Jude Series: Jude 21c-The Purpose of the Command in Jude 21 and Its Three-Fold Means of Executing it is Experiencing Eternal life

Jude 19 These people are divisive, who are worldly by nature because they do not possess within themselves the Spirit. 20 However, each and every one of you beloved by making it your habit of building yourselves up by means of your most holy faith, by making it your habit of occupying yourselves with praying by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit, 21 make it your top priority of keeping yourselves in the state of loving God because of God’s love for you and continue doing so by anticipating for the benefit of yourselves the manifestation of the compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ for the purpose of experiencing eternal life. (Lecturer’s translation)

The prepositional phrase eis zōēn aiōnion (εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον), “for the purpose of experiencing eternal life” indicates that it is for the purpose of experiencing eternal life that the recipients of the epistle of Jude were to make it their top priority of obeying the command to keep themselves in the state or condition of loving God by exercising faith in the Spirit’s revelation in the gospel that God loved them through both the work of the Son and the Spirit.

It also indicates that it was for the purpose of experiencing eternal life that the recipients of this letter were to obey this command by building themselves up spiritually by means of their most holy faith, i.e. Spirit inspired apostolic teaching.

Furthermore, it indicates that it was for the purpose of experiencing eternal life that the recipients of this epistle were to obey this command by making it their habit of occupying themselves with praying by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

Lastly, it indicates that it was for the purpose of experiencing eternal life that the recipients of this letter were to obey this command by anticipating for the benefit of themselves the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ which will manifest itself when they receive from Him their resurrection bodies.

This prepositional phrase eis zōēn aiōnion (εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον), “for the purpose of experiencing eternal life” is not only modifying the last participial clause which presents the third and final means by which the recipients of the epistle of Jude were to obey the command to keep themselves in the state of loving God because of His love for them and continue doing so.

But rather, it is also modifying the previous two in Jude 20 as well as this command in Jude 21.

This is indicated by the fact that the child of God experiences eternal life whenever they keep themselves in the state of loving God because of God’s love for them.

They also experience eternal life whenever they build themselves up spiritually by means of their most holy, i.e., the Spirit inspired apostolic teaching which now appears in the New Testament.

Furthermore, they will experience eternal life whenever they are occupying themselves with prayer by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

Lastly, the child of God will experience eternal life whenever they are anticipating the manifestation of the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ, which we noted will take place when the Lord gives them their resurrection body at the rapture of the church.

There are many synonyms in Scripture which describe the church age believer experiencing fellowship with God.

First of all, it is synonymous with experiencing their salvation or in other words, their deliverance from eternal condemnation, condemnation from the Law, spiritual and physical death, personal sin, enslavement from the sin nature and Satan and his cosmic system.

To experience fellowship with God is also to experience sanctification or in other words, fellowship is experiencing being set apart to serve God exclusively in doing His will.

The believer must be filled with the Spirit or more accurately influenced by the Spirit in order to experience fellowship with God.

This is accomplished by obeying the Spirit’s voice as He speaks to the believer through the communication of the Word of God regarding the will of the Father.

They must also be operating in the love of God in order to experience fellowship with God.

Lastly, experiencing fellowship with God is synonymous with experiencing eternal life.

When a Christian is experiencing fellowship with God they are experiencing eternal life.

When a believer is experiencing fellowship with God, they will experience undeserved suffering which advances them to spiritual maturity.

The believer will pray when they are in fellowship with God.

Lastly, the believer who experiences fellowship with God and grows to spiritual maturity will experience intimacy with God.

Now, in Jude 21, the noun zōē (ζωή), “life” refers to eternal life which is an attribute of each member of the Trinity and is received as a gift by the sinner the moment they exercise faith in Jesus Christ as Savior.

It is experienced by the justified sinner after conversion through obedience to the teaching of the Word of God and in particular obeying the command to love one’s fellow believer as Jesus Christ does.

It will be experienced by the child of God in a perfective sense when they receive their resurrection bodies at the rapture of the church.

The adjective aiōnios (αἰώνιος), “eternal” since the word is ascribing the attribute of eternality to the noun zōē and thus, this adjective is used by the writer to ascribe the eternal nature of this life.

This fellowship is eternal in nature because each member of the Trinity is eternal and it will be experienced by the child of God in a perfective sense when they receive their resurrection bodies at the rapture of the church.

This expression zōēn aiōnion (ζωὴν⸃ αἰώνιον), “eternal life” contains the figure of metonymy which means that eternal life is put for experiencing eternal life.

The command and the three participles which as we noted appear in Jude 20-21 present the means which would enable the recipients of the epistle of Jude to continue to experience eternal life.

First of all, they would experience eternal life by obeying the Spirit inspired command to make it their top priority to keep themselves in the state or condition of loving God by exercising faith in the Spirit’s revelation in the gospel that God loved them through both the work of the Son and the Spirit.

This post-justification faith we noted results in obedience to the Lord’s command to love another and which obedience manifests the child of God’s love for the Lord (cf. John 14:15).

Secondly, they would experience eternal life by building themselves up spiritually by means of their most holy faith, i.e. Spirit inspired apostolic teaching.

Thirdly, they would experience eternal life by making it their habit of occupying themselves with praying by means of the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit.

Lastly, they would experience eternal life by anticipating the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ which will manifest itself when they receive from the Lord their resurrection bodies.