Abusive Acts Series

Jude 1:10 - Abusive Acts

Jude 1:10: “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.”

KNOW NOT & KNOW

The word Know means to gain a firm mental grasp of something or to become acquainted with something. This word “know” is mental comprehension. What “they do not know” is the Word of God. The apostates Jude refers to are most likely from a sect known as the Gnostics. The Greek word for Gnostics is derived from gnosko, meaning, to know, and this group claimed salvation on the basis of unique awareness. However, it is clear they knew nothing about spiritual matters. The distinction which appears in the original between two verbs," knowing" and "understanding," applied to two different classes of objects. The idea is that high and holy objects are beyond their knowledge, and their understanding is limited to the senses, the physical wants and appetites which they have in common with the brutes.

SPEAK EVIL

Here we have two pointed statements in this verse, one referring to the reviles at dignities, the other to the defilers of the flesh. But these rail at whatsoever things they know not: and what they understand naturally like the creatures without reason, in those things are they destroyed. Revile (blasphemeo) the things which they do not understand. It clearly identifies their hurtful, evil, slanderous tongues as one of their major markers, which should help us identify them as chaff in the midst of wheat. “Apostate teachers, in their brash, bold, egotistical infatuation with imagined power and authority, rail on that which they don't even understand. Apostates are intellectually arrogant and spiritually ignorant in that they don't know because they have been blinded by Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4) and spiritual matters are beyond their unregenerate capacity to understand." (MacArthur)

BRUTE BEASTS

Brute beasts can be smart or clever in an instinctive way, but they obviously do not have spiritual knowledge. “Brute” is literally without thought. They operate without rational thought. The word “Phusikos” refers to those who are like animals and thus are governed by natural instincts. They followed their natural desires. Like animals in a jungle, their only value is in being caught and destroyed. Webster defines the word instinct as a "largely inheritable and unalterable tendency of an organism to make a complex and specific response to environmental stimuli without involving reason. It describes behavior that is mediated by reactions below the conscious level." (Refer to Romans 5:12) Apostle Peter argued that, like irrational animals who are born to be caught and killed, these false teachers will be destroyed when destroying others (2 Peter 2:12). They are guided by their animalistic cravings and base passions. Rather than following reason and revelation. They are ultimate religious hypocrites who profess to have deep religious insights when in reality they are led about by the natural sense and cravings rather than by Biblical truths. They have the form of godliness and denied its power (2 Timothy 3:5; Titus 1:16). “How ironical that when men should claim to be knowledgeable, they should actually be ignorant; when they think themselves superior to the common man they should actually be on the same level as animals, and be corrupted by the very practices in which they seek liberty and self-expression.” (Green).

CORRUPT

Their reasoning was no more advanced than that of animals' instincts. So, Jude's comments uncover and destroy the Gnostics' claim to knowledge. Their faulty philosophy allowed them to pollute their bodies and it prepared them for divine judgment. ‘They corrupt themselves in the things most open and plain. The fault lies, not in their understandings, but in their depraved wills, and their disordered appetites and affections.’ (Matthew Henry). The apostates taught the twofold direction on the flesh. First, the flesh was entirely evil, therefore, of no importance; the instincts of the body could be given their way without control. Second, the grace of God was all-forgiving and all-sufficient, therefore, sin did not matter since grace would forgive every sin. Sin was only the means whereby grace was given its opportunity to operate. (William Barclay) “Though they claim to be guided by special spiritual insight gained in heavenly revelations, they are in fact following the sexual instincts which they share with the animals” (Biblical Scholar and Theologian Richard Bauckham).

(Ref: Bibleref.com; Enduring Word; Austin Precept; Biblehub.com; Study light)