Source: https://www.bertha-dudde.org/en/proclamation/1579

1579 Knowledge without love is dead material....

August 22, 1940: Book 25

You humans try to acquire intellectually what you deem worth knowing, and thus you pursue a goal which, however, need not necessarily be important as long as you strive for knowledge which is of no particular value for the soul's higher development. The light should shine for the human being, that is, he should be aware of divine wisdom, of His infinite love, of His reign and activity in the universe and of His creation.... This knowledge should help him to recognise God, to love Him and to serve Him with all his will out of this knowledge and love for Him.... It should be the whole endeavour of man to devote himself to God in heartfelt filial love, and to do everything God asks of His earthly children. To stand in knowledge therefore means to walk in the light. And this is an enormous grace which the human being first has to acquire again through his way of life, and which he has to ask for through heartfelt supplication to God. Every man is entitled to it, but man must do his part to be allowed to receive divine grace. Thus he must first educate himself, that is, shape his soul such that divine grace can be imparted to him...., that is, the soul must be in a certain state of maturity in order to be able to be taught, thus to become knowledgeable. The human being can never receive spiritual knowledge as long as his soul is not shaped such that it is capable of receiving the knowledge of divine wisdom. And the soul is not able to do so as long as it is still outside of love. It can certainly absorb knowledge in a scholastic way, thus make knowledge its own through intellectual thinking; however, this knowledge has no influence whatsoever on the soul's higher development. It is a thinking process that has nothing to do with the awakening of the divine spirit in the human being. What the intellect has absorbed need not contradict the truth, and yet it is dead material as long as love is not awakened in the human being at the same time.... Only through the activity of unselfish neighbourly love does it gain life, and only then does the human being stand in the light, for now this light radiates out in all directions....

The loving person will want to pass on his knowledge, and will do so because he is compelled to let his light shine, he is compelled to let his fellow human beings participate in the knowledge that makes him happy. And God also places in a loving person the right realisation of what is truth and what is falsehood.... He will therefore have the right knowledge and be able to distinguish truth from falsehood, whereas a person who only absorbs spiritual wisdom purely intellectually accepts everything imparted to him in a scholastic manner as truth without judgement, for it is not given to him by the spirit from God but people pass on what they have also received. And this is the great danger that they are unable to separate human work from purely divine programmes, but that they are also not open to any instruction but only seek the truth where, however, there is no guarantee of pure truth. For if the spirit from God is at work, all doubt may disappear, but where knowledge was only acquired through intellectual labour, the truth can be doubted with justification. Only that which God Himself imparts to people on earth is beyond all doubt, for God is the truth, and those who turn their hearts to God and ask for His spirit will therefore be instructed by God and stand in the truth....

Amen

Translated by Sven Immecke