May mercy, peace,
and love be multiplied to you.
Jude 2
Dear Heavenly
Father, I pray that you will keep me humble and encourage me to study your
Word. Remove all distractions from my
life. Help me to focus on Scripture even
when the verse is short. Please bless my
family. In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Last week, we
studied the first part of Jude's greeting.
Jude identified himself as a willing slave to Jesus and brother of
James. We also found that Jude wrote the
letter for the elect, the called, the believer.
Let's study the closing part of the greeting by examining the individual
words.
"Mercy" in
the Greek is eleous which means pity,
compassion, covenant loyalty, clemency of God by salvation in Christ. To understand this word more, we'll look at
the English definition.
"Mercy" is compassion or forgiveness shown to someone by the person who
can punish or harm that someone. It is
well within God's right and power to punish us for our sins, the things we do
contrary to God's will. However, through
Christ who took our punishment, we are saved to those who believe. 1 Corinthians 1:21 states "For since, in the
wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God
through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe."
"Peace" in
the Greek is eirene which means peace of
mind, health (welfare) of the individual, a common Jewish farewell. Eirene
is from the Hebrew, eiro, which means to
join together in the whole, wholeness, exemption from the rage of war, harmony,
security, prosperity, salvation, peace with God, rest. To speak "peace" to someone was to
include them as part of your group and to wish them rest, security, salvation.
"Love" in
the Greek is agape which we have studied
before. Agape
is a deep love that means benevolence, unselfish, love which centers on moral
preference, to prefer, good will, love that embraces truth, embracing God's
will. We must pattern our life that
embraces God's will, embraces His Truth, with unselfish ambitions.
"Multiplied"
in the Greek is plethuno which means to
increase to maximum capacity. In the New
International Version (NIV) of the Bible, it uses "abundance." The New Living Translation (NLT) uses "more
and more." In this verse, Jude is
not only wishing us mercy, peace, and love but also those things more and more
and more and more to infinity.
Through sin, we are
at war with God. The only way to end the
war is by God punishing us for our sins.
However, there is Good News.
Jesus came to earth to live the perfect life and die while taking our
punishment for sin. It doesn't end
there. On the third day Jesus rose
victorious over sin. If we believe in
what Jesus did for us, that our sin debt has been paid once and for all, we no
longer live in sin and are free.
Believers (the church) owe nothing.
Through this
greeting, Jude has proclaimed a blessing to the church. Through the compassion and forgiveness of God
through the salvation provided by Jesus, this great mercy, the church is saved
and at peace with God. So church, to the
maximum amount possible, mercy, peace and love.
Release your anxiety, rest in Jesus, live for God.
May mercy and peace
and love be multiplied to you [filling your heart with the spiritual well-being
and serenity experienced by those who walk closely with God].
Amplified Bible
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