Verses 12-13: These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.
Jude now continues with a five-fold illustration of the characteristics of these men—these false teachers. The phrase “these are” is a statement of absolute fact. This means that each of the following five traits attributed to these apostates is undeniably true and not simply Jude’s personal opinion.
First, he states they are hidden reefs. A reef is a chain of rocks in a large body of water often hidden from the sight of those who navigate ships. When the hull of a vessel comes in contact with a reef the ship either stops dead in the water or is damaged causing a shipwreck. But whereas reefs are inanimate objects, these men are fully aware of what they are doing in their attempt to make a ‘shipwreck’ of the believer’s faith.
Note that they do this boldly, without fear posing as fellow believer’s right in the middle of “your love feasts”—the celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Their arrogance is stated by the phrase “caring for themselves.” This may be a reference to the abuse of the Lord’s Supper that Apostle Paul mentioned:
For in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk. (1 Corinthians 11:21)
Dr. C.C. Ryrie concludes that those who are led to partake of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner “may result in judgment, even sickness or physical death”1 (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:30).
Secondly, they are depicted as clouds without water. This phrase presents a contradiction, for the very make-up of clouds is water. The significance being that Jude’s readers understood the vital importance of rainwater from clouds which provided water for crop renewal and growth. Scripture often refers water to spiritual renewal and empowerment. Most notably, Our Lord stated to the Samaritan woman that He would give her living water, and that “whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14; cf. John 7:37-38)
Therefore, these waterless clouds contain no spiritual nourishment whatsoever. This is substantiated by the next phrase: carried along by winds. It is exactly what the Apostle Paul was referring to when he advised his readers:
As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming. (Ephesians 4:14)
Dr. Marvin Vincent observed how this relates even to us in our day:
The different teachings of philosophers or of religious quacks are represented as winds, blowing the unstable soul in every direction.2
Thirdly, they are described as autumn trees. The Greek word for autumn is a compound word that refers to late autumn and more precisely to being past harvest. For where trees at harvest time should have produced fruit, these men are without fruit, doubly dead [completely dead], uprooted.
In comparing these apostates with fruitless trees, the noted lexicographers, Arndt & Gingrich astutely asserts that:
The point of the comparison is probably that trees which have no fruit at the time of harvest have not fulfilled the purpose for which they exist, any more than waterless clouds.3
Fourthly, they are portrayed as wild waves of the sea. What Jude intends for us to envision is the untamed, ungoverned and furious raging and roaring of waves smashing into the rocks. This depicts the apostates operating in a frenzied state in the midst of the assembly of believers. Jude states that they are “casting up their own shame.”4 The word ‘casting up’ in the Greek is foaming up. Jude must have been equating this to Isaiah’s prophesy:
But the wicked are like the tossing sea,
For it cannot be quiet,
And its waters toss up refuse and mud. (Isaiah 57:20)
J.B. Mayor emphasizes that,
It refers to the seaweed and other refuse borne on the crest of the waves and thrown up on the beach, to which are compared the overflowings of ungodliness.5
It follows that the quality of false doctrine these men produce is to be considered nothing more than the foamy debris and mud tossed up by the sea—and shame being the essence of their false teachings. W.E. Vine states that this ‘shame’ is what “disgraces”6 them. But only mature believers will be able to distinguish their disgraceful false teachings from true doctrine.
Fifthly, they are characterized as wandering stars. From the beginning of creation, God set the sun, moon and stars in the heavens (Genesis 1:16–18) and that they have fixed and regular orbits. This is not just a scientific fact but one established by God, for the constellation of stars have been fixed and known for centuries (Job 9:9; 38:31; Amos 5:8) and used for navigation on land and sea. Stars with their regular movements were designed for light and direction but these false teachers “became the means of deceit by irregular movements.”7 So by their deceitful teachings they intend to provide false spiritual guidance leading believers astray. The Apostle Peter warned of this:
You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unprincipled men and fall from your own steadfastness. (2 Peter 3:17)
Jude continues by describing the due judgement of these unprincipled men: “For whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.” Our Lord described this as “the outer darkness; in that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 8:12; cf. 22:13; 25:30).
We need to take Our Lord’s warning seriously:
“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. (Matthew 7:15; cf. Acts 20:29)
For believers, the only means for discerning the nature of these men is if we “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 3:18a).
[1] Ryrie, C. C. (1995). Ryrie Study Bible: New American Standard Bible, 1995 Update (Expanded ed.). Chicago: Moody Press, p. 1834 note.
[2] Vincent, Marvin R. (n/d). Word Studies in the New Testament. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 3.391.
[3] Arndt, W., Gingrich, F. W., & Bauer, W. (1957). A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p. 865.
[4] The English Standard Version correctly translates this: “Casting up the foam of their own shame.”
[5] Mayor, J.B. (1990). The Expositor’s Greek Testament (W. Robertson Nicoll, Ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 5.269-270.
[6] Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words. Nashville, TN: T. Nelson, 2.39.
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