Blaspheming All That They Do Not Understand – Jude 1:10-13

Book of Jude New Testament Obedience
/ By Randall Johnson

I have had to bow out of doing couples’ weddings on occasion because they would not abstain from sexual relations before marriage. One fellow told me that he would die if he could not have sex. One couple simply said that my restrictions concerning premarital sex just didn’t make sense. One couple sought to defend the view that the Bible said nothing about premarital sex and so it was okay. The false teachers that Jude is warning about have gone one step further and claimed their visions gave them permission to disobey God in this area and other areas. Jude continues to warn his readers against them.

But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion. These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever. (Jude 1:10-13, ESV)

All that the false teachers do not understand includes true biblical doctrine about God, angels and demons, and human sin and forgiveness through Christ. What they understand instinctively, like animals, is how to follow their bodily instincts and feelings, flouting God’s moral standards. Following subjective feelings and desires, for someone whose conscience is not trained and governed by God’s Word, will lead that person ultimately to be destroyed by his own sinful compulsions.

To highlight again how sinful and misguided the false teachers are, Jude uses both literal and figurative language, making his own prophetic statement of “woe” on them, depicting them as if they were present in several historic judgments from God:

They blaspheme all they don’t understand. They don’t really understand the doctrine of grace (so they take advantage of it, using their freedom to live recklessly).
What they understand instinctively they do not reason about correctly. They have desires and to them that means they can fulfill them any way they want, to their own destruction.
They walk in the way of Cain. Out of jealousy and hatred for his brother he committed murder. They hate true believers.
They walk in the way of Balaam. For money he was willing to curse Israel. They are fond of monetary gain above all else.
They will perish as in Korah’s rebellion. Korah rebelled against Moses’ authority and the ground opened up and swallowed him. For their rebellion they will likewise perish.
They are hidden reefs, which, because, if you don’t realize what they are, you wreck your spiritual life upon them.
They are shepherds who feed themselves, not caring first for the flock of God.
They are waterless clouds, seeming to promise life-giving water but failing to produce, fruitless trees, unable to give anything worthwhile.
They are wild waves of the sea, destructive and deadly.
They are wandering stars that will perish in the blackness of the heavens.

Lesson? Stay away from them, remove them if possible, and live the opposite of them.

About the Author Randall Johnson

A full-time pastor since 1979, Randall originally graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary (ThM) in 1979 and from Reformed Theological Seminary (DMin) in 1998. He is married with four grown children and a pile of epic grandchildren.

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