Mercy, peace, and love... but multiplied!

Jude didn’t want just a bit of mercy, peace, and love added to his fellow believers’ lives, he wanted them multiplied in their lives! Couldn't we all use more of those three?

“What Jude prays for, therefore, is not that his readers may be helped to exhibit in large measures a merciful, peaceful, and loving disposition to others, but that they may enjoy in liberal degree the great blessings of God’s mercy, peace, and love bestowed upon themselves,” (Pulpit Commentary). I would say that if we experience the multiplication of His mercy, peace, and love ourselves, then we can’t help but share it with others. Do you agree?

So what are these three?

Mercy - “The mercy of God is the spring and fountain of all the good we have or hope for; mercy not only to the miserable, but to the guilty,” (Matthew Henry). We have all been both miserable and guilty multiple times in our lives, and in need of God’s mercy, in need of His pardon from our sins, in need of His acceptance of us. He showed us His abundant mercy on the cross when He forgave us all our sins and made a perfect path from us to Him. And once we’ve accepted Him as our Savior, His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23).

Peace – Once we’ve been blessed with God’s mercy, then comes His peace. Peace with Him and peace with others. Peace in the face of trouble. Peace in the face of death. Peace in the face of our failures. Peace in the face of worries.

Love – After mercy and peace, next we can be filled with His love, love Him in return, then share His love with others. We can never fully comprehend His great love for us, but we can appreciate it and live in it. “The Divine love is infused into them, so that it is their own, and becomes in them the source of a divine life. In virtue of this gift they are inspired with love which is like the love of God, and by this they truly claim the title of the children of God as partakers in His nature,” (Expositor’s Greek Testament). When His love spills out of us, when all our words, actions, thoughts, even the expressions on our faces are filled with, inspired by, covered with His love, then we become more like Him. “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another,” (John 13:35).

If you are reading this, I'm praying Jude 2 for you. May God fill your life with an abundance of mercy, peace, and love.