Jude 1:12 Commentary and Bible Study

The church gathered together for fellowship is beautiful in the sight of God. They meet together as those who have put aside malice, suspicion, deceit and gossip. They know that they still sin but they strive against it. They pray for God to sanctify them. But some of these false teachers were at the Lord’s Supper and these apostates were people of quite a different character. Peter says of them, 'having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children' (2 Peter 2:14). It is a horrible picture. These men are not worthy to be in the presence of the people of God and yet they have come among them and join with them in their most intimate fellowship. Where true believers have sincerity, these have guile; where true believers have love, these have unclean intentions masquerading as love; where believers share selflessly with each other, these are watching for what they might gain; where true believers have innocence, these have scheming and corruption. They are not convicted. ‘Clouds they are without water’, having wonderful words but never bringing about conversion and genuine blessing. ‘Carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots.’ A terrible description of them!Jude then gives us a number of illustrations from the natural world. 'They are clouds without water'. This picture describes a situation where rain is badly needed. The crops are not growing but are stunted and dying; the water supplies are running low. It is the time is right now for the rains to come and if not there will be a shortage of water throughout the rest of the year. At last the clouds begin to together and the people grow hopeful; now the crops will be saved. But to their great disappointment the clouds which promised so much pass by leaving the ground still cracked and parched. So, these men, who have joined with the people of God, at first appear to be able to afresh the saints of God and to have life within them but they soon prove to be imitation believers and not the real thing. These false teachers also are driven by forces beyond their control.They are trees without fruit. By autumn it is time for fruit to be on the branches. But some trees disappoint and we ask what use are they? They might as well be dead if they do not serve the purpose for which they were planted. However, these trees are not only barren that they are uprooted. There is absolutely no possibility of them ever bearing fruit again. So the false teachers are unable to bring forth even a single fruit of the Spirit, for they do not have the Spirit within them. It is in vain to look to them for anything that really brings joy to the believer’s heart. They too will be pulled up by the roots, for God will pluck them out of his orchard, the church, where they have no right to be.