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“Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied. Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”[1]

Jude wrote this letter out of great concern for his brothers and sisters in Christ. His alarm came became he recognized that false teachers had snuck into the Church under the guise of following Christ. They did not truly follow Him, but came to destroy true followers of Christ. In his warning, Jude described several characteristics of these false believers who came to disrupt the Church. His explanations provide guidance to us in our quest to ferret out the false prophets and teachers in our day.

First, Jude described their depravity of conduct. He explained in verse 4, “…certain men crept in unawares.” These false teachers arrived in sneaky fashion. Their clever hypocrisy gave the appearance of true followers of Christ. They acted in deceitful and duplicitous ways. They did not reveal what they really thought down inside. They crept in unawares. People did not notice them right away because they behaved in a fashion like true believers of Christ. However, they did not truly trust Christ. They just acted it in a false hypocritical fashion.

Throughout history, men and women have followed this pattern. They claim to have made a “decision for Christ” at some time in their lives. However, like many other decisions, it expressed only a temporary feeling and did not result from a life changing choice. Others have made no choice at all. They have simply assumed the role of a Christian, thinking that one becomes a Christian by behaving like one. Others come as messengers of the evil one intent upon destruction of the Church. All of these various types of “Christians” inhabit the Church. Some have progressed into positions of leadership. Jude’s concerns depict our day as well as his.

Jude called these hypocrites ungodly men. Not only did they behave in a false manner, they also perverted the grace of God. In verse 4, Jude said that they had turned the grace of God into lasciviousness. In verse 7, Jude further described the wickedness of these who lived after the satisfaction of their own lusts. He said that they copied those who lived in “…Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh”[2]

These false men lived to satisfy their own fleshly desires. In addition, they used their positions of influence and of authority to subvert and entice the unsuspecting. In Jude’s day, false prophets and teachers had crept into the Church and said, “Because of God’s grace and His goodness, He has saved me. Therefore, I can live any way I want to live.”

In our day, we have a favorite phrase that many people use when they give the impression that they follow Christ yet follow a lascivious lifestyle. They say, “I am free in Christ.” By that, they mean this. “Since I have made a decision for Christ, I can do anything I want. I can live any lifestyle I choose. I can behave in any fashion I want to follow, and no one can say anything about it because I have made a decision for Christ. Further, one day I will inherit eternal life. Once saved, always safe. It does not really matter how I live my life. I can live anyway I want. I am free in Christ.”

Sadly, that explains a commonly held fallacy. The Bible does not teach that kind of attitude. The Scriptures teach that when you become a follower of Christ, you become a servant. Your lifestyle changes. You become increasingly more like Christ. Jesus did not live any way He chose to live. He lived after the pattern, dictates, and commands of His heavenly Father. He lived a holy, just life. He commands those who truly trust Him to live holy lives, too.

Therefore, if I follow Christ, I cannot live any way that I please. The Scriptures do not teach this kind of deception. Those who trust Christ do not have the freedom to live selfish, licentious, lascivious lifestyles. They cannot pursue the gratification of their own fleshly lusts and desires.

Hundreds of years ago, Jude described conditions prevalent in the Church today. Unfortunately, many pastors and Church leaders today proclaim the same false message and live lascivious lifestyles. They mislead unknowing multitudes into a condition of false security and hypocrisy. Jude’s warning rings true today. He called them ungodly men. We must do the same.

The depravity of the conduct of these deceitful, ungodly men led them to deny Christ. On the one hand, they claimed to follow Christ. However, in their deportment they rejected Him. Their actions betrayed their speech. They denied His authority over their lives. Obviously, you cannot claim to follow Christ and reject His authority over your life at the same time. Someone has rightly said, “If Christ is not Lord of all, He is not Lord at all.”

Many false pastors and teachers today separate salvation from lordship. They preach that someone can come to faith in Christ and, at a subsequent date or perhaps not at all, come to recognize Jesus as Lord. Yet, Jesus never separated them. To Christ, His disciples must deny themselves and submit to His lordship. If not, Jesus rejected them as disciples. (See Matthew 16.24-25.) Jude’s condemnation provides clues to us on how to discern the false leaders among us.

Second, these deceptive leaders demonstrated disrespect for authority. Not only did they reject the Lordship of Christ, they also despised dominion. Without any respect for authority, they became a law unto themselves. They refused to submit themselves to authority within the congregation and other leaders within the Church.

Today, many false leaders in the Church follow the same practice. They do not submit to any authority in the Church, either within a local Church or from other Church leaders. Some hold a virtual dictatorial position in their churches.

Further, this resistance has affected their response to government. Peter and John faced a dilemma with government edicts, as did the four captives in Babylon. Their examples remind us to stand for God's commands when governments demand that we obey them instead of God. On those occasions of direct conflict between man’s law and God’s law, we must submit and follow God’s law. However, Paul in Romans 13 admonishes believers to obey government and give respect to government officials. It saddens me to see prominent Church leaders hide behind the Church to reject legitimate government authority.

It has become fashionable for false leaders to refuse to submit to authority. They refuse to submit to either Church authority or governmental authority. They have become a law unto themselves. Too frequently, it concerns restrictions on lavish lifestyles, the same plague of Jude’s day. Their pursuit of money has blinded their eyes and caused them to exclude them from controls upon their behavior. Jude warned centuries ago that the disrespect for authority indicates a false teacher. We should heed his counsel.

Jude identified a third characteristic of the false prophets and teachers, a deficiency of knowledge. He explained it this way, “But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.”[3] This phrase explains ignorance. They speak evil of good things, because they do not know the difference. They have never experienced and understood it. Therefore, when they tried to explain certain things from Scripture, they did not know it.

Jude said that these men act no differently than the animals. He called them nothing more than brute beasts. They lived following their natural instincts. They followed that which seemed normal and natural to their humanness and to their natural abilities and gifts. That describes how animals live by their instincts. Animals live by the natural things that God has created and planted within them and given them the ability to live in this world and in the creation of God.

Therefore, they spoke falsely. They did not know God. They spoke evil of things that they did not understand. They did not know things from God’s perspective. They did not understand His will and ways. They had no intimacy with him. 

Sadly, we experience a dearth of leaders who know God. They know about God. They say that they love God. However, few men and women in positions of leadership know God and spend time with Him. False prophets and teachers do not know God. You cannot know God by osmosis. You cannot know God unless you spend time with Him in study of His word and in prayer, conversing with Him.

Jude gave a warning. He said, “These men creep in unawares. Do not follow them or listen to them. They talk about things they do not really understand, because they do not know God. They call good evil and evil good, because they really don’t know the truth.”

We need leaders who know God. You can tell they study His word. They do not give a brief lecture on the goodness of man or a few steps on how to cure emotional ills. No, they tell you something about God and what they have come to know about God by experience. They encourage their listeners to pursue after God in intimate fellowship with Him.

Finally, in a series of pictures, Jude described these false teachers as destitute of character. He gave a lengthy list of characteristics to illustrate their destitution. These vivid descriptions explain their lack of character. He started in verse 11, “Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.”[4]

These three men carried out notorious acts. Cain killed his brother. Balaam attempted to prophesy against the Israelites as they traversed the wilderness toward the Promised Land. He did give counsel to Israel’s enemies on how to lead God's people into immorality, which succeeded. Korah attempted to overthrow Moses, God's chosen leader of Israel. God judged him by causing the earth to open up and swallow Korah and his followers alive.

In addition, Jude described another character flaw, “These [people] are spots in your feasts of charity.”[5] They came to Israel’s feasts, boldly appearing like Godly men. However, the literal meaning portrays them like rocks hidden under the water. They posed a danger to God's people, because, without shame, these hypocrites waited for the opportunity to cause believers to slip. Jude warned his friends of that danger.

Jude used another picture to illustrate the worthless character of these false teachers. He said, “They are like clouds without water.” [6]  What good is a cloud without water? They are worthless, useless. That explains the true worth of the false leaders. Next, he depicted their worthless character by calling them trees without fruit. Obviously, a fruit tree without fruit has no value, and succumbs to the axe. Neither did these evil men have any value.

In yet another fashion, Jude represented their lack of Biblical direction and stability by two pictures in verse 13. He called them “Raging waves of the sea.” The waves of the sea move in response to the wind. They move in whatever direction that the wind blows. The strength of the wind determines the ferocity of the waves. In like manner, these vile leaders varied their messages and direction upon the whims of man.

He continued in verse 13 by describing them as wandering stars. Stars have a fixed path. Here, Jude made use of a Biblical type of using stars for leaders. However, these stars wandered, following no fixed path. Thus, God's people could not follow them, because the leaders did not know their direction, one time this way, another time a different way. Jude’s friends could not rely upon their leadership.

He closed his denunciation of their character in verses 16-19. He called them “…murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage…mockers walking after their own ungodly lusts…not having the Spirit.” [7]

Jude categorized the false leaders of his day in the same class as these men, hypocrites, worthless, and ungodly. He gave a lengthy list of the poverty of character of the false prophets and teachers he identified. Sadly, their sinful practices exist to this day. Men and women elevate themselves or others elevate them to positions of authority and responsibility that fit these same descriptions.

Jude gave his warning out of love and concern for his friends and for God's honor. As he exhorted his fellow followers of Christ, I, too, urge you with this warning. Do not follow those whose character and practices coincide with these warnings. Do not listen to them. Do not buy their books. Do not watch them on television. Do not listen to them on the radio. Do not subscribe to their magazines and newsletters. They will mislead you. They will not lead you to God. Nor do they honor and exalt the Lord Jesus, because they do not exalt and honor Him in their own lives.

I pray that the Spirit of God will open your eyes to see the truth of God’s Word as revealed in Jude’s warning to his friends. God has provided it for your protection. He loves His own, those who know God and have trusted Christ and cares for them like a shepherd cares for his sheep. Heed these warnings from Scripture. Listen to the Spirit of God Who would instruct you to see and identify the false and to follow the true. I pray the Spirit of God will do that for you and lead you to fullness of joy, the rightful possession of the children of God.

Thank you, heavenly Father, for Your great love for us, which You have demonstrated in so many ways. You have preserved this letter from Jude to his friends warning them of false prophets and urging them not to follow them. He gave them clear descriptions of what they would look like and how they would act.

Father, that description fits our day as well. I ask you to send forth your Holy Spirit to us to open our eyes to identify false prophets, to turn from them, and to seek after that which is true. Help us to recognize the true messengers whom You have sent so that we might learn from them, come to know and trust you more fully, and to experience that joy and peace that is ours in Christ because we are your children. We will give you thanks, praise, and honor, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for what you accomplish. Amen.