Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/5167

5167 Recognize the truth and utilize in love....

July 8, 1951: Book 58

It is not man's knowledge that makes him blissful, but the utilization of knowledge, because love is necessary for this and love alone has a blissful effect. And so man can certainly possess knowledge without living in love. But then it is only pure intellectual knowledge, gained through study, through eager reflection on problems which certainly reach into spiritual territory but can only be called spiritual knowledge when the human being has been taught about it by the spirit within himself through a life of love. Having absorbed extensive knowledge does not yet guarantee its possession, for what was gained through intellectual activity is just as transient as all earthly knowledge, even if it has spiritual content. It is dead knowledge which already has no enlivening effect on earth and is completely lost in the beyond. Only love awakens the letter to life, only love gives understanding for spiritual knowledge, and only love makes this knowledge happy.... But love constantly gives away what makes it happy itself in order to also make fellow human beings happy. Knowledge, however, will only make people happy if it is received with a loving heart....

From this you humans can see that only love ever determines the degree of knowledge people have, for even though a loving person still lacks knowledge he will immediately understand it if it is presented to him. Love recognizes the truth and love also utilizes it.... Anyone who has the right truth cannot help but pass it on, because love impels him to do so but he also has to be in love in order to have recognized it as truth. Nevertheless, the human being can also stand up for knowledge which does not correspond to the truth, but then he should unsparingly give himself an answer to the question: To what degree am I willing to love?.... And this answer is also the measure of the truth of what he stands for. A loving person is full of eagerness to serve God because he has recognized Him as father and creator from eternity, as the most perfect being by Whom he knows himself to be loved. And therefore he will serve Him with all his heart and soul, even if it is not outwardly recognizable. But there is one thing he will not fail to do, to point his fellow human beings to Him and to seek to persuade them to believe in Him.... For he who believes himself also wants to persuade his fellow human being to hand himself over to the father as a child. And therefore he will always convey to his fellow human being what he knows himself. This knowledge is full truth and increases with increasing love activity. Intellectual knowledge, on the other hand, is passed on professionally, and this is mostly connected with earthly interests. Love gives without demanding payment, but he who demands such is not in love but only in occupation.... He makes use of his intellectual knowledge and only puts love in second place. And this knowledge will not bring much blessing, it only stimulates intellectual activity again, but the heart remains untouched and does not get to know the bliss of receiving truth. For knowledge can be truth but without love it will not be recognized as such. Therefore, first cultivate love, and whatever knowledge is then offered to you, share it out again in love.... Only then will your knowledge increase and remain your spiritual property, which is everlasting and enables you to be happy in the kingdom of the beyond and prepare you for bliss again.

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers