Christian deeds.”
Again, we are hiding behind the government, expecting them to do what Christ has called us to do.
God does not hold the government responsible for whether they are the hands and feet of Christ. We are the ones responsible. We who “come after Him,” who have been given freedom from the law, we are the ones who need to step up to the plate in crisis like this. We are responsible for how we use our freedom (Gal. 5:13). He has given us a measure of grace (or talent, if you will) and will return one day to see what we did with it.
Are we multiplying His grace by sharing it with others?
Or are we more concerned about family safety, financial security, and social freedom?
As I listen to the conversations about social injustices and see what people are saying about political policies and national security, it seems to me we Christians hide behind the government because we are too afraid of stepping out and making disciples. Unless our nation’s leaders have our back, we are not willing to follow the call of Christ.
That is a sweeping statement, I know. And ridiculously assuming. But is it nonetheless true?
One common objection I hear to bringing refugees into America is that we have a hard time taking care of the poor and orphaned among us as it is. Why should we bring in more?
And that is precisely my point.
You see, what lies at the bottom of this is not government or policy. What lies at the bottom is am I giving my life away for the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
The Gospel is not a set of beliefs or ideas. It is a way of life and a relationship with Someone—my Creator. The Gospel is about a restored relationship with the One who made me, and it takes care of my spiritual needs as well as my physical needs.
James addressed this when he asked what good it is if someone poorly clothed and lacking food comes to us and we say to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving the things needed for the body.
Today it might sound like, “I want to help. I care about the refugees, but I just don’t think it’s good idea to bring them here.”
The Gospel brings about spiritual transformation, and it also brings physical help to those in need. Are we doing that? Do we truly love God? Are we living for the sake of Christ? Or do our own lives matter too much to us?
Until we face crisis like the refugees, we are not confronted with how much we live for our own lives. Crisis, like this, call into action whether we have ever counted the cost and are willing to give ourselves away for the sake of Christ.
The people who are reaching out in their communities and giving shelter to the homeless and doing what Christ has called them to just extend what they are already doing when refugees come. They take them in and do what they can to care for them. But those throwing their arms up saying, “Wait a minute! We can’t take care of our own people, so why should we bring them in?” aren’t reaching out in their communities. They’re not helping those already in need around them. They aren’t being the hands and feet of Christ.
Again, the real question we must answer is am I giving my life for the Gospel?
Is my life completely surrendered to Jesus Christ so that I am helping anybody with needs? Am I being a disciple maker right where I am?
This isn’t about whether we should all get a boat and load up refugees. It is about whether we counted the cost and laid down our lives for the sake of Jesus Christ?
If that is where you are at, if you are ready to quit saving your life in this world and start losing it for Christ’s sake, I challenge you to act today. Following are three suggestions anyone can do right now to help refugees:
#1 – Appeal
The first thing we can do today is appeal to our government. It is secular, but God has ordained it for good. All institutions of authority are given by God to enforce the law, to enforce truth and be a terror to evil (Rom. 13:3).
As disciples of Christ we are to lay down our lives for the Gospel. There is so much silence in scripture. Not once does Christ call us to be concerned about who is President or whether we have freedom. Instead, He asks us to hate our fathers and mothers, our brother and sisters, even our wives and children. He calls us to count it all as rubbish for His sake.
However, as an American citizen, I have the freedom of being a part of the shaping process of our leaders and the policies they make. Not every country allows their citizens to appeal or express their opinions in matters such as whether to accept refugees. We should not be consumed by it, distracted from the eternal goal of the Gospel. And we certainly should not throw a fit when things don’t go our way, demonizing everyone and anyone standing in our path. But Scripture is full of examples of people who appealed to secular authorities and advanced the purposes of God in doing so.
Daniel and Esther offer a couple examples to get us started.
Paul serves as another.
It is possible to perfectly honor our authorities while disagreeing with them. We can appeal while going about our Father’s business. We don’t have to get worked-up, and neither do we need to just sit passively by.
I have appealed to the Trump administration to revoke the ban on refugees, will you?
Here is why you should: political powers can stop what is going on with ISIS right now.
They at least can help save people at the level needed.
When I consider various genocides throughout history, what stands out to me is they wouldn’t have had to happen. Especially, the massacres that took place—they would not have had to be. If there would have been national leaders bold enough and courageous enough to stand up sooner, thousands of lives could have been saved. Millions, if you would add them all together.
I think of the St. Louis I wrote about earlier. Twenty-eight percent of the people on that ship died because America turned them away. Nobody would have had to die had Roosevelt opened his doors.
Yes, it would have been inconvenient. It may have risked our economy. But the time for action was when they were in the waters of Miami. Not a few months later as they “waited in line.”
A few months later they were dead.
Political powers could stop this crisis. I don’t think bringing refugees into America is necessarily the best long-term solution, but there are people that are dying. It is what needs to happen, right now! So, let’s respectfully appeal to them because bringing them in is what Christ would do.
#2 – Do for one what you wish you could do for everyone
Andy Stanley coined this phrase in a sermon on serving others. I like it because it helps us know what to do right now.
We can get overwhelmed by all the needs around us. Add a distant refugee crisis into the mix and we’ll not do anything because there is no way anything we do could possibly change the grand scheme of things.
If I am trying to be the hero of the story, I cannot personally do enough to effect great change.
But what if I am not the hero? What if ministry isn’t about you and I, but about responding to the invitation of Jesus Christ in reconciling a broken world to Himself? And what if for every person we bring into a relationship with Christ, the world is slowly transformed?
If you want to surrender your life for the sake of Christ, just pick someone around you who needs help, who needs the Gospel, and begin doing for them what you wish you could for everyone.
And when it involves refugees from the Middle East you will be ready to do what needs done.
#3 – Pray
What is happening with ISIS is what happens when people devote themselves to the cause of Satan. This is primarily spiritual, and whether we feel it in America or not, we are facing the same spiritual enemy as Christians in Iraq. Let’s stand together with them in prayer.
Paul spoke of the church being a body, and when one part of the body hurts, it pains the other parts. Our body is hurting, are we grieving with the ones being persecuted? Are we lifting them up to the Father that they may find grace in the times of deepest trial?
Or are we too consumed with the Trump to even notice?
If you’re not sure how to pray, you can start here:
We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Therefore we ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.
This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering— since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12 ESV)
Now is the time for Christians to count the cost and follow Christ. Will you?
Question: Which action are going to take today? Tell me about it in the comments.
