Simplicity: Augustine on Ordered Love

Augustine taught that all sin is essentially disordered love -- loving lesser things more than greater things, or loving good things in the wrong way. He wrote in "On Christian Teaching": "He lives in justice and holiness who is an unprejudiced assessor of the intrinsic value of things. He is a man who has an ordinate love: he neither loves what should not be loved, nor fails to love what should be loved, nor loves more what should be loved less." Simplicity, in Augustine's framework, is the ordering of love.

When loves are rightly ordered -- God first, then people, then things -- life naturally simplifies. The complexity and anxiety of modern life often stem from disordered priorities: loving comfort more than service, or loving approval more than truth.

Practical application: List the five things you spend the most time on each week. Then list the five things you say are most important to you. Compare the lists. Where they diverge, Augustine would say your loves are disordered. Simplicity begins with honestly aligning how you spend time with what you truly value.