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Scripture Reading: 1 Pet. 1:2-3, 11; 2:1-3, 9; 3:4; 4:14; 5:10; 2 Pet. 1:14; 3:18; Jude 1:3, 20-21
In this message I would like to give a further word concerning the central thought of the Epistles of Peter and Jude.
It is very surprising, even astounding, that an uneducated fisherman from Galilee such as Peter could write the two Epistles of 1 and 2 Peter. In his writings Peter embraces all the matters of God’s eternal economy, the same matters that Paul covers in his Epistles. Paul, of course, was highly educated. He had been trained in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and he also had been educated in Greek and Roman culture. Peter, however, did not have this learning. Nevertheless, he wrote his two Epistles in a marvelous way.
Peter even used certain terms and expressions that Paul did not use. For example, Peter speaks about being partakers of the divine nature (2 Pet. 1:4). This profound expression cannot be found in the writings of Paul. Not only does Peter use deep and profound expressions, but in his Epistles he also covers a number of significant details. In quantity Peter wrote much less than Paul wrote, but in certain points he may be richer than Paul. Therefore, we need to spend adequate time to study the two Epistles of Peter to see the crucial points and the details.
The first basic matter covered by Peter in his writings is the Triune God. Peter indicates that the God in whom we believe is the Triune God. In the opening words of Peter’s first Epistle we can see the Triune God: “According to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (v. 2). Here we have the foreknowledge of God the Father, the sanctification of the Spirit, and the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. God the Father has regenerated us (1 Pet. 1:3), Christ has accomplished redemption with His precious blood, and the Spirit applies God’s full salvation to His chosen people. Here we see the Triune God in the accomplishment of full salvation.
Peter also unveils to us the fact that this Triune God is our portion. This fact is indicated by the word “partakers” in 2 Peter 1:4. According to this verse, we have become partakers of the divine nature. This indicates that the Triune God is now our portion. If God were not our portion, we could not partake of His nature.
In his writings Peter also reveals the way for us to partake of the Triune God as our portion. The way involves the hidden man of the heart, and this hidden man is our spirit (1 Pet. 3:4). In his Epistles Paul has much to say concerning our spirit, but he does not use the expression “the hidden man of the heart.” This hidden man, our human spirit, is the means by which we enjoy the Triune God as our portion.
Although Peter speaks of God’s Spirit only a few times, his terminology is marvelous. In 1 Peter 4:14 he says, “If you are reproached in the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.” Literally, the Greek here means “the Spirit of glory and that of God.” The Spirit of glory is the Spirit of God. Peter also speaks concerning the Spirit of Christ (1 Pet. 1:11). Our human spirit as the hidden man of the heart and God’s Spirit as the Spirit of glory and as the Spirit of Christ are the means for us to partake of God as our portion.
We have pointed out that the Epistles of Peter are on the subject of God’s government, in particular on God’s governmental dealings through judgment. This is the central subject of these two books. Nevertheless, the structure of 1 and 2 Peter is the Triune God, who has been processed to become our portion so that we may participate in Him, partake of Him, and enjoy Him through His Spirit, who is the Spirit of Christ and the Spirit of glory, and by the exercise of our spirit.
I encourage you to study all the details in the Epistles of Peter. However, as you study these details, do not be distracted from the central thought and the basic structure of God’s holy writings in general and the Epistles of Peter in particular. The basic structure is the Triune God who has been processed to become our all-inclusive portion. We enjoy Him by exercising our spirit to cooperate with and respond to the divine Spirit. We should never forget this basic structure or be distracted from it. If we hold firmly to the basic thought and the basic structure as we study all the other points in the writings of Peter, we shall be enriched and we shall experience the Triune God in a very rich, absolute, and detailed way.
The three Epistles of 1 and 2 Peter and Jude cover many points. But the basic structure of these Epistles is the Triune God operating on His elect that they may be brought into the full enjoyment of the Triune God. Both Peter and Jude indicate strongly that the Triune God has passed through a process in order to do many things for us and to become everything to us that we may partake of Him for our enjoyment.
Peter begins his first Epistle with a word concerning the threefold operation of the Triune God upon His chosen people to bring them into the participation and enjoyment of Himself. At the beginning of his second Epistle Peter speaks concerning the divine provision. He tells us that the divine power has granted us and even imparted to us all things related to life and godliness in order that we may partake of the divine nature. Furthermore, according to chapter one of 2 Peter, the divine provision gives us not only the divine life but also the divine light (v. 19).
At the end of his first Epistle Peter says, “But the God of all grace, who called you into His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself perfect, establish, strengthen, and ground you” (5:10). Here Peter indicates that we shall be grounded in God Himself. Then at the end of his second Epistle Peter says, “But grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (3:18). Here the knowledge of our Lord is equal to the truth, the reality of all that He is. Therefore, in this verse Peter charges us to grow in grace and in truth, reality. Although Peter covers many matters in his Epistles, the basic structure of his writings is the Triune God becoming our grace that we may enjoy Him, grow in life, and through the growth in life be perfected, established, strengthened, and grounded in the Triune God.
As we study the details of the Epistles of Peter and Jude, we need to remember that all the detailed points help us to solve our problems so that we may be brought back to the enjoyment of the Triune God. Therefore, we should not consider the details in a detached way. Every point is a help in solving our problems so that we would not be distracted further from the enjoyment of the Triune God, but instead be brought back to this enjoyment.
Toward the beginning of his Epistle Jude charges us to contend for the faith: “Beloved, using all diligence to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you, entreating you to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (v. 3). We have seen that the faith is the New Testament inheritance substantiated to us and realized by us. We pointed out in the Life-study of 2 Peter that this inheritance is actually the Triune God processed to be our portion.
Toward the end of his Epistle Jude says, “But you, beloved, building up yourselves in your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life” (vv. 20-21). Jude’s word concerning building up ourselves in our most holy faith is equal to Peter’s word about being built up a spiritual house, into a holy priesthood (1 Pet. 2:5). Then Jude goes on to speak of living in the Triune God. This is indicated by Jude’s word concerning praying in the Holy Spirit, keeping ourselves in the love of God, and awaiting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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.
