Ordo Amoris

On January 29th, our newly-minted Vice President, JD Vance, made some comments in an interview that gathered both negative and positive attention. He was speaking about the new administration’s goal of making “America first,” giving much-needed attention to the people and soil between our own shores as a priority over the benefit of other nations.
I think his words are worth interaction in a short blog post. As always, we need to not just think, but think Christianly. Here’s what the Vice President said:

“There’s this old school — and I think it’s a very Christian concept, by the way — that you love your family and then you love your neighbor and then you love your community and then you love your fellow citizens and your own country, and then after that you can focus and prioritize the rest of the world.
 
“A lot of the far left has completely inverted that. They seem to hate the citizens of their own country and care more about people outside their own borders. That is no way to run a society.  And I think the profound difference that Donald Trump brings to the leadership of this country is the simple concept of America First. It doesn’t mean you hate anybody else, it means that you have leadership. And President Trump has been very clear about this — that puts the interests of American citizens first. In the same way that the British prime minister should care about Brits and the French should care about the French, we have an American president who cares primarily about Americans, and that’s a very welcome change.”

What should we make of this? As I’ve surveyed the internet, people seem to entirely agree or entirely disagree with Vance’s words. Isn’t he ignoring passages like the story of the “Good Samaritan” in the New Testament. Isn’t everyone my neighbor?

In a subsequent post on “X”, Vance reaffirmed his statement by appealing to the classical notion of ordo amoris. The phrase simply means “order of affections,” and it’s not a new idea. Augustine of Hippo spilled a fair amount of ink over the concept in the days of the early church. More than that, many (including myself) would argue that ordo amoris is implicit throughout the biblical narrative and is a normative way for people to live. In other words, I believe our Vice President is correct, not because he says so, but because Scripture says so.

The primary pushback I have read against Vance’s statement follows these lines:

Jesus said to love my neighbor.
Jesus said everyone is my neighbor.
Therefore, I must love everyone equally, regardless of who they are or where they live.

At first glance, it seems like a sound argument. There is certainly an important lesson in the Luke 10 story of the Good Samaritan for all of us. We all need to be willing to show mercy to people God places in our path. However, to take this passage and develop a nation’s foreign policy would not just be ignorant of the rest of Scripture; it would be wicked.  
The emphasis of the Good Samaritan story is that Samaritans and Jews would normally hate each other, and the act of mercy softens our hearts toward those we would naturally despise. Here’s the deal, though: Vice President Vance is not talking about hating anyone. He’s talking about who we should love most, and there’s a big difference.
Let me try to illustrate this for us all. If you’re thinking that we should not prioritize the objects of our affections, I want to make two points. First, you already do this on a regular basis. Second, God does it, too.

Now, by saying that we already do it, I’m not saying something like this: “Yes, it’s wrong. We really shouldn’t think that way, but it’s so ingrained into how we think that to try and change is pointless.” If that sentiment were true, I would say that we are in sin and need to repent! That’s not what I mean. What I do mean is that we already think and operate this way by necessity and it is good and right that we do so. The obvious examples are innumerable.  
It’s fair to say that I love all the women at Bayview Bible Church with a general, Christian love as my sisters in Christ. I love them. However, I love my wife more (way more) than all of the women who are part of the church combined. I love my five children more than the kids down the street. In fact, 1 Timothy 5 says that if I do not prioritize my children, I have denied the faith and am worse than an unbeliever! To continue expanding, I love Bayview more than Rathdrum. I love Idaho more than Oregon. I love the United States more than Canada. Starting to see my point?

By God’s good design, a husband should love his own wife (Eph. 5:25). A father should pour himself into loving his own children (Lk. 11:11-12). It’s right to have special affection for a specific place, like a town (Mat. 23:37). More pointedly, consider Galatians 6:10: So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (ESV)
Did you catch the order of love built into that text? Look to the church first, and then those outside the household of faith. It seems like prioritizing is necessary and godly.

Ordering (prioritizing) our loves is a necessary part of everyday life. When I say yes to one thing, I am by default saying no to many other things. Remember, God chooses when and where you live (Acts 17:26) and tells people to work hard, not for the benefit of every place everywhere, but rather for the benefit of where God has placed you (Jer. 29:1-9). When someone comes along saying we should love all people and places equally, just watch their life for the next five minutes. They will contradict their own supposed conviction the moment they show local or familial favoritism.

Also worth mentioning is this: it is a fallacy to conclude that by prioritizing one thing I am hating another thing. Just because I choose Italian food for supper does not mean that I hate Mexican food. Similarly, when a citizen of a nation chooses to prioritize their homeland, they are not communicating hate to all other places of origin. They are simply ranking them properly.

More than being built into nature for people, we also see God ordering his love and affection throughout history. “God wouldn’t do that!” we protest. Wouldn’t he? If he wouldn’t then how do we explain God making a covenant with Abraham and not Abimelech? Why did he favor Sarah more than Hagar? Why Jacob over Esau? Why Israel over Egypt? Why Peter over Judas?

It can make us a bit uneasy to think about God showing more favor to some than others. Admittedly, this opens up a lot of different doctrinal conversations about things like providence, God’s common grace and special grace, and his sovereign choice in election. For my purposes here, I simply want to point out that God does not distribute love evenly throughout the course of history. He bestows his love to all creation in a general way, for certain. Others receive his love in a more particular way. For example, God objectively chose Israel as his treasured possession among all nations under the Old Covenant (Deut. 7). Now, under the New Covenant, the gift of faith is not given universally, but granted to some (Eph. 2:8-9). Just as the Old Testament sacrifices were only efficacious for the people of Israel (and not for the Hittites and Amorites, by comparison), so the sacrifice of Christ is efficacious only for those who have faith in him.  

It truly boggles me that there are people and especially professing Christians who would sneer at the idea of Americans prioritizing America. It should not be a novel concept that we take care of our own before we turn our attention beyond our borders.  

Never forget that God commanded people to split up and fill the earth from the very start (Gen. 1:27-28). When people refused to do this, he forced them to at Babel. He scattered them, giving them different places, different languages, and different affections. Nations and borders were God’s idea as part of his good plan. In his kindness, he gave us a home to love and work with its benefit in mind. If we love and trust God, we should do all we can to strengthen and support the place he’s planted us. He didn’t do it by mistake.  

Let me state the obvious. Our nation is going through some big changes (most of them good, in my estimation). We are taking the old, tried-and-true concepts and methods that used to characterize this nation out of storage. "Ordo amoris" is just one example. We are giving these old concepts a fresh coat and a shine and we are going to realize that we never should have retired them in the first place (read R.R. Reno’s book Return of the Strong Gods for more on this).  

You’ll be called crazy for holding to common sense, biblical tenants in the short and midterm future. Count on it. What is to be done? Order your loves every day. Thank God for his good gifts, including this nation. Make some coffee. Read your Bible. Get to work.