The friend who wrote me an email last week was torn. She wanted me to join her campaign to urge the government to accept more refugees – but only if they were Christian refugees.

Perhaps you feel torn too - between mercy and defensiveness, between care for others and care of your own?

Perhaps you’ve experienced that tension between fear and compassion?

On the one hand, for more than a year we’ve been seeing images of ISIS and the brutal beheadings they have carried out in the name of their brand of “Islam”. These images moved us to anger and disgust. We’re grateful there is a vast distance between us and these brutal terrorists.

On the other hand, these past weeks we have seen heart-breaking images of Muslim children who have drowned while trying to escape their war-torn nations. These images moved the world towards compassion and tenderness. We considered whether our own families and our governments could be doing more.

Doubts linger though.

What will happen to this nation, you wonder, if too many Muslims come and settle here? As Christians, are we not called to defend a Christian way of life, maintain a Christian majority in society, and promote a Judeo-Christian value system?

In this post, I will suggest that as followers of Jesus, the most Christ-like thing we could do in the face of this humanitarian crisis, is to welcome Muslim refugees into our communities with open arms.

In fact, there have been very few global tests of our faith as stark as this. But I’m convinced that how we answer this question reveals a lot about how (and whether) we truly follow Jesus.

Here are 10 reasons why I believe it is imperative that Christians welcome Muslim refugees:

1. We don’t have a monopoly on Jesus

When Jesus commanded his followers to “Go into all the world and make disciples” he promised He would be with those followers, saying, "And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (Matthew 28:19-20)

So, Jesus is with you and I – His followers - right? Jesus is on our side! That’s a true comfort and a source of strength.

But hold on. Jesus also promised that whenever you welcome the foreigner, the naked and the hungry, you are welcoming Him (Matthew 25:35).

So, Jesus is ALSO with them - the foreigner, the naked and the hungry.

We don’t have a monopoly on Jesus’ presence. He is with everyone, especially the poorest and most vulnerable.

This may be a hard word for us to swallow. It may be jarring to consider that Jesus could be so concerned about our treatment of someone of another religion and ethnicity, that He would declare that our welcome of them is equivalent to our welcoming of God.

But isn’t that what He is saying when He says “Welcome the foreigner and you welcome me”?

He doesn’t say, welcome the foreigner as long as that foreigner is Jewish or converts to Judaism (or Christianity) – because that wouldn’t make any sense. Foreigners, by definition, were almost always of another religion and culture. Yet Jesus identified with them so strongly that He made their welcome a central measure of our faith.

2. Jesus calls us to leave behind our Tribalism

Part of what Jesus is digging at here, is our human tendency towards tribalism. That “Us and Them” mentality that rears its ugly head whenever we feel threatened. Politicians are MASTERS of pressing those tribal buttons. (Donald Trump presses the tribal button gleefully every time he opens his mouth.)

So in Luke 4, when Jesus announces his mission statement - that God would be pouring out His blessing on the poor, the people of Israel are elated. “Good news for the poor? Yes! We’re poor. God is gonna bless us! Yay!”

Tribalism. We’re the chosen ones. We. Are. The. People. Of. God. Got it?

The elation and adulation continues until Jesus points out that God’s blessing must also be poured out on foreigners of other religions. He outlines how there were many widows in Israel, but God felt it necessary to bless a widow in Sidon (located in modern day Lebanon). Sidon was a well-known place of Baal-worship. That widow was certainly not an insider (Luke 4:26).

And then get this - Jesus says, “There were many lepers in Israel…and none of them was healed, except Naaman the Syrian.” (Luke 4:27)

If you needed a word from Jesus about how God wants to bless not only YOUR tribe, but also a foreigner with a foreign religion FROM SYRIA of all places, there it is. Right there in black and white (or red letters if that’s how you roll).