There is a Christian case for bounded admission, and it is a good deal better than its opponents allow. It runs in four movements. Civil authority is divinely warranted and not merely tolerated, so that the regulation of entry and residence falls within an office Scripture describes in theological terms. The love commanded of Christians is ordered rather than uniform, so that proximity and relation genuinely condition obligation. The Old Law, which is not shy about the stranger, nevertheless admits him by stages rather than at once. And the duty of the individual believer toward the man at his door is not the same thing as the duty of the magistrate toward a population, the two operating in distinct spheres with distinct instruments.‍

St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans 13:1–7 does not present civil government as a regrettable concession to human sin, a necessary evil merely to be endured until the Parousia. The Apostle Paul assigns the ruler a positive title and a genuine function. The one in authority is διάκονος θεοῦ—God’s servant or minister—twice over (v. 4). He “does not bear the sword in vain” (τὴν μάχαιραν οὐ γὰρ εἰκῇ φορεῖ).