² May mercy and peace and love be multiplied to you.

As we have seen in other NT letters, Jude uses the standard greeting: identifying himself, describing his readers, and offering a wish for their wellbeing. This wish is no superfluous, cordial filler. Christians today often begin their emails, texts, or letters with a simple phrase like, “I trust this letter finds you doing well and enjoying the Lord’s blessings.” Of course, this can become rote, but such a tradition reminds both the writer and the reader of Christian fellowship and the desire for each other’s wellbeing. This practice ought not to be the sole domain of missionaries in their regular report, where the first paragraph is reserved for spiritual language; all Christians would do well to sprinkle genuine Christlike sentiments in their communications.

Some Christians, in their closing comment, convey a short sentiment, a verbal avatar, like: “Blessings,” “Blessings in Christ,” “In His grip.” The possibilities are endless, but we follow a good example of the NT writers. Jude wishes that our experience of God’s mercy, peace, and love would increase, grow, enlarge. He sees these as crucial to the wellbeing of believers.

As the songwriter captures it, “Mercy there was great and grace was free.” We receive no greater mercy than at the cross, where our sin was done away with and we were forgiven; our sentence of death was not just commuted but completely removed. Where we were under the judgment of eternal damnation, God in Jesus Christ exonerated us as though we were never under judgment at all. Paul wrote that God demonstrated His righteousness “so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom. 3:26). He made us righteous when we were unrighteous. And doing that was supremely righteous of God! That is a great mercy, in that He didn’t just remove the stain of sin, but He impressed on our souls the righteousness of Christ. Mercy not only removed the penalty of sin but neutralized its effects so that it has no power to accuse us of guilt before a righteous God—for now our righteousness is Christ.

Along with peace and love, mercy is not something we “get” more of through faith. We already have all these in full measure! Jude’s wish is that we would experience and enjoy more of what we already have, just as God told the OT Israelites to whom He had given the promised land that they needed to go in and possess what God had already given to them to possess (Num. 33:53). We NT believers need to possess our possessions of mercy, peace, and love!

Lord, thank You for making me wealthy in mercy, peace, and love. I want to possession my possessions, namely, to embrace all the blessings You have blessed me with.