“Mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.”
and love
Love is God’s love towards His people under duress. “Love” here is self-sacrificing love (agape). We need God’s unconditional love in times of doctrinal duress.
and love be multiplied to you.
It is not enough for these spiritual qualities to come in part; they need to be multiplied in times of stress. This will not necessarily happen (optative of wish), but we need more than a dash or squirt of these spiritual commodities.
PRINCIPLE:
All Christians need to bathe in God’s love.
APPLICATION:
We cannot measure God’s love by the size of our retirement plan. We measure His love by His actions and promises. None of us can ever say that we are not loved. The Bible makes it clear that God loves us with unconditional love. We need love:
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” Je 31:3
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. Ro 5:5
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God! Therefore the world does not know us, because it did not know Him. 1 Jn 3:1
In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 1 Jn 4:9-11
