Borders are Biblical

My family and I recently returned from vacation. As is customary, when we entered the country we chose to visit, we had to go through a border entry process. Coming back, we had to go through the U.S. border security process to re-enter our home country.

Though long lines are onerous to navigate, especially with small children getting frustrated with long waits, it gave me time to reflect on why Christians should be grateful for national borders. With all the blustery talk of immigration and migration in the headlines and the emotional pull of situations where immigration laws run up against our call to love all people regardless of immigration status, Christians can easily get caught up in the flurry of policy debates without understanding why borders are not something to shrug at or dismiss. Or worse, we can unintentionally overlook the principles and rationale for borders in the first place.

Far from seeing them as arbitrary, we should view borders through two main horizons: First, borders reflect the providence of God in ordering the world He governs. Acts 17:26 states that God “made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place.” Throughout Scripture, God decrees the demarcation of nations, even as political bodies carry out these decrees by apportioning the exact boundaries. In this era of redemptive history, a single worldwide government is something Scripture prohibits. The Biblical narrative affirms the legitimacy of nations, languages, and peoples after Babel—not as a curse to be overcome by globalization, but as a providential check on man’s prideful quest for technocratic triumph. Second, borders reflect the wise administration of government and the rule of law. While Christians can and will disagree among themselves on what the best immigration policy should be, we should begin all immigration discussions with a commitment to the rule of law.

With these two main principles in view, we can deduce other reasons why borders are so vital. Borders make a political community possible. Without borders, there are no clear boundaries for determining who constitutes a political community and what its laws should be. The very concept of order exists within the shadowlands of national borders. Borders bring order and make possible the common purpose of a people whose laws enable them to secure their individual and collective good. Borders, then, are a moral necessity, not a necessary evil.

There is a principle of subsidiarity underlying the logic of borders: Governments are designed for nations, not undifferentiated masses. Borders facilitate the wise administration of government authority. Borders reflect the differences between countries as they self-govern according to their individual needs and interests. While a liberal ethos of the “brotherhood of man” may sound appealing in its emphasis on our common humanity, the fact is that cultural differentiation inevitably occurs, making it necessary for common peoples to coordinate their activities toward properly ordered ends. And while it is true the Kingdom of God constitutes a transnational people, that does not eviscerate the need or intelligibility of borders.

Related to the rule of law itself, borders safeguard order, which is a precondition for justice. Where there are no borders, there are no clear jurisdictions and no final authority to defer to when competing interests clash. Nation-states enable an appropriate scale for governance—large enough to provide order and defense, small enough to reflect cultural cohesion. Borders allow societies to govern themselves according to their own moral and cultural traditions.

Because the nations are variegated, borders help preserve cultural distinctiveness, which we should affirm as Christians. It is good that Nigerians act as Nigerians, just as it is good that South Koreans act as South Koreans. In a borderless world, there would be no clear markers for differentiating between people and for safeguarding their languages, customs, and traditions.

No matter what liberal bromides insist is true, borders are not synonymous with xenophobia, rank nationalism, nativism, or bigotry. Borders are a reminder that real people with appreciable differences have real responsibilities to those who share a common tradition. Borders are complementary to order, identity, and the shared responsibility that all citizens have toward one another.

After so much tumult under the Biden administration’s reckless disregard for America’s border, I waited in those long lines at the Cincinnati airport with a greater degree of appreciation than I otherwise would have. I am immensely grateful that American immigration authorities rigorously enforce our borders. And no matter how much I may value the cultural differences of the nations I have been fortunate enough to visit, crossing the threshold back into America, where we saw our nation’s leaders’ portraits on the wall, left me with one feeling welling up inside: gratitude to be an American. And why? Because borders matter, and nations matter. America matters.