What Jesus' Brother Jude Wanted Us To Know | Verse 13, Part 1 | Shameless Seas
The next metaphorical characteristic given by Jude to portray the false teacher is just as perfect as the first two we have seen so far. The descriptions he has chosen to use are packed with biblical meaning and so accurately describe the disposition of men who manifest the wily works of the devil in their subtle plots of spiritual destruction.
They are, says Jude, “wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame” (vs. 13).
New, immature, or even weak, Christians are revealed in Scripture as being more prone to being blown around by every random wind of doctrine that gusts up. Paul lays out for the Ephesian church the necessity of having apostles, preachers and teachers, etc., that build up the church, spiritually, in order to guard against this very danger: “so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes” (4:14).
Jude, by way of his entire letter, is also fulfilling that task, though these cunning humans who craft deceitful schemes are actually among them and quite active.
Here, in verse 13, he includes them in what is unstable and blown around by wind as well. They are just as shifty and unsound as any unsaved soul who has yet to cling to the solid Rock—Jesus Christ. Using this analogy was not a new concept for Jude. This idea of being likened to water or to the waves of the sea in order to identify crooked men is not something he invented.
In Genesis 49 when Jacob was about to pass away, he called his sons to him in order to let them know what the future was to hold for them. Reuben, his firstborn son, was up first and his father said something about him that was certainly not complementary. He labeled him: “unstable as water” (vs. 4). The reason Jacob gave was for Reuben’s sexual immorality in Genesis 35 when he went and laid with his father’s concubine to the public knowledge of all Israel. The fact that Jacob had concubines to begin with is a whole other problem. Regardless, Reuben was no less guilty for his wickedness and thus he is left to hear some of his father's last words on earth say that he was no more stable than the surface of the sea—a rebellious sinner.
The prophets were also among those to use this illustration. Isaiah first takes the opposite approach, saying, “if you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all” (7:9) and then later we read what is probably in Jude’s mind all along: “The wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt” (57:20).
Then Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, writes with a passion similar to Jude’s: “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. There end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things (3:17–19).
Again, Jude has been saying this all along: Their end is destruction (vv. 7, 13); their god is their belly—that is, their earthly, fleshly appetite (vv. 7, 10); and now “casting up the foam of their own shame” (vs. 13), which only comes about by unstable activity. It is often when the wind blows that waves are produced and foam is then generated and tossed into the air.
The false teachers of our own day have been and will continue to be those who "count it pleasure to revel in the daytime" and who "have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin" (2 Pet 2:13, 14). Being unsteady themselves, "they entice unsteady souls" (vs. 14). Beware, Christian! Protect yourselves with the armor of God so that we will stand in the end as is promised to those who persevere in Christ.
False doctrine only ever stirs up licentiousness and unrighteousness. It offers freedom with no defined boundaries and "rights" with no ruling authority. We must be wary, friends, that we do not allow any bit of it into our lives, which means we must discern and discard any teacher that does not hold to a sound doctrine that is biblically substantiated.
John MacArthur once said something that has stuck with me forever: “All faithful preachers sound the same.”
That’s how it works.
In Christ Alone,
Ben
