The scream came from a mob-like setting: “I hate foreigners”, said the woman. “We are coming for you”, said another man. The scene was from young men and women of South Africa, protesting. In recent years, xenophobia has been a major problem in that part of Africa. They felt foreigners are the reason they don’t have jobs or make appreciable progress in life. This generation of South Africans are probably ignorant of the fact that the foreigners they detest so strongly were the ones who risked their lives and expended their resources to free their country from the grip of Apartheid.
“Hating those who are not from our socio-cultural clime or nation is like a foreigner’s inhumanity to another foreigner. We must see everyone with the eye of love.”
God’s word reveals that He has soft spot for some categories of people. These are the widows, orphans, and foreigners. Specifically, He warned the Israelites not to mess with foreigners among them. “The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:34 NKJV). God appealed to their sense of history. They had a feel of what it was like to be foreigners, and to that extent they should not maltreat them. In a general sense, we are all foreigners here on earth. Peter described us as “temporary residents and foreigners”. Hating those who are not from our socio-cultural clime or nation is like a foreigner’s inhumanity to another foreigner. We must see everyone with the eye of love.
