Jude 1:12
These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Jude describes selfish intruders who defile the believers' feasts of love by joining them only to feed themselves without restraint or fear. To be clouds without water carried by winds is to promise refreshment yet give no spiritual life, remaining empty and unstable and driven about by every wind of controversy. To be trees with withered fruit, without fruit, twice dead and uprooted is to be wholly barren and lifeless, with no living root to bear fruit and cut off from holiness and communion with God. The warning belongs to apostasy in the present day and toward the close of time, when false teachers grow zealous with attractive theories and deceptions hidden under righteousness to turn minds from obedience and the very truth that marks the safe position. It condemns ministers and professing Christians who hold sacred truth as mere theory without its principles enthroned in the heart by God's Spirit, leaving them spiritually dead, blind guides who give no spiritual good and become a stumbling block, whereas truth received in the heart governs the whole life in service to Christ.
Meaning of the Symbols
These are selfish intruders who defile the believers' shared feasts of charity, feasting together with them while feeding themselves without restraint or fear. They are dangerous and corrupt false teachers who press even into Christian fellowship to corrupt it by self-caring. The same defiling spots portray the moral condition of the inhabitants of the old world before the flood, who by disobeying God's law lost His favor and became corrupt and fruitless until their wickedness became unbearable to God and He determined to purify the world by a flood. Within the community of believers they are men who harm God's cause by bearing false witness and cruelly injuring the reputations of God's servants, biting and devouring like tares among wheat and wolves among sheep, dangerous hypocrites whose hypocrisy God's judgment will reveal when He judges the world and separates wheat from tares, so that by their own lips they will clear from suspicion those they accused.
To be clouds without water, carried about by winds, is to promise refreshment yet give no spiritual nourishment or life. Like clouds without rain they offer no life-giving fruit, but are empty and unstable, blown about and tossed by winds and driven by every wind. That driven instability includes being carried about by controversy, as with ministers who hold truth only as theory without its principles rooted and enthroned in the heart by God's Spirit, and with those who drift from truth and betray sacred trusts to become blind leaders of others. In this barrenness is seen the difference between those who serve God and those who do not, for the self-sufficient and obstinate do not show Christ in character.
To be trees whose fruit withers, without fruit, twice dead, and plucked up by the roots is to be wholly lifeless and devoid of good fruit, with no living root that can bear fruit. Like withered, fruitless trees they are dead twice over and uprooted, cut off from holiness and communion with God and marked by complete spiritual barrenness. That condition vividly portrays the wickedness of the world in Noah's time, like raging waves and wandering stars marked for darkness as well, whose wickedness had become unbearable to God. In mercy after that corruption God gave a probation of one hundred and twenty years, during which Noah, Methuselah, and many others warned and entreated while the ark was building, with every blow on the ark a warning message, and that same corrupt condition is repeating today, when warnings are again being sent and all among the ungodly who refuse to repent will perish when God's judgments fall.
Setting and End-Time Fulfillment
Jude's warning concerns ungodly intruders and corrupt conditions that were then coming into the church, and that same corruption is found in every city, so believers must guard against its influence while laboring to save souls, and workers are to study the warning so they can meet those conditions. The imagery vividly portrays the moral condition of the world in Noah's time, when by disobedience to God's law men lost His favor and became defiling spots in feasts of charity, waterless clouds carried about by winds, withered fruitless trees twice dead and plucked up by the roots, with raging waves and wandering stars reserved for darkness, until wickedness became corrupt, fruitless and unbearable to God and He determined to purify the world by the flood. In mercy He first granted a probation of one hundred and twenty years, during which Noah, Methuselah and many others warned and entreated while the ark was building, with every blow struck on the ark serving as a warning message. That same corrupt condition is repeating today, when warnings are again being sent and all among the ungodly who refuse to repent will perish when God's judgments fall.
The verse warns of apostasy to be met in the present day and growing more intense toward the close of time, as the conflict between right and wrong becomes fierce and selfish plans to exalt self, like Nebuchadnezzar's, strengthen. It describes those who have departed from the faith, ignored reproof and warning, and continued in an evil course, and such persons are not to be welcomed into the churches because they may deceive even the elect. The verse applies to the last days and all along the history of the third angel's message, when false teachers with a form of godliness but unsafe as leaders become actively zealous, presenting all kinds of theories, attractive doctrines and deceptions hidden under a pretense of righteousness to divert minds from the very truth that defines the position that can be occupied with safety. Satan then works with power upon religionists who fail to place themselves under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and those who once knew the truth and turn aside become blind leaders of the blind, as seen where some in Battle Creek who once knew the truth became clouds without water carried about by the winds of controversy.
Those deceivers bear a science of Satan that pollutes body, soul and spirit, turning people from obedience and pure doctrines to unrighteousness and ruin, and such deceivers have always abounded but will increase in numbers and power to deceive, even apparently working miracles. At the same time men among the believers harm God's cause as tares among wheat and wolves among sheep, delighting to bear false witness, to bite and devour, and to cruelly injure the reputations of God's servants and tear down the cause. Every one will be rewarded according to his works when God judges the world and separates the wheat from the tares. Then the hypocrites will be revealed, and by their own lips they will clear from suspicion those they accused, showing the maligned to have been innocent.
Warning to Professors and Ministers
Jude 1:12 condemns ministers and professing Christians who proclaim or handle sacred truth as mere theory without its principles rooted and enthroned in the heart by God's Spirit. Knowing truth only as theory does not save, for it must be impressed on the heart by God's Spirit and govern thoughts, purposes, aims, and the whole life in service to Christ. Without a thorough change from darkness to light they remain spiritually barren and dead, like clouds without water carried by every wind and like fruitless trees twice dead and uprooted. Those who handle sacred responsibilities in that condition are blind guides and ministers of darkness who offer no life-giving spiritual nourishment or good. Their outward religion cannot replace a life shaped by truth, and they become a stumbling-block to sinners and bring reproach and scandal upon the cause, while truth received in the heart is the power of God unto salvation sanctifying the character.
The verse is a solemn warning against backsliding for those who once knew the truth but set the will against God. Such become false and unreliable because truth is not enthroned in the heart, and become clouds without water carried about by the winds of controversy. They are blind leaders of the blind, leading other souls step by step into bye and forbidden false paths. They are to beware lest they become trees without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots, a warning that ought to make each soul greatly afraid for itself. It urges enthroning Christ in the heart, dying to self, breaking at once with Satan's temptations and rushing for the light, and obeying the Word of God, for resistance to repeated appeals will be charged against those who choose their own way.
The verse marks the difference between those who serve God and those who do not. It describes self-sufficient, obstinate people who do not show Christ in character as spiritually barren and unstable, like clouds without rain offering no life-giving fruit, and like withered fruitless trees twice dead and uprooted. It applies to those who drift from truth and betray sacred trusts, becoming blind leaders of others, and to the wicked and disobedient in contrast with God's faithful and obedient children. True Christians are the opposite of false professors who are clouds without rain: they have the mind of Christ and labor in harmony with Him, gathering strength from the Source of strength. Looking unto Jesus they receive light from the Saviour and reflect it to others, following the light of life with cheerfulness and gratitude, seeing God in all His works and acknowledging Him in all His ways.
Fruitlessness and deadness is shown when presence at church meetings becomes a burden through jealousy, evil suspicions, complaining, and fault-finding instead of supporting those carrying heavy responsibilities. It is shown when church members neglect assigned work for God, grow weak and spiritless, turn to criticism and disturbances, and by refusing the Lord's correction and pruning fail to bear fruit and become like dead branches to be removed and burned. It is shown when professed believers neglect nearby missionary work of witnessing, warning, and Bible reading, a deadness described as dead, twice dead, and pulled up by the roots, demanding conversion by God's power, earnest seeking, and rising as from a resurrection to become witnesses. It is shown in worldliness, with hearts buried in what is earthly and sensual and destitute of Christianity's first principles, cutting off communion with God and deadness to holiness, misrepresenting Christ and working against the truth. It is shown in professing truth while holding it in unrighteousness without practical godliness or power, in breaking the commandments in an immoral course that brings scandal and becomes death rather than life, in not beginning needed home reformation and not being ready to receive help, and in bringing no sheaves to the Master, leaving a mournful blank that will stand in the judgment when all are judged by deeds done in the body, sharing the curse of Meroz.