Jude ends verse 21 with the words “unto eternal life.” Here “unto” means issuing in or resulting in. This phrase indicates the enjoyment of the Triune God. Eternal life is the Triune God, and “unto eternal life” indicates the full enjoyment of what the Triune God is.
We need to be impressed with the fact that these three Epistles were written with a basic structure, and this structure is the Triune God processed to become the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit for our enjoyment. This structure is according to God’s economy, and it corresponds fully to what is unveiled in Paul’s writings. I hope that this word will serve as a reminder to you. When you consider the matters of God’s government and the historic examples of His dealing in His judgment, you should not be distracted by these matters. Instead, these things should bring you back to the basic structure of these Epistles—the Triune God as our full enjoyment. Furthermore, you need to take care of your spirit as the hidden man of the heart and realize that the divine Spirit, the Spirit of glory and the Spirit of Christ, is within you. Then you will enjoy the Triune God and express Him as godliness, which will consummate in glory.
In the first one and a half chapters of 1 Peter we have a clear picture of how God in eternity past selected us according to His foreknowledge to be His chosen people. Praise Him that out of the billions of human beings He has selected us! God selected us for a purpose, and this purpose is that God would put Himself into us as our life so that we may grow with Him into a building, His dwelling place. This building is God’s house, the place where He houses Himself. Furthermore, this building becomes God’s expression to “tell out the virtues of Him” as the One who has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9). To tell out God’s virtues is to express what He is. This is God’s purpose. This is also God’s goal.
If God would fulfill His purpose and reach His goal, He needs to apply to us what He decided in eternity past. In order to do this, it is necessary for God to be the Spirit. It is the Spirit who applies to us what God has decided. Moreover, because His chosen people had become fallen, it became necessary for God to accomplish redemption. Hence, God came in the Person of the Son to accomplish redemption. The Lord Jesus shed His blood so that we may be sprinkled and redeemed to God.
In 1 Peter we see that the Spirit applies God’s decision to us, the Son redeems us, and the Father regenerates us. For this reason, Peter says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has regenerated us unto a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead” (1 Pet. 1:3). This means that God entered into us as the divine life containing the divine “genes” to regenerate us. Now that we have been regenerated, we may taste that the Lord is good (1 Pet. 2:3).
As a result of tasting the Lord, we have the desire to put away our natural being. Therefore, in 1 Peter 2:1 Peter speaks of “putting away all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings and all evil speakings.” Here Peter mentions five matters: malice, guile, hypocrisies, envyings, and evil speakings. Malice issues in guile, guile is related to hypocrisy and envy, and the result is evil speaking. Those who have malice will also have guile. This guile will cause them to pretend and to become envious of others. As a result of this envy, they will speak evil concerning others.
In Romans 1 Paul lists more than thirty items related to sinful mankind. But here Peter uses five items to express the total situation of fallen man. No doubt, Peter’s word in 2:1 was written according to his experience in the church life.
After we have been regenerated and have tasted that the Lord is good, we shall certainly want to put away these five negative things. We shall want to put away all malice, for we shall not agree with malice in any way. Simultaneously, we shall have a love for the Word of God and an appetite to take in the Word as our nourishment. Peter speaks of this in 2:2: “As newborn babes, long for the guileless milk of the word, that by it you may grow unto salvation.” Having been born through regeneration (1:3, 23), the believers become babes who can grow in life by being nourished with the spiritual milk, the guileless milk, of the Word. This growth is for God’s building. To grow is a matter of life and in life. We receive the divine life through regeneration, and now we need to grow in this life and with this life by being nourished with the milk conveyed in the Word of God.
I can testify that after I was saved I had a deep longing for the Word of God and a desire to be nourished through the Word. However, I was led astray by the desire to know the Bible. Instead of being guided to the central focus of the divine revelation, I was distracted by others to the pursuit of biblical knowledge. For a number of years, I met with a group of believers who were famous for their knowledge of the Bible. These believers often spoke about God’s foreknowledge and selection and about Christ as the precious stone rejected by man but chosen by God. They also warned us concerning God’s judgment beginning from His own household, and they taught concerning the mighty hand of God. We were exhorted to subject ourselves under the mighty hand of God. Although this teaching was good, it did not help me to see God’s purpose. I heard a number of teachings based upon the Epistles of Peter, but I did not see God’s goal, and I did not know what God is seeking. I was distracted from the central focus of the divine revelation by good Bible knowledge.
Eventually in His mercy the Lord caused me to see the basic structure of the Epistles of Peter and Jude. In particular, I began to see the matters of growth, transformation, and building. Growth in life is unto transformation, and transformation is for the building.
In the Epistles of Peter and Jude we can see God’s economy. In these Epistles we also see God’s purpose and goal. God’s purpose was formed in eternity past, and God’s goal will be attained in full in eternity future. God’s goal is to have His building as His expression, and He is reaching this goal through our growth in the divine life.