Assurance of Faith and Perfect Love (Rewritten)

Up to now we have explored how consecration relates to assurance of faith. But assurance itself doesn’t stand alone — it, too, has important relationships. One of the closest and most significant is its connection to perfect love. These two — assurance (or perfection) of faith and perfection of love — are deeply and inseparably linked. 

That raises a thoughtful and worthwhile question: what exactly is the relationship between them?

1. Faith Comes First, Love Follows

To begin, assurance of faith and perfect love relate to each other as cause and effect, or more precisely, as what comes first and what follows. Assurance of faith naturally and necessarily comes before perfect love.

Some theologians — capable thinkers, to be sure — have tried to reverse this order. They argue that love comes first, and that faith grows out of love, making perfect love the foundation of assurance. But it’s hard to see how this position holds up, either logically or biblically.

Think about it in ordinary human terms. How could we truly love someone if we had no confidence in them — no trust in their character, no belief in their honesty, goodness, or faithfulness? Love, by its very nature, grows out of trust. If we see someone as dishonest, selfish, or cruel, love in the full sense simply cannot exist. We might feel pity or show kindness toward them, but that’s not the same as the kind of love that delights in its object.

The love that is appropriate to God — the love of complacency, or delight — requires faith. Without trusting who God is, we cannot truly love Him. This is true in everyday human relationships, and it is equally true in religious experience.

So faith does not merely come before love in time; it also serves as its condition: not a force that overrides our will, but a necessary preparation. Love cannot exist without faith first being present. Faith clears the ground in which love can grow.

2. The Strength of Love Matches the Strength of Faith

There’s more. Love not only follows faith — it grows in proportion to it.

Here again, we are speaking specifically of the love of complacency, the kind of love directed toward God and holy beings, not merely benevolence or pity. Love rises or falls with faith. Weak faith produces weak love. Strong faith produces strong love. And when faith reaches full assurance — when it becomes settled and confident — love reaches its own fullness as well.

In other words, perfect faith and perfect love rise together.

This connection is widely recognized in theology and Scripture. Archbishop Leighton captures it beautifully when he writes that belief and love are inseparably intertwined and strengthen one another. He sums it up simply:

“Believe, and you shall love; believe much, and you shall love much.”

If we want our love for Christ to deepen, the way forward is not mysterious. We must labor for a clearer, stronger, and more settled confidence in the glorious truths revealed in Him. Faith, firmly grasped, naturally commands love.

3. Faith and Love Have the Same Effect on Sin

A third important point is this: assurance of faith and perfect love lead to the same outcome when it comes to sin. Both are incompatible with knowingly committing wrongdoing.

Perfect love, when it is genuinely active, cannot coexist with deliberate sin. The same is true of assurance of faith. Assurance is not a vague feeling; it is a definite spiritual state. It involves confidence in God’s truthfulness — both in His promises and His warnings — and confidence that we ourselves are forgiven and accepted through Christ.

It is simply not possible to knowingly sin against God while, at the same time, fully trusting Him in these ways. True faith in God’s promises and threats would either awaken deep gratitude and love or instill reverent fear — either of which would prevent deliberate disobedience. Likewise, full confidence in being forgiven and accepted by God cannot coexist with conscious rebellion against Him.

Therefore, the person who lives in assurance of faith will still experience human weakness, unintentional errors, and infirmities that arise from our fallen condition. These require humility and confession. But such a person will not knowingly or willingly act against the will of God.

This understanding fits perfectly with Scripture’s teaching that faith “works by love” and “purifies the heart.”

Many respected Christian thinkers have affirmed this connection. Dr. Increase Mather warned that those who claim assurance while disregarding Christ’s commands deceive themselves. Where assurance is truly grounded in Scripture, he said, holiness will be evident.

Ebenezer Erskine made the point even more strongly. He argued that it is impossible to approach God with confident faith while living in the love and practice of sin. Faith itself cleanses the heart. To try to believe while clinging to sin, he said, is as impossible as coming to someone and leaving them at the exact same moment.

Andrew Gray echoed this truth by listing holiness as a clear evidence of assurance. Those who are assured, he argued, understand that they belong to God — they are no longer their own. Anyone who claims assurance without a transformed life is under a serious delusion.

A Shared Reality, Viewed from Two Angles

From all this, we can conclude that assurance of faith and perfect love, though distinct in concept, are really two ways of describing the same deep spiritual reality. Both describe a soul that stands free from condemnation and lives in open, joyful communion with God.

Where one exists, the other necessarily follows. Assurance of faith leads inevitably to perfect love, and perfect love implies that faith has already reached assurance. Either way, the result is what Scripture promises as evangelical holiness.

Some may ask, if these two experiences are so closely connected — so nearly interchangeable — why not just use one term and drop the other?

The answer is simple: different Christians, shaped by different traditions and experiences, naturally prefer different language. That alone is no cause for concern. In fact, there is real value in keeping both expressions. The same inner experience can present itself more clearly in one moment as faith, and in another as love. Having language for both helps believers recognize one another across denominational lines and deepens shared communion.

Those who truly know this experience understand how helpful it is to speak multiple “dialects” of the same spiritual reality. It opens doors to unity, understanding, and fellowship.

Faith and love are like twin sisters — born together and never separated. Wherever they take root, hearts are drawn together in the same bond, no matter what names or traditions surround them. A person who has assurance of faith cannot deny their kinship with someone who lives in perfect love.

And language, whose task is to faithfully reflect reality, should honor that truth — by giving clear voice to both faith and love, and by recognizing the eternal bond that unites them.

"Jesus, I my cross have taken,
All to leave and follow Thee;
Naked, poor, despised, forsaken,
Thou from hence my all shalt be.
Perish every fond ambition,
All I've sought, or hoped, or known;
Yet how rich is my condition,
God and heaven are still my own.

"Let the world despise and leave me;
They have left my Savior too;
Human hearts and looks deceive me,
Thou art not, like them, untrue;
And while Thou shalt smile upon me,
God of wisdom, love, and might,
Foes may hate, and friends may scorn me;
Show thy face, and all is bright."

— Henry Francis Lyte (1793-1847). 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

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This is a revision of Part 1, Chapter 9 of Thomas C. Upham's book The Interior or Hidden Life (2nd edition 1844), written with the assistance of Microslop CoPilot. The original chapter can be found here: Relation of Assurance of Faith and Perfect Love.