You shall love strangers is used as a proof text to indicate that we should accept refugees and love them and accede to their wishes. There is but one problem: the verse is in context. And the context is that you shall love the LORD above all: that our God rescued us and so we should do his work.

Hawaii has become the first state to file a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, saying the order will harm its Muslim population, tourism and foreign students.

Attorneys for the state filed the lawsuit against the U.S. government in federal court in Honolulu. The state had previously sued over Trump’s initial travel ban, but that lawsuit was put on hold while other cases played out across the country.

The revised executive order, which goes into effect March 16, bars new visas for people from six predominantly Muslim countries and temporarily shuts down the U.S. refugee program. It doesn’t apply to travelers who already have visas.

“Hawaii is special in that it has always been non-discriminatory in both its history and constitution,” Attorney General Douglas Chin said. “Twenty percent of the people are foreign-born, 100,000 are non-citizens and 20 percent of the labor force is foreign-born.”

That our God did not choose the all nations for this covenant, but the Jews.

That our God chose us by the work of his son.

And if the Jews were commanded to keep the law for their own good we should pay heed to it, not because it will save us, but because it corrects us. Keeping the law is a good thing, but listening to the wormtounge who will twist the words so we do not care for our families, our neigbourhoods and our nations so we can show some kind of virtue is unwise.

Deuteronomy 10:12-22

¹²So now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you? Only to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and to keep the commandments of the LORD your God and his decrees that I am commanding you today, for your own well-being. ¹⁴Although heaven and the heaven of heavens belong to the LORD your God, the earth with all that is in it, ¹⁵yet the LORD set his heart in love on your ancestors alone and chose you, their descendants after them, out of all the peoples, as it is today. ¹⁶Circumcise, then, the foreskin of your heart, and do not be stubborn any longer. ¹⁷For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe, ¹⁸who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them with food and clothing. ¹⁹You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. ²⁰You shall fear the LORD your God; him alone you shall worship; to him you shall hold fast, and by his name you shall swear. ²¹He is your praise; he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things that your own eyes have seen. ²²Your ancestors went down to Egypt seventy persons; and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in heaven.

 Hebrews 4:11-16

¹¹Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.

¹²Indeed, the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

¹⁴Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. ¹⁶Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

How then, do we harden our hearts? We need to consider how we justify evil. Do we rationalise it, saying that what we are doing is not that bad: it is part of the human condition, or that the extra cinnabon won’t appear on the scales tomorrow?
Do we project it, saying that it is not us, but society: that the capitalists oppress the special unicorn that we wishe we were?
Or do we confess our sins and seek repentance?

For we do not need to meet the cross and kneel in sorrow once. We need to do it daily: more than daily. The tentacles of evil have scarred us, and even the good that we do is flawed.

But to this we aim, that our good may glorify God. Though it is imperfect, that he is pleased.

For those whom we love we try to please, doing that which we do not like, for it makes them happy.