Jude, Multiplying

 Jude 2 Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Jude continues in verse 2 with an opening benediction, desiring that mercy, peace and love be multiplied to his readership, whom he addresses intimately at the beginning of verse 3 with, “Beloved.” We are told that believers are, “accepted in the Beloved,” Ephesians 1:6. The first and greatest beloved in the Father’s eyes is His Son, with whom He is well pleased. When we are in Christ through faith in His gospel, we are in the Beloved, and therefore by virtue of adoption into God’s household we, too, are beloved. We are beloved for the Son’s sake.

Even the Jewish people, set aside and partially blinded as the dispensation of the Gentiles reaches its fullness, are still beloved of God, since they are His covenant people as God does not change His mind, Romans 11:28. More than that, when writing to the Ephesian church Paul explained to them that we (Christians) are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, Ephesians 1:3. If we are in Christ (that is, if we are saved by virtue of the gospel) we receive every spiritual blessing God may give. Those who would believe were predestined to be adopted into God’s family through Jesus Christ, whose righteousness is imputed to us when we believe in Him for eternal life, Ephesians 1:5.

So the three blessings Jude extends to his Christian brethren abound in us already, and he wants them to be magnified. Of mercy, our Lord says, “Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful,” Luke 6:36. In the previous verse in Luke, Jesus explains that the Father’s kindness is without partiality, extending impartially toward those he describes as, “the unthankful and evil.” This is the nature of God’s mercy, and this is the kind of mercy Jude wants to see multiplied in us, Christ’s followers.

Of peace, the Lord states, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you,” John 14:27. The world’s peace is tenuous, fickle, and ephemeral. The world loves its own, but that love is selfish and self-destructive. The peace Jesus gives surpasses human understanding, Philippians 4:7. We are blessed that Paul was inspired to explain one of the purposes of the peace God gives in this verse. It is meant to guard (or protect) our hearts and minds through Christ. It is the peace of knowing that the Father is in control, and His will be done. Jesus went into the wilderness in this strength. He went across the sea, He fed thousands, healed many, and contested the religious leaders of His day, confident in the preserving and providential power of the Father. Our Lord made it plain that the Father is aware of all that transpires; going to the cross was of course always the plan of God before Eden. We see man and Satan striving to overthrow God’s will numerous times in Scripture, to kill the Lord before His time. But it was not to be; God would make Him an offering for sin on our behalf, and, “the chastisement for our peace was upon Him,” Isaiah 53:5. Through Him we have peace with God, Romans 5:1. And now because of Him we have the peace of God.

The final portion of Jude’s verse belongs to love. We know from the Apostle John that God is love, 1 John 4:8. To truly love as the Bible defines it means that we need to know who God is. Since one of our Lord’s quintessential qualities is love, then looking to Him and how He acts toward others demonstrates what love really looks like. The idea of love has been so sorely marred by Hollywood, pretentious poets and musicians and by people making it into a purely carnal act that it is easy to see why love is misunderstood. It is not a warm feeling. To love one’s enemies, as God does toward us, does not speak of smarmy sentimentality. It speaks of conviction and determination to do what is good for another, regardless of the receiver’s worthiness.

John writes that claiming to love God should result in loving one’s fellow saints, 1 John 4:7. He continues in his explanation of Biblical love by holding up the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf to help us define what genuine love looks like, 1 John 4:9, 10. He concludes by saying, in light of this truth, this is how Christians ought to love one another, 1 John 4:11. A fellow Bible teacher I had the pleasure of listening to once said, “I don’t have to like you; I just have to love you.” That, in a nutshell, was the essence of Biblical love. The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35) didn’t know the man who fell among thieves and was wounded; they never exchanged a single word. But our Lord held up this example about loving one’s neighbor as ourselves when a lawyer asked Jesus about the Law. 

Hollywood and pop music have ruined the idea of love in my culture and country. Love can be reinforced by powerful emotions, but when those emotions wane, does love vanish? And when those emotions never manifest, can we really love? According to Scripture, the answer is emphatically yes. God loves us; and He showed it selflessly. Our response to this unconditional love is to pour it back out on others, whether we like them or not. We do so because Christ commands it, and we love and want to please our Lord, John 13:34, 35. Jesus made this standard such an intrinsic principle of Christian life that He said outsiders would know that we are saints because of the love we express toward each other. Jude desires to kindle love in the hearts of his fellow saints. Selfless love looks at another’s welfare, and not our own. Such a soul would share the good news of the gospel with the lost; such a soul would share themselves with their fellow believers. Such a soul would indeed be very blessed to have love multiply in their spiritual life.