Jude 1:2 - Printer Friendly

ESV: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

NIV: Mercy, peace and love be yours in abundance.

NASB: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

CSB: May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

NLT: May God give you more and more mercy, peace, and love.

KJV: Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

NKJV: Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Jude's greeting to his readers includes the desire that they would experience an overflowing amount of mercy, peace, and love. Again, he uses a threefold construction. In order to combat false teaching Jude's readers would need to experience God's mercy—His compassionate help. They would also need a strong sense of wellness (peace) and supernatural love—specifically a love for God and others. They would need God's compassionate help while under attack from the apostates.

Hebrews 4:16 promises this mercy in answer to prayer in difficult situations. These words would also motivate Jude's readers to try to win those who wandered from the truth. After all, those who receive mercy should be merciful to others. Peace, meaning a strong sense of wellness, would enable them to feel secure in troublesome times. Philippians 4:7 describes God's gift of peace as transcending all understanding and as being a protective guard for the heart and mind. Love for God and others would keep Jude's readers close to God and actively engaged in defending and sharing the truth.

Jude 1:1–4 begins this letter by identifying the writer and his readers. The author is a brother of James and a half-brother of Jesus Christ. In this introduction, he extends his personal greetings to his readers and explains his reason for writing to them.

Jude's brief letter describes men at their worst and God at His best. Believers are already on the victorious side! Those who mock God's truth and who follow their own desires all while claiming to be Christians, are the most dangerous kind of unbelievers. These persons pose a danger to themselves and to any Christians they might influence. In response, Christians need to focus on understanding the truth of God's written Word and submitting to His will.

Jude is a single-chapter letter which reflects earlier warnings about apostates and their false teachings. Other passages of Scripture describe evil men who taught that Jesus was not fully human or fully God (1 John 2:22; 4:1–3), that God's grace allowed them to live immorally (2 Peter 2; Romans 6:1, 15), that Jesus blood was not an adequate sacrifice (Galatians 1:6–9; Hebrews 3:12–19; 10:19), and sinners gain a right standing in God's sight by keeping the law of Moses (Galatians 5:4, 7–9). Jude's letter combats false teaching and exhorts readers to remain faithful to the Lord.

The book of Jude is a letter written by a half-brother of Jesus, likely later than AD 66–67, which was after 2 Peter was written. Its placement immediately before the book of Revelation is appropriate. This letter warns about false religion and evil men, whom Revelation describes as maliciously affecting political and religious conditions.

Accessed 5/4/2024 12:06:57 PM