Jude, The Anatomy Of False Teachers

Jude 16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.

Jude refers to the ungodly first as grumblers and complainers. The two words are synonymous but one is slightly more aggravated. To be a grumbler is to complain. We may easily find records of the Jews complaining against God during the wilderness wanderings and His reaction to such ungrateful, spiteful, unfaithful conduct, which emanates from an unbelieving heart.

“Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord; for the Lord heard it, and His anger was aroused. So the fire of the Lord burned among them, and consumed some in the outskirts of the camp,” Numbers 11:1.

“And all the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt! Or if only we had died in this wilderness!” Numbers 14:2.

“Then the whole congregation of the children of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness. And the children of Israel said to them, “Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger,” Exodus 16:2, 3.

This list could be expounded upon more heavily, but it makes the point that Israel, between Egypt and Canaan, was content to complain and grumble. To grumble suggests something quieter, such as mumbling displeasure beneath one’s breath so others don’t hear, or at least not well enough to understand. Being a father, I am now well acquainted with my children grumbling about this or that, but failing to clarify what they said when I address them and tell them to speak up. It’s innately designed as a barb; not so much to be clearly heard and understood, but to remain in the hearer’s ear as something ambiguous, the tone conveying the speaker’s contempt rather than what was necessarily said.

Peter, while addressing a similar idea, writes, “that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation,” 2 Peter 3:3, 4. The Apostle John informs his readership that we know the last days, or last hour as he put it, are upon us because of the false christs or false teachers abounding in the church, 1 John 2:18. These grumblers, complainers, and scoffers have arisen in the ranks of the church institution, determined to undermine and usurp the God they profess to serve.

Complainers take grumbling to the next level, so to speak. They are unwilling to be satisfied mumbling under their breath; no, they are hostile and they will share that hostility with you. Sometimes a complaint is legitimate. Not all complaining is evil by default; injustice can incite complaints. When we see something bad or wrong happen, or it happens to us, we may voice complaints. But these people are not complaining about something legitimate. We have all met someone whose language seems to be the medium of complaints. Nothing is ever enough, or good, or in their favor, or fair, or right as they esteem it. The world is against them, no one understands them, they are singled out and victimized. In this current cultural climate we can see the status of victimhood being pushed out of the realm of the sympathetic into something genuinely coveted; being classified as a victim by the powers that be or the ruling majority (or vocal minority) makes you special and worthy of special treatment.

The writer of Hebrews warns us, “Be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you,” Hebrews 13:5. The famous hymnal, It is well with my soul, catches this spirit nicely when the hymnist writes, “When peace, like a river, attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll; whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well, with my soul.” When we needlessly complain we speak the language of the serpent, who declared in his heart that he would be greater than the angels, and greater even than God. He was unsatisfied with his lot in life and led, as it were, a military coup against the Creator. He was the mightiest cherubim, but found his station too low to accommodate his grandeur, and so Lucifer the light bearer became Satan the adversary. Grumbling gives way to complaining, and complainers become scoffers. To scoff means to speak in a derisive or mocking way. In Peter’s epistle the scoffers assume that nothing has changed since creation’s inception. It is like the challenge of rebellious Israel when they ask, “Where is the God of justice?” Malachi 2:17. If God is all powerful, why do we not see more evidence to indicate this? If there is a just, loving God, why is there evil and injustice? Since they lack any fear of God–believing their juvenile arguments dismiss the possibility of His existence–they view institutional religion as a profitable racket and become religious ministers, investing in it the way some men might invest in stocks. They work to earn money and get gains on their investment.

Such people walk according to their own lusts. This worldview is highlighted in Judges. Samson, when defending his choice of selecting a Philistine woman to wife, tells his father, “Get her for me, for she pleases me well,” Judges 14:3. In the Hebrew this passage literally translates into, “she is right in my eyes.” The central theme of Judges, and the verse one must bear in mind while reading it is, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes,” Judges 21:25. With no central rulership (though God was King) the Jews did as they pleased, walking in their lusts, with the resultant consequences chronicled in all of its awful glory throughout the pages of Judges.

These men speak loudly and to affect flattery. They seek to ingratiate themselves and assert influence over others. When they speak, their words are designed to ensnare the listener. Their language is not honest; instead, it is calculating, with the express purpose of preying upon the spiritual needs of others to enlarge their material desires. A true exponent of Scripture will do his utmost to speak transparently about God’s word. Our goal should be for the edification of others and the glory of God. The gospel of Jesus Christ is our theme and ultimate message for a world walking according to its own lust. The remedy is a unified march, not wandering astray as the lust of the eyes, the flesh and the pride of life lead one to their respective doom. When our goal distorts into becoming molding someone to our alignment, to think and speak the way we think and speak, we ourselves have gone astray. 

Satan complicates things by pretending at unity when he is actually encouraging mankind to isolate himself in his own selfish pursuits. We can’t all get what we want when the flesh commands us; logically it makes utterly no sense. God doesn’t want us to be successful as the world defines it. No, He wants us to be obedient, and only when we humbly submit in obedience to the Lord can we find spiritual, eternal success as God defines it. The world (the world system Satan has crafted) and God are enemies; the false teachers use worldly methods to achieve dishonest and temporal results. Those results, like the false teachers that espouse and utilize them, will suffer eventual and complete destruction.