Ten Commandments for Christians living in foreign lands

by Benny Tutor Jr.

{Materials for this column are taken from messages given by the writer to the Filipino congregation at the Ibaraki Christian Center (ICC) in Tsukuba, Ibaraki Pref.}

1: Let us prosper in whatever we do.

God was not taking His sabbatical when we came to Japan. There are no random events in our lives. Just as God drew Abraham, Jacob, Peter and Paul out of their comfort zones into new territories, He also leads us in expansive journeys away from home for certain purposes.

In the Bible, the term “foreigner” or “alien” has at least three levels of meanings. First, “foreigner” refers to people who do not belong to the nation of Israel, God’s chosen people. The vast world outside that always threatened Israel constituted the “foreign nations.”

Secondly, the term “foreigner” is also used in the literal sense of someone living in a foreign land. Thus, the Israelites were “foreigners” in Egypt, just as Filipinos are in Japan. The Scriptures contain “social welfare” laws for foreigners, along with orphans and widows. In Leviticus and Deuteronomy, God enjoins the Israelites to leave some grains or grapes for the poor and aliens at harvest time, prohibits the maltreatment of aliens and puts legislative weight to these edicts by punctuating them with the stern reminder, “I am the LORD your God.”

Lastly, “foreigner” is also used in the sense of being “alienated from God”, which is the condition of all men. Everyone must acknowledge this alianation and the need for restoration, and this can be done by accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

As Filipinos and as Christians in Japan, we are “foreigners” in all three senses of the word. Through this series, we will study what the Bible teaches us about living as foreigners, sometimes in clear-cut commands, at other times through the examples of Godly characters who has lived as foreigners like Joseph, Naomi, Paul and many others.

Joseph easily stands out as one of the best liked characters in the Old Testament. The 11th son of the patriarch Jacob by his wife Rachel, Joseph was envied by his older brothers because of his extraordinary gift of interpreting dreams.

One day, they connived to kill Joseph but at the final moment decided to sell him as a slave to foreign merchants. He ended up in Egypt as the slave of a government official. The Bible tells us that despite such traumatic experiences, or perhaps because of them, Joseph made it big in the land of his enslavement.

In Genesis 39: 2-5, we read: “The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph.”

Joseph’s career trajectory in Egypt was amazing: from a market product (a slave), he became an attendant, and finally the steward of the household. Even in prison—because of the evil schemes of the woman he spurned—he soon recovered from the pain of being wrongly accused to be of help to fellow prisoners, and finally to be assigned as overseer of his fellow prisoners. When he finally got out of prison, there was no stopping him from being the pharaoh’s adviser to becoming governor of the country that used to enslave him.

Sadly, Joseph’s career path is not what most Filipinos trudge in Japan. Many leave home as teachers to become maids, as engineers to work as laborers in construction sites, as artists to serve liquor and entertain Japanese men. Although there are a few whose lives turned around from dire poverty to conspicuous luxury, many toil unsuccessfully, weighed down by excessive concern for family at home, by bitterness of the work they only grudgingly do, by the long shadow of past failures and traumas.

Christians are exhorted to distinguish themselves not by avoiding the KKK (kitanai,kitsui, kiken) or DDD (dirty, difficult, dangerous) jobs, which Joseph never did, but by excelling in whatever they do. The sign of Christian prosperity is not necessarily acquisition of great wealth, but excellence in what we do in such a way as to benefit not only ourselves but also those we serve. The paramount key to Joseph’s success was being with the Lord. Because the “Lord was with him,” he mastered the small tasks given him and acquired new skills. He moved on from animal husbandry, as a shepherd, to learn management of the household, then of the prison, and finally of the nation of Egypt. He had an eye for the special needs of his masters, that is why he easily stood out among run-of-the-mill workers. Lastly, Joseph’s performance recommended him—he got promoted progressively without asking for it.

Likewise, Filipino Christians in Japan are encouraged to prosper in what they are doing. In the next issue, read 2: Let us serve our masters as we serve God.

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