Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/8518

8518 Truth is unknowable without love....

June 4, 1963: Book 89

It is a futile effort to guide a person into truth who is devoid of all love.... Because exactly the lack of love is the darkness in which he is, and he can neither recognize a light in this darkness, nor would he be willing to accept it and to let himself be enlightened. Love, light and truth belong together; they are not to be thought without each other, and the spiritual trouble of men consists of unkindness, which brings darkness after it and therefore also truth cannot be recognized. And however the rescue of a soul is to proceed.... the commandments of love must always be presented to it first, and if it complies with these then salvation is also already guaranteed, because light and recognition of truth will then be the result.... To impart knowledge to fellowman, which can still be so deep and extensive, is completely useless when this man is without love, because then he is not able to penetrate into that knowledge and to recognize it as truth. But who has love, he will unhesitatingly accept truth, because he can recognize it as such. And it is again and again suggested to you that the gospel of love is urgent to be spread because it is pointless to supply much spiritual material to a man, which he is not able to grasp because his spirit was not yet awakened through love and he therefore also cannot be addressed by the father-spirit or also because man does not allow the expression of the spirit in him through his lack of love. And that is why the effect of My word sent to you from above will be completely different on men, according to the degree of love, which he has reached.... It will make a love-filled person deeply happy, and it will only have a weaker, soothing effect on those who are also only lukewarm in the fulfilment of the commandments of love, but who cannot be called entirely loveless.... The understanding of profound truths will not be as obvious as in a love-filled person who, as it were, has the same feeling within himself because his thinking could already be guided before the pure truth was conveyed to him from Me (.... carried). But he will also recognize the correspondence and therefore be fully convinced of the truth of the spiritual knowledge conveyed to him. Yet people who have hitherto gone through earthly life lukewarm and indifferent but not entirely unloving can feel touched by the words and now make an effort to penetrate.... themselves…. They can above all recognize the importance of the commandments of love and change their way of life by now living consciously and striving to fulfil the commandments of love more eagerly.... And then their understanding will also grow, they will penetrate spiritual knowledge ever more and strive ever more eagerly towards Me. And that is why the transmission of the word sent to you from above is very important and significant, because it has an educational value and always only requires good will to be fully effective. Knowledge alone is not enough when love is lacking.... It will perhaps be thought through intellectually but have no further influence on the soul, on the will of man to reshape himself according to this will.... Therefore also the teaching of love can only be received with the ears, but not followed, and then man will gain nothing, but remain standing on the same level, because he can always only mature through love.... Anyone without love also has no desire for truth, and only the world offers him desirable goods, which he strives for ever more eagerly and thereby falls ever deeper into darkness, from which he can only find his way out through a life of love. If love is not strongly enough anchored in a man, then also the understanding for spiritual knowledge is not present to that extent that he himself could teach again, because fullest understanding and brightest clarity belongs to a teaching activity, to be able to refute all objections and to answer every spiritual question.... Love, light and truth are not separate from each other, but irrevocably the fire of love will radiate the light, which can only ever be pure truth.... Therefore My word, which comes forth from Me and is intended to touch hearts, must be lived out.... the word, which preaches love, must also cause the human being to live in love, and then he will also have enlightened thinking, and he will know what truth is and be able to distinguish it from error.... The ability to distinguish is therefore a sign of the awakened spirit, and only when you humans live in accordance with My divine commandments of love will it also be possible for you to recognize pure truth, and then you will also represent it as such.... because a gift which originates from Me is exceedingly effective and will certainly still help you humans on earth to attain perfection.... for you will transform your nature into love and no longer be of a will which is opposed to Me, you will unite with Me with every work of love, and I Myself will be present in you.... you will unite with Me again and be happy as you were in the beginning....

Amen

Translated by Doris Boekers