Jude, Like The Animals

Jude 10 But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves.

These false teachers speak evil of anything they are ignorant of, Jude explains. They speak from the deep well of their great ignorance, as the saying goes. We are all guilty of this on occasion, and it is a very dangerous pastime to cultivate.

The ESV says that these men, “blaspheme all that they do not understand.” So worse than simple ignorance, these men rail against things they lack understanding about. Paul warns that the unsaved man, or natural man, does not have the Spirit of God and therefore does not understand anything spiritual, 1 Corinthians 2:14. Conversely, whatever they naturally know they exploit corruptively. To this end Jude likens them to the animal. God, Heaven, salvation, et al. are spiritually discerned, taught by the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures. False teachers will inevitably malign Scripture, degrading it while elevating their own opinions or “additions” to God’s word. Rome has verily perfected this heresy, and other cults have followed suit in spades. There is always a sect or leader who rejects some cardinal truth of Scripture, and when he is contested he removes the saints from the congregation who hold fast to God’s truth and esteem Scripture above human conjecture. If he hasn’t power to do this, then he himself may depart, seeking to take as many with him as he can so he can reveal his own incredible revelation about God and the Bible that was heretofore unknown, misunderstood, or being suppressed by orthodoxy. John wrote that such men would inevitably depart from the company of the saints, since they were, “not of us,” to begin with, 1 John 2:19. In fact, the apostle asserts that such men are energized not only by fallen human reason and lust, but by the spirit of Antichrist, 1 John 2:18.

Going back to Psalm 73, we read of Asaph’s envy of the wicked, and how easy their life appears on the surface, or from an external perspective. Yet the Psalmist knows that this viewpoint is held in error and he laments, saying, “Thus my heart was grieved, and I was vexed in my mind. I was so foolish and ignorant; I was like a beast before you,” Psalm 73:21, 22. Like an animal acting or reacting on instinct, Asaph’s natural reaction toward the wicked was envy. Or, his reaction in the flesh was to envy their happy estate. Animals have emotion and a modicum of intelligence comparatively, but not like humanity. We are not made to indulge the concept of instinct or to permit this or that lust to conduct our thoughts or goals wherever the wind takes them. In this respect Asaph was like a wild beast before the Lord; he did not reason or consider; he simply intuited sensory stimuli into an ignorant viewpoint, void of genuine understanding.

Thus Jude speaks of these false teachers. He says they are like brute beasts. Brute is defined as a savagely violent person or animal. In the form of an adjective (as we find it here) it means to be characterized by an absence of reasoning or intelligence. What is it that these men know naturally, and by practicing it corrupt themselves? As it happens, Paul compiled something of a list regarding what he refers to as the works of the flesh, which are evident, or easily observed. These are, “adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like,” Galatians 5:19-21. Paul concludes the matter by telling his readership that those practicing such things will not inherit God’s kingdom.

This acts as something of a character profile for the false teachers. Awash in sin, feigning piety while remaining unsaved, these teachers possess a form of godliness that is a parody of true faith, and if their doctrine does not betray their intentions, then their carnal conduct inevitably will. It is for us, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, to discern the nature of those we sit at the feet of to learn from, as to whether they are sound in doctrine and practice TO in fact learn from. If they do not hold fast the elementary principles of Scripture, or live wantonly profligate lifestyles, bereft of the shame that should be our hallmark when we know we have sinned against the Lord, we are commanded to withdraw from them, see 1 Timothy 6:4, 5, 2 Thessalonians 3:6; see also Titus 3:10, 11 about dealing with divisive teachers. If they are genuinely saved, our hope is that the shame of being separated from fellowship will make them repentant. Whether saved or unsaved, we do not treat such men as enemies; we are to practice love toward fellow believers by reminding them of the truth that set them free. For unbelievers we present the gospel of their salvation, through which they may have the freedom in Christ that will give them new life and the Holy Spirit, who will lead them into all truth. But we are not to compromise truth for love’s sake. We cannot accept or encourage false teaching in our midst. God’s word represents His person, and if we love God then we will, as Jude commands, contend earnestly for the faith.