Mercy, peace & love be multiplied to you. Jude 1:2 (NKJV)
What an amazing way to greet someone. This was a letter written by Jude, widely considered to be Jesus' brother, to the Church urging them to “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints” (V3). So in its greeting, contextually, it has an air of great importance, urgency, a gathering of like minded people to hold fast to the cause. It's not a flippant ‘Hello', but a deep call, a salutation heralding the beginning of an important message to a chosen and called people, about the most important season of their lives. A season of which mercy, peace and love would be of the upmost importance, a season which we are still in – ushering in the second coming of Christ.
We need mercy: kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them, the mercy and clemency of God in providing and offering to men salvation by Christ.
We all need peace: the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ. Fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot whatsoever sort that is.
We all need love: affection, good will, benevolence, care, tenderness, devotion. (definitions come from the ‘Strong's Concordance'). They sound like things required for an epic journey. Then Jude includes the word ‘multiplied' in his salutation, which really expresses the heart of God towards us. He doesn't want us to have just enough, or to just get by the skin of our teeth – He doesn't only ever give us one portion, But Jesus and all the resources of Heaven are available to us every day, in abundance, multiplied time and again into our hearts and lives. So when you read greetings like this in the New Testament, take a moment to read into them and seek the meaning behind the greeting. Nothing in the Bible is superfluous, wasted or meaningless. Every word carries life and lessons.
So my friends, may mercy, peace and love – of the kind only found in Jesus – be multiplied to you and yours this day, tomorrow and beyond…
