“Because of the truth which abides in us and will be with us forever” (2 John 2)

For the saint, the indwelling Holy Spirit is the source of God’s experiential Love. “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5). But if The Holy Spirit didn’t also act as the Spirit of Truth, saints would soon fall into gross sin. “If by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13).

Love without Truth is a fiction, but the Truth of God without the Love of God is a mere intellectual exercise, which is why the Apostle Paul said our goal should be “faith working through Love” (Galatians 5:6) and “love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5).

What would it be like to have Truth alone to motivate our faith? Paul says, “Though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (1 Corinthians 13:2–3). Faith without love is a lifeless abstraction of Truth. “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8).

We need both the Love of God and the Truth of God. “Let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth. And by this we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before Him” (1 John 3:18). “Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth” (Ephesians 6:14), and “above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (Colossians 3:14).

“Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:12–13).

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