Philoxenia – A National Day Word in Season

By Ps Ng Zhiwen

Happy Birthday, Singapore!

What is my wish for my country? 

Each time we think about the issues facing our nation, we should also think about how the Church responds to these very issues. We are a city on a hill, and a light to the nations. How we respond should set the model or the pace for the nation in a manner that reflects God’s kingdom.

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I have one issue in mind, and that is the foreigner in our midst.

Did you know that over 40% of our population is non-Singaporean?

Out of 6.11 million people living in Singapore (as of June 2025):

• 3.66 million are Citizens (59.9%)
• 540,000 are Permanent Residents (8.8%)
• 382,000 are Employment and S-Pass holders (6.3%)
• 840,400 are Work Permit Holders doing non-domestic work (13.8%)
• 305,600 are Domestic Helpers (5%)
• 382,000 are Dependants, Students, and Long-Term Visit Pass holders
  (6.3%)

Source: https://www.population.gov.sg/our-population/population-trends/overall-population/ accessed 5 Aug 2026

That is a lot of people who were not born in Singapore and who do not identify as Singaporean. Most of them come from various countries in South-East Asia, China and India.

Our nation was founded as a nation of immigrants. Today, it continues to be the case that the nations come to our doorstep, and their numbers will keep increasing.

A major test of the Church’s witness is this: How welcoming are we to the foreigners in our midst?

In Leviticus 19:34, Moses exhorted God’s people the Israelites to “treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself.”

You may be asking whether this ancient command applies to the Church today. 

Consider Jesus’ affirmation of God’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, Luke 10:27) – the original command was in Leviticus 19:18!

Remember also the oft-repeated exhortation in the New Testament Church to practice hospitality (Romans 12:13, Hebrews 13:2, 1 Peter 4:9). In the original Greek, that word literally means “love for strangers” (philo-xenia), and it includes the foreigner.

Most of all, we love the stranger because we worship and follow a God who loved the stranger (Deuteronomy 10:18-19).

We ought to love them by the way we treat them (without prejudice), care for them, welcome them, protect them, and share Jesus with them.

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Some of our ministries are geared towards reaching foreigners. The “English as a Second Language” ministry, the Domestic Helper Fellowship and the Terusan Guest Worker Ministry come readily to mind. I strongly encourage you to consider serving in these ministries.

But if you keep your eyes open, you may also notice the significant number of foreigners in your schools, your workplace, in your neighborhood, and even in your household.

Did you notice that our congregations are also not short of foreigners? 
And guess how many non-Singaporeans are in our church staff?

We should not be expecting them to ‘conform’ to our culture and our ‘way of doing things’. Rather, we should place expectations on ourselves, as God’s people, to keep asking: How may I help make my family and our church a welcoming place for everyone?

What can I do to show them that God loves the stranger, and has envisioned His Church (with a capital C) to comprise people from every nation, language, tribe and tongue?

The more diverse we are the more we may experience and reflect what Church was meant to be.

So, Happy Birthday, Singapore!

The greatness of a nation lies in how we bless other nations, including those at our doorstep.

May the Church lead the way, as a city on a hill, and a light to the nations.