Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.
Jude addresses his greeting to those sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, which is Christians generally, including ministers studying the life of Christ. It is a greeting, salutation, blessing and prayer asking that mercy and peace and love be multiplied to them and keep increasing and growing. The wish for multiplied mercy and peace and love is an extending, growing blessing upon the called, sanctified and preserved.
The verse opens Jude's urgent charge concerning the common salvation to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints against certain ungodly men crept in unawares and against corruptions that came into the church. That contending is a warning and exhortation to believers to hold the faith against what has corrupted the church. Such contending for the faith is the Christian work of bringing people back from breaking God's commandments, proclaiming the gospel of Christ with earnestness and zeal, and raising up the standard of the trampled law to magnify it and make it honorable.
The verse stands in Jude 1-8, which describes the pollution of the world and the working agencies of Satan to corrupt the world. It opens a letter that brings scenes in the heavenly courts to view, where angels of the highest rank take an interest in human affairs and both good and evil angels take an active part in matters connected with earthly kingdoms, as when Michael the Archangel came to assist in answer to prayer against satanic opposition. It belongs to the wonderful revelation of Jude's first chapter that is to be studied earnestly, kept constantly before the people, and made prominent in teaching as truth for all living in the last days, through which dangers are learned and how to avoid them, and it speaks of conditions to be met in the present day.
The verse heads a message guarding believers against the seductive influences of false teachers who have a form of godliness but are not safe leaders. It stands as a warning for the last days when false teachers arise and become actively zealous, presenting all kinds of theories to divert minds from the very truth that defines the position that can be occupied with safety, when Satan is working with power upon religionists, leading them to make a pretense of being righteous while failing to place themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The present-day conditions it describes include meeting men who go on in an evil course despite definite reproof and warning, from whom God's people must hold themselves separate and distinct, giving them no place in the churches unless converted to bear a different testimony, because men who have departed from the faith will deceive, if possible, the very elect. The lesson drawn from its setting is to follow Christ's meekness and avoid railing accusations, retaliation, and defiance.
Jude addresses his greeting to those sanctified by God the Father and preserved in Jesus Christ and called, which is Christians generally, including ministers studying the life of Christ. It is a greeting, salutation, blessing and prayer asking that mercy and peace and love be multiplied to them and keep increasing and growing. The wish for multiplied mercy and peace and love is an extending, growing blessing upon the called, sanctified and preserved.
The verse opens Jude's urgent charge concerning the common salvation to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints against certain ungodly men crept in unawares and against corruptions that came into the church. That contending is a warning and exhortation to believers to hold the faith against what has corrupted the church. Such contending for the faith is the Christian work of bringing people back from breaking God's commandments, proclaiming the gospel of Christ with earnestness and zeal, and raising up the standard of the trampled law to magnify it and make it honorable.
The verse stands in Jude 1-8, which describes the pollution of the world and the working agencies of Satan to corrupt the world. It opens a letter that brings scenes in the heavenly courts to view, where angels of the highest rank take an interest in human affairs and both good and evil angels take an active part in matters connected with earthly kingdoms, as when Michael the Archangel came to assist in answer to prayer against satanic opposition. It belongs to the wonderful revelation of Jude's first chapter that is to be studied earnestly, kept constantly before the people, and made prominent in teaching as truth for all living in the last days, through which dangers are learned and how to avoid them, and it speaks of conditions to be met in the present day.
The verse heads a message guarding believers against the seductive influences of false teachers who have a form of godliness but are not safe leaders. It stands as a warning for the last days when false teachers arise and become actively zealous, presenting all kinds of theories to divert minds from the very truth that defines the position that can be occupied with safety, when Satan is working with power upon religionists, leading them to make a pretense of being righteous while failing to place themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The present-day conditions it describes include meeting men who go on in an evil course despite definite reproof and warning, from whom God's people must hold themselves separate and distinct, giving them no place in the churches unless converted to bear a different testimony, because men who have departed from the faith will deceive, if possible, the very elect. The lesson drawn from its setting is to follow Christ's meekness and avoid railing accusations, retaliation, and defiance.