1Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, according to the promise of the life which is in Christ Jesus, 2to Timothy, my beloved child: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
3I thank God, whom I serve as my forefathers did, with a pure conscience. How unceasing is my memory of you in my petitions, night and day 4longing to see you, remembering your tears, that I may be filled with joy; 5having been reminded of the sincere faith that is in you, which lived first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, in you also.
6For this cause, I remind you that you should stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. 8Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God, 9who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, 10but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News. 11For this I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 12For this cause I also suffer these things.
Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.
13Hold the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 14That good thing which was committed to you, guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us.
15This you know, that all who are in Asia turned away from me, of whom are Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16May the Lord grant mercy to the house of Onesiphorus, for he often refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain, 17but when he was in Rome, he sought me diligently and found me 18(the Lord grant to him to find the Lord’s mercy in that day); and in how many things he served at Ephesus, you know very well.
The book of Jude contains several triads, the first found in verses 1 and 2. The first triad describes what it means to be a Christian: they are "beloved" in God the Father. This is the only New Testament passage in which Christians are said to be "beloved in God the Father." 1 Other references present the believer as being "in Christ" or "in the Lord." Christians are a permanent object of God the Father's love.
Verse two contains the next triad, that of the multiplication of mercy, peace, and love upon the believer. These qualities are named in the form of a prayer for those receiving the letter. While mercy is only mentioned in a greeting four times in the New Testament, those occurrences are important as they always occur as a preliminary to a warning against false teaching (2 John 3; 1 Tim 1:2; 2 Tim 1:2). Wolff defines mercy “as feeling sympathy with another. The word used here designates especially such sympathy as manifests itself in acts, does not merely abide in the heart or show itself in words."2 The outcome of the sinner realizing that he has received mercy from a righteous God is peace. That “tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God, and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is’ (Thayer),”3 a peace that comes through our relationship with God.
The World English Bible (used in the HVSB) retains the reading "sanctified" (hagiadzo, ἁγιάζω) by God the Father, but the Nestle text reads "love" (agapao, ἀγαπάω), which is probably the better reading. ↩︎
Richard Wolff, A Commentary on the Epistle of Jude, p. 46. ↩︎
Joseph Henry Thayer, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 219. ↩︎