What Jesus' Brother Jude Wanted Us To Know | Verse 19 | Divisive, Worldly and Devoid of the Holy
“It is these that cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.” | Jude 19
At first, it appeared an exposition of this verse would not be needed as the entire epistle up to this point has already elaborated on the various characteristics and descriptors of the false teacher, yet the more I considered it, the more its weight and unique claim to our attention became obvious.
Here, in verse 19, is Jude’s final statement of a condemnatory nature towards the false teachers. This is it. This is his last discerning articulation of judgement.
“It is these,” Jude begins and thus continues what he has been doing throughout his letter. These are the “certain people” who were corrupting the church (vs. 4).
“These people rely on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones” (vs. 8).
“These people blaspheme all that they do not understand” (vs. 10).
“These are hidden reefs” (vs. 12).
“It was also about these that Enoch . . . prophesied” (vs. 14).
“These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires” (vs. 16).
And now in verse 19: “It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit.”
I find the three things he listed as being incredibly helpful in discerning our own day:
1. It is these who cause divisions
2. It is these who are worldly
3. It is these who are devoid of the Spirit
On Divisions
True Christians can certainly be divided when it comes to their understanding of particular texts in Scripture while still being united in the true message of the gospel. While a continual endeavor for understanding the truth should continually be sought by each Christian, we do not disinherit our brothers and sisters in Christ simply because they think baptism is a sprinkle, rather than a submersion, for instance.
There is, however, a division of a more insidious nature that is in view by Jude here. It is the intentional controversy that comes with clever reinterpretations of Scripture by people whose imaginations are thought to be a perpetual medium for the Holy Spirit’s communication. It is these that end up creating confusion, controversy, scandal and rifts in the visible church.
The Apostle Paul identified these types of personalities very specifically when he wrote to Timothy. Does this sound like any of our popular “Christian” personalities today?
“If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth” (1 Tim 6:3–5).
You can’t miss that the root of the problem here is that these types of people believe (and teach) a wrong system of doctrine. As Jude said in verse eight, they rely on their dreams, or their imaginations. It is from wrongheaded beliefs that all controversy and error flows, thus the apostles spilled a lot of ink to call Christians to a steadfast faith that was rooted in Scripture alone. Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus are chock-full of exhortations to keep people from teaching wrong doctrine and to establish elders in the church who are sound in doctrine so that they could correct—and rebuke if necessary—those who were in error.
Amazingly, when faithful preachers and pastors and men and women of faith stand up for the truth and call out heresy or false doctrine, it is oftentimes them that get lambasted for being divisive.
It may be helpful for some to remember that division in and of itself is not the chief concern of the apostles, but the potential that their flock would be divided from the saving truth of the Word of God, which is brought about by teachers of error. This is proven in Paul’s instruction to Timothy to actually “avoid” certain people (2 Tim 3:5).
John MacArthur has often reminded us that it is better to be divided by truth, than united with error. The entire reason the Scriptures are given to us is not only to give us the knowledge of God’s plan of salvation, but to also protect us from uniting with the wrong things once we believe, e.g. sin and heresy.
The cry for unconditional unity and tolerance will only ever be cried by false teachers who need a safe place to live. The great Christian revivals that have taken place throughout history have never been started by those crying for a softer stance on sin. They have never been fed and fueled by new spins on doctrinal matters, nor by novel new “understandings” of theology. They have always found their genesis in deeply convicted men of God who have a burning hot zeal for seeing men and women repent of their wickedness and turn to Christ for mercy and forgiveness.
It is when leaders in the church start to soften sin and make light of the severity of God’s judgement that causes them to die of a thousand heresies. This is often found in Jude’s second point:
On Worldliness
Simply put, false teachers are worldly people. Some may be less obvious than others, but at their core, they seek their selfish ends, which consists of the world’s goods and the world’s applause.
Jude uses the Greek word psuchikos, here, for “worldly people,” (ESV) or “worldly-minded people” (NASB). This word is usually translated as “natural,” but its definition is “of or belonging to breath,” or “the sensuous nature with its subjection to appetite and passion.”
Left to our natural selves, we live in a way that seeks to satisfy the natural cravings of our earthly minds. We are literally governed by a sinful bent and know nothing other than existence in a self-satisfying framework in which we live and move and have our being. This is the paradigm that all men and women are born into—I hope parents are paying attention here.
This hearkens back to what Jude said in verse 10, in that unbelievers are destroyed by what they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. They have no wisdom from above that places all things into a godly world-view that can be discerned appropriately.
James 4:15 identifies this type of person as having a lack of the Holy Spirit, which is manifested in bitter jealousy and selfish ambition. It is “earthly, unspiritual (psuchikos), demonic.” This leads right to Jude’s own logical conclusion, which is his third and final point:
Devoid of the Spirit
If there was one thing that could sum up all false teachers of history, it is that they are simply “devoid of the Spirit.”
This is a remarkable statement. One that I have been thinking more and more about and mainly for two reasons. The first is that to identify someone as a false teacher is to identify someone who is not truly saved and thus still on the road to eternal damnation. This is a very sobering reality, yet it is who Jude has in mind. Thus, while we should call out false teachers when it is right to do so, we must remember all that is wrapped up into that condemnation. Second—and on the flip-side—is the gravity of the implications to having a truly unconverted man teaching in God’s church. We should be very mindful of the fact that unconverted men acting like converted men are very dangerous people to let loose into the flock—they are wolves in sheep’s clothing only wanting to steal, kill and destroy like their father the devil.
“The natural person,” the Apostle said, “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him” (1 Cor 2:14). If he does not accept them, then he will certainly not be the one promoting them when they are given opportunity to influence.
The false teacher is the one who acts as if they represent Christ and what He taught, yet in reality works against Christ and spurns Him as Judas did. He is someone who teaches error to the point of divisiveness and heresy. He is someone who cannot be taught himself. He is someone more absorbed with promoting your best life now, rather than making sure that people are prepared to inherit the best life later, in eternity. They use God’s name ad nauseam and God’s Word out of context in order to peddle empty promises of temporal significance, or pronounce “peace” for any soul who will listen even with no knowledge of their spiritual standing in Christ. They fear men more than God. They receive supposed divinations and teach them rather than God’s Word, claiming that Jesus is calling. They springboard off of their dreams rather than sound doctrine as Jude has already pointed out in verse eight and “[they] pervert the grace of our God into sensuality” (Jude 4).
The consistent condemnation against such blatantly false ambassadors for Christ have been articulated for thousands of years. Consider the modern charismatic movement and other prosperity-pushing preachers as you slowly read Ezekiel’s judgement:
“Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord God. My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord God. Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace” (8–10).
In other words, the false prophets are not truly a part of the true Israel as the true Israel consists of a truly regenerated people. The same is true today and the Apostle Paul expounds on this very fact in Romans 9–11. False teachers will not inherit the kingdom of heaven—the promised land of rest for God’s elect.
For the sake of time, we will not now pursue what is an important follow up question to all of these posts, but will answer them in a later installment: How is one to differentiate a false teacher from someone who is a true Christian but, in ignorance and immaturity, teaches certain theological matters incorrectly (e.g. Apollos in Acts 18)? At what point does one cross the line from inaccuracy to heretic, or false teacher?
I believe these are extremely critical questions that more Christians involved in discernment ministries need to study. Too often one can fall into the heavy-handed prose that becomes more vitriolic than virtuous; more theatrical than is warranted in what is theological; more poisonous than patient. Yes, false teachers go to Hell and many can be identified throughout history and in our own day, yet this is not a hobby to find glee in, rather it is a responsibility we must be ever so humble to live up to in the way that Scripture demands.
“The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will” (2 Tim 2:24–26).
John MacArthur, commenting on the word “opponents,” here, says they are “primarily unbelievers (captive to Satan, v. 26), but also could include believers deceived by the “foolish” and “ignorant” (v. 23) speculations of the false teachers; and, possibly, the false teachers themselves.”
What Jude has been clear about from the beginning of his letter is that 1) false teachers exist, 2) false teachers will be judged severely, and 3) we must be able to identify them and avoid them at all costs. They cause divisions, they are worldly people and they do not possess the Holy Spirit. We must not forget that so much of Scripture is meant to not only reveal truth, but expose error.
Let us “remember,” As Jude has kindly exhorted us, “the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They said to you, ‘In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.’ It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit” (vv. 17–19).
In Christ Alone,
