A mother clutches her children as they cross into unfamiliar territory, fleeing violence. An elderly man sits in a refugee camp, wondering if he’ll ever return home. A family arrives with nothing but hope, seeking safety and a chance to rebuild their lives.
Throughout history, people have been displaced by war, persecution, poverty, and disaster. Behind every statistic is a human story of courage, loss, and the search for belonging.
If you’re seeking biblical guidance on how to respond to immigrants and refugees, Scripture offers clear direction rooted in God’s character and His heart for all people.
Verses About Loving and Welcoming Foreigners
Leviticus 19:34 – “The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”
Deuteronomy 10:19 – “And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.”
Hebrews 13:2 – “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.”
Matthew 25:35 – “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in.”
Romans 12:13 – “Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”
1 Peter 4:9 – “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling.”
3 John 1:5-6 – “Dear friend, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters, even though they are strangers to you. They have told the church about your love.”
Genesis 18:2-5 – “Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby. When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground. He said, ‘If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by. Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree. Let me get you something to eat.'”
Job 31:32 – “But no stranger had to spend the night in the street, for my door was always open to the traveler.”
Luke 14:12-14 – “Then Jesus said to his host, ‘When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or sisters, your relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed.'”
Verses About Protecting and Not Oppressing Foreigners
Exodus 22:21 – “Do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.”
Exodus 23:9 – “Do not oppress a foreigner; you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt.”
Leviticus 19:33 – “When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them.”
Deuteronomy 24:17-18 – “Do not deprive the foreigner or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you from there. That is why I command you to do this.”
Deuteronomy 27:19 – “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.”
Jeremiah 22:3 – “This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor, the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.”
Zechariah 7:9-10 – “This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another. Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. Do not plot evil against each other.'”
Malachi 3:5 – “So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me, says the Lord Almighty.”
Ezekiel 22:7 – “In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the fatherless and the widow.”
Psalm 146:9 – “The Lord watches over the foreigner and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.”
Verses About Providing for Foreigners
Leviticus 23:22 – “When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.”
Leviticus 25:35 – “If any of your fellow Israelites become poor and are unable to support themselves among you, help them as you would a foreigner and stranger, so they can continue to live among you.”
Deuteronomy 24:19-21 – “When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.”
Deuteronomy 26:12-13 – “When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.”
Ruth 2:10-12 – “At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, ‘Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?’ Boaz replied, ‘I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband.'”
Verses About Equal Justice for Foreigners
Numbers 15:15-16 – “The community is to have the same rules for you and for the foreigner residing among you; this is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come. You and the foreigner shall be the same before the Lord: The same laws and regulations will apply both to you and to the foreigner residing among you.”
Deuteronomy 1:16 – “And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the disputes between your people and judge fairly, whether the case is between two Israelites or between an Israelite and a foreigner residing among you.'”
Ezekiel 47:22 – “You are to allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners residing among you and who have children. You are to consider them as native-born Israelites; along with you they are to be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.”
Leviticus 24:22 – “You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the Lord your God.”
1 Kings 8:41-43 – “As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name—for they will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm—when they come and pray toward this temple, then hear from heaven, your dwelling place. Do whatever the foreigner asks of you.”
Verses About Biblical Examples of Refugees and Migrants
Genesis 12:10 – “Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.”
Genesis 46:3-4 – “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.”
Matthew 2:13-14 – “When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. ‘Get up,’ he said, ‘take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.’ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt.”
Ruth 1:16 – “But Ruth replied, ‘Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.'”
Acts 7:6 – “God spoke to him in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated.'”
Hebrews 11:13 – “All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.”
Verses About God’s Heart for the Displaced
Psalm 68:5-6 – “A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families, he leads out the prisoners with singing.”
Psalm 9:9 – “The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.”
Isaiah 16:3-4 – “Make up your mind,” Moab says. “Render a decision. Make your shadow like night—at high noon. Hide the fugitives, do not betray the refugees. Let the Moabite fugitives stay with you; be their shelter from the destroyer.”
Isaiah 58:6-7 – “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter?”
Deuteronomy 10:17-18 – “For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing.”
Proverbs 31:8-9 – “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.”
Verses About Unity in Christ Beyond Nationality
Galatians 3:28 – “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Ephesians 2:19 – “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.”
Colossians 3:11 – “Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.”
Acts 10:34-35 – “Then Peter began to speak: ‘I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.'”
Acts 17:26 – “From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.”
Revelation 7:9 – “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”
Romans 10:12 – “For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him.”
James 2:1-4 – “My brothers and sisters, believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ must not show favoritism. Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in filthy old clothes also comes in. If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, ‘Here’s a good seat for you,’ but say to the poor man, ‘You stand there’ or ‘Sit on the floor by my feet,’ have you not discriminated among yourselves?”
Verses About Compassion and Mercy
Luke 10:33-37 – “But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him… Go and do likewise.”
Micah 6:8 – “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”
Zechariah 7:9 – “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.'”
Matthew 5:7 – “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”
Proverbs 14:31 – “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
1 John 3:17 – “If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?”
James 2:13 – “Because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.”
Biblical Principles for Supporting Immigrants and Refugees
Scripture’s message on immigration and refugees is remarkably consistent. God repeatedly commands His people to remember their own experience as foreigners and to extend the same compassion they received. The Bible presents hospitality not as optional charity but as a fundamental expression of faith.
Throughout the Old Testament, God established laws protecting foreigners’ rights to food, justice, and dignity. These weren’t suggestions but commands, with curses pronounced on those who withheld justice from immigrants. The New Testament expands this vision, showing that in Christ, all earthly divisions dissolve, and believers become part of a global family.
Jesus himself was a refugee, fleeing to Egypt as a child. Many biblical heroes—Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Daniel—experienced displacement. Their stories remind us that refugees aren’t abstractions but real people with gifts, faith, and potential contributions to their new communities.
Practical Ways to Support Immigrants and Refugees
Supporting immigrants and refugees begins with seeing them as fellow image-bearers of God. Learn their stories, understand their struggles, and recognize their humanity beyond political debates. Volunteer with local organizations that provide legal aid, language classes, or job training. Offer friendship and help with practical needs like transportation, housing navigation, or childcare.
Advocate for just policies that balance compassion with wisdom. Support churches and ministries serving immigrant communities. Use your professional skills—whether legal, medical, educational, or technical—to assist those in need. Most importantly, treat immigrants and refugees in your community with dignity, respect, and kindness in everyday interactions.
A Prayer for Immigrants and Refugees
Heavenly Father, You are a God who sees every person, regardless of their nationality or immigration status. I pray for immigrants and refugees worldwide who have left everything familiar in search of safety and opportunity. Comfort those separated from loved ones, provide for those facing hardship, and protect those fleeing violence.
Give me eyes to see immigrants and refugees as You see them—as fellow image-bearers deserving dignity and compassion. Help me remember that we are all foreigners in this world, citizens of Your kingdom first.
Show me practical ways to support immigrants and refugees in my community through volunteering, friendship, advocacy, or simple kindness. Help me oppose attitudes and actions that dehumanize vulnerable people while supporting approaches that honor both justice and mercy.
Grant wisdom to leaders making immigration decisions. Help them create systems that protect the vulnerable while maintaining order. Transform hearts that harbor prejudice or fear toward immigrants. Make our communities places of welcome and integration.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Final Thoughts
Scripture’s call to support immigrants and refugees is clear and consistent throughout both testaments. God’s heart for the displaced, oppressed, and vulnerable is evident in His commands, His character, and His own actions. As followers of Christ, we’re called to reflect His compassion in how we treat foreigners among us.
Supporting immigrants and refugees isn’t about political affiliation but about biblical faithfulness. It’s about recognizing the image of God in every person and extending the same mercy we’ve received. Whether through personal relationships, volunteer service, advocacy, or simple acts of kindness, we can embody God’s love for all people.
Robert Hugh Benson shares inspiring Bible verses and faith-filled reflections on Prayer Forest to guide readers toward peace, hope, and prayer.