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 hits me hard because it seems to reveal a direct, tangible connection between one’s growth of faith and growth in love. The verse ultimately speaks volumes: The greater God increases your faith, your love for one another tends to more naturally increase with it, and because of it. This is very 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 more enabled to love others better.
Essentially, one cannot grow in faith without a growth in love. And that is because real faith grows real love alongside it. You can’t have one without the other, especially because Jesus, the One we are placing our faith in, is “the exact imprint of God’s nature” (Heb. 1:3), “the image of the invisible God” (Col. 1:15); And because “God is love” (1 Jn 4:15), our faith transitively expresses and evidences itself in love.
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. Or, to say it in another way, a genuine vertical degree of faith is always horizontally equivalent in love for others.
To wrap this up, how does this play out practically?
Here are some concluding thoughts: faith without deeds is dead (James 2), and we were created for the purposes of imaging the love of God to others (1 John 4)—which is the greatest deed we could ever accomplish! Yet, how can we image-forth the love of God if we are not connected to His love by faith?
Functionally, it seems as if our faith should play out like a mirror which reflects and enhances a beam of light: As we are faced toward the love of God in faith, seeking His face and reveling in his glorious grace, we only then become perfectly positioned to reflect that vertical beam in a horizontal manner to those around us—and it becomes by the Holy Spirit a light that will break forth the darkness and penetrate the bleak sentiments of hopeless and bitterness that so prevalently plague the world around us. In allowing God’s love to reflect in and through you, others may see and savor the greatness of who He is by making much of Jesus. Indeed, our active faith which is embodied by Jesus-glorifying deeds will give tangible proof for the watching world to “see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven” (Matt 5:16) and to truly “know that we are Jesus’ disciples because of the way we love one another” (John 13:35).
Let’s aim to not make the mistake of detaching our faith and love—or thinking that faith and love are exclusive entities to being with—because they are the valuable, Spirit-granted conduits by which the power of Jesus will make a difference in the world.
Let’s run this race, assured that it’s not in vain.
