Jude 1:14

Jude wrote to urge believers to “earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 1:3), because certain men had crept in unawares, turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ (Jude 1:4). “Likewise also” ties these men to the rebels of verses 5 to 7. They behave as those rebels behaved, and the same judgment waits for them.

Jude calls them dreamers. The verb enypniázomai means to dream, and here it names them “dreaming ones”. Their teaching and their way of life come out of their own imaginations, and they likely claimed visions or special insight to justify what they did and to set themselves against the apostles’ teaching. The word “filthy” was supplied by the KJV translators to bring out the corruption Jude goes on to describe, and the Greek calls them simply dreamers.

Three charges follow, one after another.

• They defile the flesh. The verb miaínō means to sully, taint or contaminate, ceremonially or morally. The flesh, sárx, is human nature with its bodily desires, and the defilement is above all sexual immorality, the sin of Sodom in the verse before. They polluted their own bodies, and the purity of the church with them.
• They despise dominion. athetéō means to set aside, and by implication to disesteem, neutralize or violate. What they set aside is kyriótēs, lordship.
• They speak evil of dignities. The Greek word is doxas, “glories”, and it most likely means glorious beings, the angelic powers, whether good or evil.

Peter describes the same kind of men in very nearly the same words: “But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities” (2 Peter 2:10).

The early church faced teaching that treated the body as having no bearing on the spirit’s salvation, and from there it was a short step to throwing off moral restraint altogether. Jude writes before Gnosticism in its full form, and he meets the same tendency in an early shape: men who claimed spiritual enlightenment, lived immorally and counted themselves above the moral law. Jude ties their teaching and their living together, because false doctrine and an ungodly life grow from the same root.

The verse opens with “Yet”, and the contrast is with the men of verse 8. Michael is an archángelos, a word built from “chief” and “messenger”, so a chief angel of great power and authority. When he contended with the devil over the body of Moses, he “durst not bring against him a railing accusation”. Railing here is blasphēmía, abusive, slanderous or reviling speech. Michael was strong enough to stand against the devil, and he still kept within the bounds of his own authority and left the sentence to God.

“The Lord rebuke thee” uses epitimáō, a verb that expresses strong disapproval or gives a command with a threat behind it. Michael speaks the rebuke in the Lord’s name, and the power to carry it out is the Lord’s. The same words appear in Zechariah: “And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?” (Zechariah 3:2). Peter states the point in general form: “Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord” (2 Peter 2:10–11). Judgment is God’s, as Paul writes: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19).

If the chief of the angels held his tongue before the devil himself, the men who revile glorious beings show how far their pride has carried them. For us, Michael’s restraint is the pattern for every conflict with evil. Our strength comes from the Lord’s authority, and the last word of judgment belongs to him.

“But these” brings back the false teachers, set against Michael. They “speak evil of those things which they know not”. The verb is blasphēméō, to vilify, defame or revile, and the knowing is eídō, a verb whose proper sense is to see, used here of knowing. They revile spiritual realities and authorities beyond their grasp, so their contempt rests on ignorance and a rebellious spirit.

What they do know, they know “naturally, as brute beasts”. physikōs means by nature, by instinct. Brute beasts are álogos zōon, animals without reason. Like animals they are driven by appetite and sensation, and in those very things “they corrupt themselves”. phtheírō means to spoil, wither or ruin, and figuratively to deprave, and the ruin is their own doing. Peter puts it the same way: “But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption” (2 Peter 2:12).

There is irony here. These men claimed a higher knowledge, and Jude shows them ignorant of what matters and mastered by what is base. Paul says of such people, “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Romans 1:21–22), and he explains why spiritual things are closed to them: “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14). The mind set on the flesh is at enmity with God (Romans 8:5–8), while “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7).

“Woe unto them!” The word ouaí is a cry of grief that also announces judgment, and here it is a solemn, prophetic sentence on these men. Jude then names three figures from the Old Testament whom his Jewish readers knew well as warnings.

• The way of Cain. Cain’s offering was not accepted, and envy and hatred led him to murder his brother Abel (Genesis 4:1–8). His way is self-will, the lack of faith, and a refusal to come to God on God’s terms.
• The error of Balaam for reward. Balaam was a prophet willing to curse Israel for money, and God stopped him (Numbers 22–24). Afterwards his counsel led Israel into sin (Numbers 31:16), and Jesus speaks of “the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication” (Revelation 2:14). “Ran greedily” translates ekchéō, to pour out, and the KJV gives its sense here as a headlong rush after Balaam’s error. The false teachers likewise sell spiritual things for gain and lead others astray.
• The gainsaying of Core. Core is the Greek form of Korah, who led a rebellion against the leadership God had given to Moses and Aaron (Numbers 16). antilogía means dispute or contradiction, and here it is hostile opposition. Korah and his company were destroyed, and Jude says these men “perished” in his rebellion as though it had already happened, so certain is their end.

Envy, greed and rebellion for the sake of power are the three marks, and each of them had always brought God’s judgment. Jesus warned of false prophets in sheep’s clothing whom we would know by their fruits (Matthew 7:15–20). Peter foretold false teachers who “through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you” (2 Peter 2:1–3), and Hebrews speaks of “a certain fearful looking for of judgment” for those who sin wilfully after they have received the knowledge of the truth (Hebrews 10:26–31).

“Spots” translates spilás, a hidden rock or reef in the sea, the unseen danger that wrecks ships. The “feasts of charity” are agápē, love, used in the plural for the love feasts, the shared meals of the early church that were often held with the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23–26). These meals expressed the love and unity of believers, and the false teachers sat at them as if they belonged, hidden hazards on which the faith of others could be wrecked. They feast “without fear”, serving themselves with no reverence for God and no care for anyone else.

Then Jude turns to pictures from the land and sky. “Clouds they are without water, carried about of winds”: in a dry land a cloud that brings no rain is a cruel disappointment. These men promise refreshment and give none, and the wind drives them wherever it blows because they have no root in the truth. Peter says, “These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever” (2 Peter 2:17).

They are also “trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots”. A barren tree was worthless and marked for removal. The fruit that genuine faith bears is missing in them, and Paul describes the same kind of men: “They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him” (Titus 1:10–16).

“Raging” is ágrios, wild, literally of the country and figuratively fierce. Like a stormy sea these men are untamed and stir up turmoil, as Isaiah says: “But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt” (Isaiah 57:20). They are “foaming out their own shame”, and aischýnē is shame or disgrace. As the sea throws foam and debris on the shore, these men put their disgrace on show in their teaching and conduct for anyone to see. Paul wants believers to be no more “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine” (Ephesians 4:14).

They are “wandering stars”. The word planḗtēs means a rover and gives us our word “planet”, and figuratively it describes an erratic teacher. Sailors steered by the fixed stars, and the planets move across the sky against them. A guide who wanders gives no steady light and leads those who follow him astray.

“To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.” tēréō means to guard or keep, so their end is held in store for them. Blackness is zóphos, gloom or darkness, a word also used of the darkness at Sinai (Hebrews 12:18), and here it is joined to darkness, skótos, to double the gloom. “For ever” is eis with aiṓn, an age, and it means without end. Jesus speaks of the unprofitable servant cast “into outer darkness” (Matthew 25:30) and of “everlasting punishment” (Matthew 25:46). Since “God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5), the blackness of darkness for ever is separation from his light and presence.

Jude now moves from the examples of the past to prophecy. Enṓch, the seventh from Adam, walked with God and was taken by him (Genesis 5:24), and “the seventh from Adam” marks how close he stood to the beginning of human history. He prophēteúō, prophesied, so his words came from God, and he prophesied “of these”, which makes the men of Jude’s day the subject of a prophecy from the dawn of the world.

“Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints.” “Ten thousands” is myriás, myriads, a number beyond counting, and the saints are hágios, holy ones, those set apart for God. The Old Testament speaks of the LORD coming in the same way: he “came from Sinai… he came with ten thousands of saints” (Deuteronomy 33:2), and “the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee” (Zechariah 14:5). In the New Testament the coming Lord is Jesus. He came first in humility to bear our sins (Isaiah 53:5), and he will come again in power to judge (Revelation 19:11–16), on the day when the heavens and the earth are “reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:7).

The Lord comes “to execute judgment upon all”. To “convince” is exelénchō, to convict, to lay bare guilt so thoroughly that it is beyond dispute, with the sentence following. Those convicted are the ungodly, asebḗs, the irreverent and impious, and the word “ungodly” comes four times in the verse: ungodly people, ungodly deeds, deeds ungodly committed, ungodly sinners. Their ungodliness is the mark of everything they are and do.

Two things are judged, their deeds and “all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him”. sklērós means hard, harsh or severe, and these are defiant, arrogant words spoken against God. Words carry weight before God, as Jesus said: “every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matthew 12:36–37). That matters in this passage, where the false teachers are marked again and again by their speech: they speak evil of dignities, revile what they do not understand, and speak great swelling words. Paul writes that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Romans 1:18), and John sees the dead judged “according to their works” (Revelation 20:11–15).

The Judge is Christ. “For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22), and he is “ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead” (Acts 10:42). The same Christ is the refuge from that judgment. “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1), while “he that believeth not is condemned already” (John 3:18). Believers wait for God’s Son from heaven, “even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come” (1 Thessalonians 1:9–10).

Jude ends his description with the men’s speech and motives. They are “murmurers”, gongystḗs, from the verb gongyzō, to grumble in a low, discontented voice. The word recalls Israel in the wilderness, who murmured against Moses and Aaron (Numbers 14:2), and Moses told them, “he heareth your murmurings against the LORD” (Exodus 16:7). Korah’s company gathered against Moses and Aaron with the same complaint: “Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy” (Numbers 16:3).

They are “complainers”, mempsímoiros, a word found only here, meaning one who finds fault with his lot and blames his fate. Grumbling and fault-finding together show a heart discontented with God’s provision and authority, without faith, humility or gratitude. They walk “after their own lusts”, so their own desires steer their choices.

“Their mouth speaketh great swelling words.” hypéronkos is built from “over” and a word for bulk or swelling, and it describes speech that is inflated, pompous and empty. The KJV supplies “words” in its brackets. Greek and Roman audiences prized eloquence, and these men used it to impress and to mislead. Peter writes, “For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error” (2 Peter 2:18).

They have “men’s persons in admiration because of advantage”. They flatter and favour people for what they can get, especially the wealthy and influential, in a world where patronage brought status and gain. James calls this sin: “But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin” (James 2:9). Peter says such teachers make merchandise of the church through covetousness (2 Peter 2:3), and Paul speaks of those “teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake” (Titus 1:11). The whole of 2 Peter 2 runs alongside this passage.

Every vice in these verses has its answer in the Lord Jesus.

The dreamers defile the flesh, and Christ lived without sin (Hebrews 4:15). They despise dominion, and he humbled himself and “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Philippians 2:5–8). He is himself the Lord at whose name “every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Philippians 2:10), and “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person” (Hebrews 1:3).

Michael could only call on the Lord’s rebuke. Jesus rebuked unclean spirits with his own authority, and they obeyed him (Mark 1:27), and he answered Satan himself from the word of God (Luke 4:8). Through his cross he triumphed over principalities and powers (Colossians 2:15). He bore railing himself, and “when he was reviled, reviled not again… but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously” (1 Peter 2:23).

The false teachers revile what they do not know, and in Christ “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:3). He is the true Light (John 1:9) and the light of the world (John 8:12). They corrupt themselves, and we are redeemed “with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Peter 1:18–19), made new creatures in him (2 Corinthians 5:17) so that we walk after the Spirit (Romans 8:4–6).

Cain killed his brother, and Jesus, the Lamb of God (John 1:29), the good shepherd, laid down his life for the sheep (John 10:11), dying for us while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8). Balaam sold his gift, and Jesus is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), who came down from heaven to do the will of the one who sent him (John 6:38). Korah rebelled, and Christ obeyed to the end.

They are clouds without water, and Christ gives living water (John 4:10–14). They are fruitless trees, and he is the true vine from whom all fruit comes (John 15:1–5). They are twice dead, and he came that we might have life more abundantly (John 10:10). They are raging waves, and he stilled the sea with a word (Mark 4:39). They are wandering stars, and he is “the bright and morning star” (Revelation 22:16).

They grumble, and he was led as a lamb to the slaughter and opened not his mouth (Isaiah 53:7). They walk after their own lusts, and he said, “I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (John 5:30). Their words swell, and his were full of grace and truth (John 1:14). They flatter for advantage, and even those who tried to trap him owned that he accepted the person of no one (Luke 20:21), while he condemned the hypocrisy of those who loved the chief seats (Matthew 23:1–12).

These verses give the church a clear way to recognise false teaching. Its fruit is a defiled life, contempt for the Lord’s authority, greed and grumbling, and its speech is loud, reviling and flattering. Eloquence and a place at the table prove nothing, and Jesus’ word holds, that a tree is known by its fruit.

They also show us who God is. He has kept a record of every ungodly deed and every hard word spoken against him, and his judgment is as certain as the fall of Korah, already spoken of as done. Darkness is reserved for those who reject him, and he keeps it in his own hands, so his people are spared the work of reviling anyone. Michael’s words are ours to use as well: “The Lord rebuke thee.”

And the passage looks ahead to the day Enoch saw, when the Lord comes with his holy ones and sets all things right. Jude goes on from here to call believers to build themselves up on their most holy faith (Jude 1:20), and he closes his letter with praise to the God who is able to keep them from falling.