We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. (2 Thessalonians 1:3 ESV)
This verse really stood out to me because it reveals the direct connection between one’s growth of faith and growth in love. It seems to say this: The greater God increases your faith, your love for one another will tend to more naturally increase with it, and because of it. This is significant because it shows us how the degree of our faith in Jesus (the person and perfect embodiment of LOVE) is directly proportional to our degree of love for one another–because knowing Him better means knowing love better. And knowing better what it means to be loved, we are thus better empowered to love others more.
Essentially, one cannot grow in faith without a growth in love. And that is because real faith cultivates real love alongside it. You can’t have one without the other, especially because the One we are placing our faith in (Jesus) is “the exact imprint of God’s nature” (Heb. 1:3), “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15), and “God is love” (1 Jn 4:15). Indeed, because the core of faith means to abide in Jesus for our everything, and because abiding in Jesus produces love, it proves that faith and love are fundamentally inseparable in how they work and grow in the human heart.
*Abiding in Jesus produces love–and the core of faith is abiding in Jesus for our all*
Therefore, it only follows that any apparent growth in faith that is not coupled with an equal growth in love, is not true faith to begin with.
