Kierkegaard - Works of Love Chapter 3b

Love is a matter of conscience

For love to be the sum of the commandments it must be from a pure heart, a good conscience and a sincere faith,   but in this chapter S.K. deals mainly with conscience stating that "love is a matter of conscience in which the other two are essentially contained and to which they essentially lead."

He does this be walking through the process of  showing that in Christianity, everything is a matter of conscience and that the primary task, as defined earlier is to love.  Therefore, all love must first be a matter of conscience.  To love falsely is to hate.

Since, love ( and faith ) are a matter of inwardness ( and conscience ) they do not require visible evidence and proof from the object loved,  but have confidence due to the confidential relationship that comes from confiding in one another.

Confide ->  Confidential ->  Confidence