It already seems like eons ago that rioting on the streets of Los Angeles covered the headlines, but that was only early June. The protests were over the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), performing raids, arrests, and seeking to enforce the most basic immigration policy.
While differing perspectives on the matter exist, Christians must always concern themselves with those claiming to be representative of Christ and his church, or the Bible in general. Images are a powerful tool, especially amid protest, and the recent LA riots were no exception.
An image making its rounds on social media concerning the riots was a projected image onto a building somewhere in the city of LA: two men, one arresting the other. The man doing the arresting is an ICE agent enforcing the law. The other? Jesus, albeit a cheesy 1970s Hollywood looking Jesus with a giant white disc behind his head posing as a halo.
But, so what? Why should we faithful Christians care about what people are doing with images of Jesus? Primarily, we should care because we are “people of the book.” Even if not a 2nd commandment violation, serious Christians should always ask questions when biblical images, verses, or people, especially Jesus, are invoked in the public square.
Is the Concept Biblical?
The provocative image contains the text, “LOVE THY NEIGHBOR.” A passer-by may not see the issue; they might even laud the art as being helpful in some way. After all, almost everywhere you look, there is some sort of Christianese platitude, and it’s easy to let things go or assume that even if an idea isn’t strictly orthodox, at least it’s well-meaning. But faithful Christians must always be Bereans and search the Scriptures to see “if these things be so.” Especially when it relates to a ‘hot button’ issue like immigration.
The Golden Rule
“Loving thy neighbor” is a Biblical concept. In fact, the idea is found all over the Bible, in both the Old and New Testament. It’s woven into the Golden Rule and is an amazing, culture-changing command that has been a blessing to the broader world for centuries, even if it is abused by non-Christians in recent years.
If you’ve been paying attention to the cultural shifting sands around you, you’re likely familiar with unbelievers using the Bible against Christians and even against itself. The phrase is biblical, but the application and meaning are anti-biblical (antinomian, to be precise).
How so?
It appears that the command to love thy neighbor is the new, Judge not lest ye be judged, for the biblically illiterate. People know that the Bible has weight and power, and is still respected by millions around the globe. But many use it against itself to push a narrative counter to God’s message and will for humanity.
As an aside, it’s notable that love thy neighbor, is also very “KJV sounding,” like judge not lest ye be judged.
Fascinating.
It’s ironic that people who don’t believe in God, don’t believe that He authored the Scripture, and don’t submit to Him as Lord still apparently want others to believe the Bible and submit to it. They use it as a billy club to beat Christians into submitting to their cultural crusade, all the while denying it and its Author.
What’s Wrong with the Image?
Firstly, the image is a lie. It’s wrong because Jesus was not an illegal alien, nor was He throwing bricks at law enforcement and burning cars on the streets of Los Angeles. Jesus was not a protester. He was not a rioter. He was not an illegal alien. He is not these things now, as He sits at the right hand of the Father, but He was not these things in the first century either.
Of course, the artist likely doesn’t believe that Jesus was physically present at the protests, but it’s clear that they believe Jesus is a sort of stand-in for the “oppressed” and “victimized.” If Jesus were here, he might reason, He would be on the side of those being arrested; those oppressed by ICE!
The liberals, both politically and theologically, love the victim and victimizer schematic, which is really cultural Marxism in action. This is the lens through which they view everything around them, including the enforcement of basic immigration laws. They see Jesus as the perfect stand-in for their victim du jour. While their arguments may seem theological, they’re merely Democrat talking points baptized in holy water. The proponents are seeking to get faithful Christians on their side, and they twist the Scripture to do it. They guilt-trip convictional evangelicals into going along with their revolution
Yes, Jesus was on the side of the downtrodden and oppressed when He walked the streets of first-century Judea. But the oppressed then and the ‘oppressed’ today are not necessarily the same type of people. Today’s so-called oppressed, especially those roaming the streets of Los Angeles and taking part in riots across the country in recent years, are breaking a multitude of laws while seeking destruction and mayhem.
So-called ‘protesting’ typically amounts to nothing but looting, burning, and assaulting law enforcement and other civilians, which is standard for leftist shock troops. All this is done in the name of “justice,” “equity,” or “love” to give it a quasi-Christian veneer (If you need a case study of what these types of “protests” accomplish, look at the Minneapolis of 2019 versus the Minneapolis of 2025).
We are asked to believe that Jesus would have seen the law breakers as “the downtrodden neighbors,” all the while, countless other “neighbors” have their property, homes, and livelihoods destroyed by the “downtrodden.”
You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. – Leviticus 19:18
Jesus Upheld the Law
A second reason Jesus would not be on the side of the protestors is that He loved the law and was not antinomian or an abuser of the law. Jesus was harshest towards the religious hypocrites who used God’s law (and his word) for their own advancement. One has to wonder what direct words he would say to those who abuse the Bible today.
For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban”’ (that is, given to God)— then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do. – Mark 7:10-13
A brief note must be seen from this passage in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus is condemning the Pharisees and leaders who claimed they represented God and loved his law. Jesus rightly points out that God’s law says to love your parents (contextually, aging parents). Yet what Pharisees were doing in Jesus’s day was giving their money that should be set aside for their aging parents, to ‘God’s work.’ Their benefit then was that their money stayed within their own hands, yet being given to God, so they looked holy (or “virtue signaled”), and yet they lost nothing in the process. It really was a sort of holy-money-laundering racket. They pretended to do the will of God and honor their parents by giving their money away to God, but when all they really loved was their cash flow. This is what liberal and progressive Christians do with the word of God all the time: virtue signal.
Is the law then contrary to the promises of God? Certainly not! For if a law had been given that could give life, then righteousness would indeed be by the law. But the Scripture imprisoned everything under sin, so that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. – Galatians 3:21
In writing to the Galatian churches, Paul explains that the law is good because it acts as a teacher, showing the need for deliverance from it through Christ. But someone may object and say, “But we’re under grace! We don’t need the law – that’s Old Testament. Grace is all we need.”
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. – Matthew 5:17-18
But someone may say, “Fine, but those are God’s laws. We should follow God’s laws, but these immigration laws are man’s laws. They’re designed to hurt people!
Be subject for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. 1 Peter 2:13-17
While there are certainly unjust laws on the books within American society (abortion, same-sex marriage, child custody issues, etc.), God’s word also commands people to not murder, and defines marriage between one man and one woman as a covenant for life and parents, not the state, are the true teachers, providers, and protectors of their children. Basic immigration laws do not fall under that same moral category. God has not commanded countries nor magistrates to accept anyone from other places “just because.” It is not against God’s laws to move nations or to remain in one’s native land. But God calls those immigrating to be “subject to every human institution,” which means submit to the law as non-citizens. Those who break these just laws are subject to punishment.
Who, Then, is Your Neighbor?
In one sense, we can look at the protester as a neighbor, but this is not the end of the discussion. Furthermore, while the Christian is to love the law-breaker and protester, this love is never at the expense of other neighbors, including your spouse, children, parents, or the person literally living next door.
In a sense, these people are your neighbor more than the random guy tossing bricks at oncoming traffic, demanding ICE be abolished. This goes back to the largely forgotten, recently renewed concept of Ordo Amoris. Vice President Vance ‘got in trouble’ earlier this year when he explained that he viewed immigration through a lens of “ordered loves.” But what really incited the media was that Vance even had the ‘audacity’ to say that the concept was a Christian virtue.
Yet Ordo Amoris is a baseline, common-sense principle that everyone lives by, even the ideological and theological left, though they are rarely honest about it. Of course, a man ought to love his wife more than any other woman. If he does not, then there is a problem, and lust and adultery are not far behind. Of course, a mother should love her children more than any other children. Otherwise, Child Protective Services will be making a visit. Of course, a pastor, CEO, Police chief, or president should love those who are in their care more immediately than those who are not. The order of loves is truly universal. Yet time and again, those on the left and their co-belligerents invoke Scripture and Jesus to suit their current causes. Love should be shown, but what is the definition of love? Love is the hinge by which the entire discussion swings.
What is Love?
Loving one’s neighbor is not letting them do whatever they wish, nor is it participating in their personal delusions. Love is not license. Oftentimes, discipline and correction are baked into the cake of loving someone, as is clear with parenting. Thus, to love a neighbor may look like harm to them at first, but it is usually a help in the long run.
Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. – Romans 13:10
Often, mothers, fathers, pastors, and churches will be so concerned about kids ‘out there’ or unbelievers ‘far away’ that they neglect the people directly in their care. True neighbors are people whom you know and can see face to face. Dare I say that these people are more important neighbors than the refugee from a foreign land or the homeless person under the bridge in a distant city. Yes, we are called to love our neighbor, but in our own capacity. Christians should seek to love all people, but in their proper, ordered ways. Despite this, too often, many non-Christians seek to guilt-trip Christians and conservatives into loving people they do not even know, and worse, this is often at the expense of their real family and friends, their true, immediate neighbors.
In Closing
God is not mocked; what a man sows that he will also reap. Do not be taken in by emotionally manipulative images that invoke biblical images or messages. At a minimum, examine them, their message and application. It’s certain that someone you know can be captured by such emotionally manipulative images like this.
Warn them, pray for them, have mercy on them.
Maybe send them this article.
