In recent years, American culture has revived interest in a classic Christian idea: the ordo amoris, the order of love.
The phrase comes most famously from Augustine, who taught that virtue consists in rightly ordered love. “Living a just and holy life,” Augustine wrote, “requires one to be capable of an objective and impartial evaluation of things: to love things in the right order” (City of God, XV.22).
That ancient insight has reappeared in modern discussion. A year ago, public comments by Vice President J.D. Vance about the order of love in the context of immigration sparked debate far beyond Christian circles. At roughly the same time, scholars and social scientists were observing similar dynamics from another angle. A 2019 study published in Nature Communications found that people’s political instincts often track with how far they extend their circle of moral concern and loyalty.
Whether one approaches the subject from theology or sociology, the issue is unavoidable. Human beings inevitably prioritize the objects of their loyalty, compassion, and responsibility. The question is not whether an order of love exists. The question is which order we will embrace.
For Christians, this raises an important question. How does the order of love relate to the church’s global mission? After all, the Great Commission commands us to “make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19). The gospel obligates us not only to those nearest to us but also to those at the farthest ends of the earth who have never heard the saving message of Christ.
To answer that question rightly, we must begin with Scripture.
The Bible Teaches an Order of Love
The Bible clearly teaches that love has an order. Jesus himself summarized the law by placing our loves in sequence. “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:37–39).
Love begins with God and flows outward to others.
The apostle Paul also speaks of priority within Christian charity. “As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone,” he writes, “and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:10).
Christian love extends to all people, but it recognizes particular responsibilities within the family of God.
Scripture also recognizes ordered responsibility within the household. Elders must manage their own households well before they can lead the church (1 Timothy 3:4–5). And Paul warns that anyone who fails to provide for his own family “has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8).
Even the wisdom literature warns against a form of concern that ignores present responsibilities. Proverbs cautions that “a fool’s eyes are on the ends of the earth” (Proverbs 17:24). The point is not that distant concerns are illegitimate, but that it is foolish to neglect what is immediately before us.
Jesus rebuked a similar error among the Pharisees. They were willing to cross land and sea to win converts, yet they neglected the weightier matters of the law at home (Matthew 23:15, 23).
Taken together, these passages show that the concept of ordered love is not merely a historical idea from Augustine or Aquinas. It is rooted in the biblical recognition that we are finite creatures. We cannot be everywhere at once. Our obligations therefore arise first from the relationships and responsibilities God has placed directly before us.
Even the parable of the Good Samaritan reminds us of this reality. The Samaritan’s neighbor was not an abstract humanity somewhere far away. His neighbor was the wounded man lying in the road in front of him (Luke 10:25–37).
In other words, the question is not whether we will operate with an order of love. We inevitably do. The real question is whether our order will be faithful to Scripture.
The Order of Love in the Expansion of the Gospel
This biblical pattern also appears in the missionary expansion of the early church.
In Acts 1:8 Jesus tells the apostles, “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” The book of Acts unfolds along precisely that trajectory. The gospel begins in Jerusalem, spreads through Judea and Samaria, and ultimately reaches the heart of the Roman Empire.
The apostle Paul followed a similar pattern in his own missionary strategy. He consistently proclaimed the gospel “to the Jew first and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16).
This priority reflected the covenantal promises given to Israel, but it also reflected Paul’s deep personal concern for his own people. “My heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved,” he wrote of his fellow Jews (Romans 10:1; cf. 9:1–3).
In other words, biblical mission does not bypass natural relationships. It begins within them and moves outward.
Missions Begins at Home
For ordinary Christians, this has practical implications.
Evangelism begins at home. Parents are called to disciple their children. Families are called to speak the truth of the gospel around their own tables. Faithfulness in the Great Commission starts with the relationships God has already placed in our lives.
Beyond the household, our obligations extend to extended family members, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and fellow members of the local church. These are the people God has placed within our immediate reach.
Mission leaders have long recognized this principle. Mack Stiles has sometimes described it with what he calls the “747 principle”: evangelists are not made in midair. If someone is not faithful to share the gospel at home, it is unlikely that he will suddenly become bold and faithful once he boards a plane for another country.
Many Christians quietly assume that if they were transported to a distant culture, they would become more zealous for the gospel than they are now. In reality, missionary faithfulness usually grows out of habits of evangelism formed long before someone ever leaves home.
The order of love reminds us that we should first be faithful where God has already placed us.
The Order of Love Does Not End at Home
But that does not mean stopping there.
The Christian life is not an excuse for parochialism. The same gospel that calls us to faithfulness at home also sends us outward to the nations. William Carey captured this spirit when he urged believers to “expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”
The local and the global are not rivals. Faithfulness in small things should overflow into a larger vision for the spread of the gospel.
No individual Christian can personally disciple every nation. Yet every Christian shares in the church’s global mission. The Great Commission was first given to the apostles, but it ultimately belongs to the entire church of Jesus Christ.
This means that every believer has a role to play in the spread of the gospel among the nations. ABWE itself exists to help churches do exactly that by multiplying leaders, churches, and gospel movements among the nations—starting by sending workers into the harvest.
How Christians Participate in Global Missions
One way we participate is through prayer. Jesus instructed his disciples to pray earnestly for laborers to be sent into the harvest (Matthew 9:37–38).
Another way is through financial and practical support. The apostle John commended believers who supported missionaries as “fellow workers for the truth” (3 John 8).
The New Testament provides concrete examples of this partnership. The church at Philippi sent Epaphroditus to minister to Paul’s needs while he was imprisoned (Philippians 2:25–30). Through their prayers, generosity, and encouragement, they shared in Paul’s missionary work.
Christians can also participate by praying specifically for people groups who still lack meaningful access to the gospel.
Jesus said that “the poor you will always have with you” (Matthew 26:11). In a similar sense, the world will always contain people who reject the gospel. Yet there is a difference between the lost and the unreached.
A lost person may have access to the gospel but reject it. An unreached person may not yet have access to the gospel at all. The global church therefore bears a special responsibility to ensure that every people group has the opportunity to hear the message of Christ in a language and cultural context they can understand.
This is why sending missionaries remains essential.
Sending Faithful and Qualified Missionaries
At the same time, the order of love reminds us that missionaries should be faithful and qualified before they are sent.
Scripture consistently emphasizes character, maturity, and proven faithfulness as prerequisites for leadership and ministry. Those who are faithful at home are far more likely to remain faithful abroad.
Healthy missions therefore begin with healthy churches. Churches that raise disciples, cultivate families, and preach the whole counsel of God become the seedbed from which missionaries are sent. In effect, when the order of love is rightly understood, it does not weaken missions; it strengthens it.
Christians who neglect their families, their churches, and their local communities in the name of global concern often undermine the very witness they hope to advance. But Christians who are faithful in the relationships closest to them often develop the spiritual maturity, stability, and vision necessary to serve the nations well.
The Great Commission calls us to the ends of the earth. The order of love reminds us that obedience begins at home. And from there, it extends outward until the gospel reaches every nation.May the Lord grant us not only to love the world, but to love it properly, faithfully, and obediently.
You can more about the intersection of the order of love and the Great Commission—and how believers today can resolve the tension between localism and globalism—in Alex’s newest book, Ordered to Love: Restoring the Biblical Order of Affections From the Home to the Ends of the Earth (Founders Press, 2026).
