Welcome the Stranger 欢迎客旅
Dexu Xia
You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household. Ephesians 2:19
In Everything Sad Is Untrue, Daniel Nayeri describes his harrowing flight with his mother and sister from persecution through a refugee camp to safety in the United States. An elderly couple agreed to sponsor them, though they didn’t know them. Years later, Daniel still can’t get over it. He writes, “Can you believe that? Totally blind, they did that. They’d never even met us. And if we turned out to be villains, they’d have to pay for it. That’s almost as brave, kind, and reckless as I can think of anybody being.”
Yet God desires us to have that level of concern for others. He told Israel to be kind to foreigners. “Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt” (Leviticus 19:34). He reminds gentile believers in Jesus—that’s many of us—that once we “were separate from Christ . . . and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world” (Ephesians 2:12). So He commands all of us former foreigners, both Jew and gentile, “to show hospitality to strangers” (Hebrews 13:2).
Now grown up with a family of his own, Daniel praises Jim and Jean Dawson, “who were so Christian that they let a family of refugees come live with them until they could find a home.”
God welcomes the stranger and urges us to welcome them too.
By: Mike Wittmer
Who is an outsider in your world? How might you reach out and welcome them into your space?
Dear Jesus, show me the stranger You want me to love.
你们不再作外人和客旅，是与圣徒同国，是上帝家里的人了。—以弗所书2章19节
丹尼尔·纳耶里（Daniel Nayeri）在《一切悲伤都不真实》（Everything Sad Is Untrue，暂译）一书中，描述他与母亲和姐姐一起逃离迫害，被送到难民营的悲惨旅程，最后终于安全到达了美国。一对年迈的夫妇同意成为他们的赞助人，尽管他们互不相识。多年后，丹尼尔对此仍无法忘怀。他写道﹕“你能相信吗？他们根本不认识我们，但却这么做了。他们甚至从未见过我们。若我们是恶棍，他们就要付出惨痛的代价。他们可说是我认识的最勇敢、最善良，也是最冒险的人。”
然而，上帝要我们对他人也有同样程度的关爱。祂告诉以色列人要善待外邦人。“要爱他如己，因为你们在埃及地也作过寄居的”（利未记19章34节）。使徒保罗也提醒外邦的基督徒，即包括我们这些人，过去我们“是在基督以外，⋯⋯在带有应许的约上是外人，在世上没有盼望，没有上帝”（以弗所书2章12节，新译本）。所以上帝吩咐我们这些过去在约上的“外人”，无论是犹太人或外邦人，都要“用爱心接待客旅”（希伯来书13章2节）。
丹尼尔现在已长大成人，也成了家。他称赞这对老夫妻说：“他们是真正活出基督教导的信徒，甚至愿意与我们这个难民家庭一起生活，直到我们有自己的住处为止。”
上帝欢迎外人，并敦促我们也如此待他们。作者： 韦陌格
在你生活周遭谁是外人？你要如何关心并欢迎他们进入你的生活？
亲爱的耶稣，求祢让我看见祢要我去关心的异乡人。