Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jude 1:10
But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
10. But these speak evil of those things which they know not ] The context leaves no doubt that the region of the “things which they know not” is that of good and evil spirits. The false teachers were, though in another spirit, “intruding into those things which they had not seen,” like those whom St Paul condemns in Col 2:18.
but what they know naturally, as brute beasts ] There is an obvious reference to the natural impulses of sensual desire which the false teachersdid understand only too well, but which they perverted either to the mere gratification of lust, or, as the words and the context seem to indicate, to that gratification in a manner which was contrary to the laws of nature. If we would understand the burning vehemence of the writer’s language, we must picture to ourselves the horror which he would feel at finding sins like those of Rom 1:26-27 reproduced among those who claimed to be followers of Christ, transcending others in their knowledge of the mysteries of the faith.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
But these speak evil of those things which they know not – These false and corrupt teachers employ reproachful language of those things which lie wholly beyond the reach of their vision. Notes, 2Pe 2:12.
But what they know naturally – As mere men; as animals; that is, in things pertaining to their physical nature, or in which they are on a level with the brute creation. The reference is to the natural instincts, the impulses of appetite, and passion, and sensual pleasure. The idea of the apostle seems to be, that their knowledge was confined to those things. They did not rise above them to the intelligent contemplation of those higher things, against which they used only the language of reproach. There are multitudes of such men in the world. Towards high and holy objects they use only the language of reproach. They do not understand them, but they can rail at them. Their knowledge is confined to the subjects of sensual indulgence, and all their intelligence in that respect is employed only to corrupt and destroy themselves.
As brute beasts – Animals without intelligence. Notes, 2Pe 2:12.
In those things they corrupt themselves – They live only for sensual indulgence, and sink deeper and deeper in sensual gratifications.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 10. Speak evil of those things which they know not] They do not understand the origin and utility of civil government; they revile that which ever protects their own persons and their property. This is true in most insurrections and seditions.
But what they know naturally] They are destitute of reflection; their minds are uncultivated; they follow mere natural instinct, and are slaves to their animal propensities.
As brute beasts] Like the irrational animals; but, in the indulgence of their animal propensities, they corrupt themselves, beyond the example of the brute beasts. A fearful description; and true of many in the present day.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
But these speak evil of those things which they know not; the same as 2Pe 2:12; unless this be more generally to be understood of all those spiritual things whereof they were ignorant.
But what they know naturally; without reason or judgment.
In those things they corrupt themselves; debauch and degrade their natures by extreme sensualities, whereby they bring destruction upon themselves: see 2Pe 2:12.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
(2Pe2:12.)
thosethings which Greek,all things whatsoeverthey understandnot,namely, the things of the spiritual world.
butwhat … naturally Connect thus, Whatever(so the Greek)things naturally (by natural, blind instinct), as the unreasoning (sothe Greek)animals, they know, etc. The Greekfor the former know implies deeper knowledge; the latterknow, the mereperception of the animal senses and faculties.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
But these speak evil of those things which they know not,…. Which may more particularly refer to dignities, Jude 1:8; either angels, who are little known, and not at all, but by revelation, and yet were blasphemed, or evil spoken of by these men; either by ascribing too much to them, as the creation of the world; or by saying such things of them, as were below, and unworthy of them, as their congress with women, c. or civil magistrates these men were ignorant of the nature, use, and end, of magistracy and civil government, and so treated it with contempt; or the ministers of the Gospel, whose usefulness was not known, at least not acknowledged by them, and so became the object of their scorn and reproach: or it may refer more generally to the Scriptures, which false teachers are ignorant of, and yet speak evil of; either by denying them to be the Word of God, or by putting false glosses on them; and so to the several parts of the Scriptures, as to the law, the nature, use, and end of which they are not acquainted with; and therefore blaspheme it, by not walking according to it, or by denying it to be of God, and to be good, or by making the observance of it necessary to justification and salvation; and also to the Gospel, the doctrines and ordinances of it, which they speak evil of, despise and reject, not knowing the nature, value, and design of them:
but what they know naturally as brute beasts: man originally had a large share of natural knowledge, and there is in man still, notwithstanding the fall, by which his knowledge is impaired, a natural knowledge of God, and of things natural, civil, and moral; and there is a sensitive knowledge in man, which he has in common with the brutes, and which is here meant: and such was the brutish sensuality of these men, that
in those things they corrupt themselves; and act as brute beasts without shame and fear; yea, worse than brute beasts, as in the acts of unnatural lust, mentioned in Jude 1:7; whereby they corrupt both their souls and bodies, and so shall be destroyed, and perish in their corruption.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Whatsoever things they know not ( ). Here 2Pe 2:12 has . The rest of the sentence is smoother than 2Pe 2:12.
Naturally (). Here only in N.T. 2Pe 2:12 has . Jude has the article with and the present passive instead of the future passive .
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
Compare 2Pe 2:12.
They know not [ ] . Mental comprehension and knowledge, and referring to the whole range of invisible things; while the other verb in this verse, also translated by A. V. know (ejpistantai, originally of skill in handicraft), refers to palpable things; objects of sense; the circumstances of sensual enjoyment. Rev. marks the distinction by rendering the latter verb understand.
Naturally [] . Only here in New Testament. Compare fusika, natural, 2Pe 2:12.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “But these speak evil of” – these base, filthy, degenerate, agents of the devil, who came in among the sanctified believers, speak blasphemously – find fault With, scoff, snipe and deride.
2) “Things which they know not”, they blab buckets, baskets, and barrels of verbosity, with not a thimble full of fact or truth – They try to explain things they can not comprehend – like morons who can give the answer to any question before they hear what the question is, or the solution to any problem before they hear what the problem is. Solomon observed:
Pro 26:12 – “Seest thou a man wise. in his own conceit?”
He added: Pro 18:13 “He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame to him.” Ecc 5:3 reads, “A fool’s voice is known by multitude of words”.
The wise, the sanctified, should beware of these yowling jackals and howling wolves that creep in among them in sheep’s clothing.
Pro 10:19 “In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin.”
3) “But what they know naturally ” The kind of things that they know by their fleshly impulses -fleshly minds (Greek phusikos).
4) “As brute beast ” – (Greek hos ta aloga zoa) as irrational, or non-reasoning animals.
5) “In those things they corrupt (or putrefy) themselves.” Jude simply asserts that these self-esteemed, self-appointed, pious infiltrating, domineering loud-mouthed hypocrites lived lives that would make a dog ashamed that he was a dog, a hog ashamed that he was a hog, or a monkey ashamed to be associated with his filthy and boisterous behaviour.
Let it always be recognized that the unsaved, the natural man, no matter how educated and pious, is still a fool, a moron, in all his pious prating against God, lacking divine wisdom, following only his animal-like, flesh impulses, Pro 1:7; 1Co 2:14. To defy the word of God is the way of a fool, Psa 14:1.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
10. But these speak evil of those things which they know not. He means that they had no taste for anything but what was gross, and as it were beastly, and therefore did not perceive what was worthy of honor; and that yet they added audacity to madness, so that they feared not to condemn things above their comprehension; and that they also labored under another evil — for when like beasts they were carried away to those things which gratified the senses of the body, they observed no moderation, but gorged themselves excessively like the swine which roll themselves in stinking mud. The adverb naturally is set in opposition to reason and judgment for the instinct of nature alone rules in brute animals; but reason ought to govern men and to bridle their appetites.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
10. And now comes a most cutting antithesis. Of the dignities and glories above them they know not, and such they hold in contempt; but the sensual animalities below them they do, like brutes, naturally understand, and with those they are in deep sympathy.
These The finger of apostolic rebuke pointing at them. They know not In their animality they ignore the pure God above them, the glories of the heavenly world, the moral governmental order on earth, which faintly copies the government of God. These they appreciate not, and deny their existence, or mention them only with ridicule.
What they know From the fleshly impulses within.
As brute beasts Just as animals understand the dictates of their sexual and sensual nature.
Corrupt themselves Sinking both their intellectual and bodily systems into debasement, disease, and death, temporal and eternal.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘But these rail at whatever things they know not, and what they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason, in these things are they destroyed.’
But these foolish people, unlike Michael, think that they can treat the Devil lightly, because really they are ignorant of what they are dealing with. For while they think that they are spiritually knowledgeable, in fact they are spiritually ignorant, and as regards these things are like irrational creatures. Thus they should beware, or they may find themselves ensnared by him.
There is a warning here for us. We may laugh at the occult, and enter on it lightly. We may mock at the thought that ouija boards and tarot cards and similar things can be harmful. But by lightheartedly indulging in them we can be leaving a way open for evil spirits. And when they do enter the result can be devastating. The Devil loves nothing better than to be laughed at when he sees that it leaves him with an opening.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Core.
Jud 1:11
2Pe 2:15-16, “Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness; But was rebuked for his iniquity: the dumb ass speaking with man’s voice forbad the madness of the prophet.”
Rev 2:14, “But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication.”
Scripture Reference – Note:
1Ti 6:10, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
Jud 1:12 “feeding themselves without fear” – Scripture Reference – Note:
Eze 34:1-2, “And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves ! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Jud 1:10. But these speak evil, &c. Whereas these men rail against things which they do not indeed understand; but what things they understand naturally, like animals destitute of reason, in these things they are corrupted. See 2Pe 2:11-12; 2Pe 2:22.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jud 1:10 . Description of the false teachers with reference to Jud 1:8 in contrast to Jud 1:9 ; comp. 2Pe 2:12 .
They blaspheme, , what they know not : the supermundane, to which the , Jud 1:8 , belong, is meant. Hofmann: “they know about it, otherwise they could not blaspheme it; but they have no acquaintance with it, and yet in their ignorance judge of it, and that in a blasphemous manner” (comp. Col 2:18 according to the usual reading). Those expositors who understand and of human authorities, are at a loss for an explanation of the thoughts here expressed; thus Arnaud: il est assez difficile de prciser, quelles taient ces choses qu’ignoraient ces impies.
] a contrast to what goes before; corresponding to , Jud 1:8 , only here the idea is carried farther. Jachmann explains it: “the passions inherent in every one;” but this does not suit . De Wette correctly: the objects of sensual enjoyment ; to which the (Jud 1:8 ) especially belongs. By ( . . = of nature ) is prominently brought forward the fact that their understanding is not raised above that of the irrational animals, that to them only the sensual is something known. There is no distinction between and , as Schott thinks, that the former denotes a comprehensive knowledge, and the latter a mere external knowing (“they understand, namely, in respect of the external and sensual side of things, practically applied”); but these two verbs obtain this distinctive meaning here only through the context in which they are employed by Jude (comp. Hofmann).
] , more significant than , designates their entire surrender to these things.
; Luther, they corrupt themselves ; better: they destroy themselves ; namely, by their immoderate indulgences. In Luther’s translation the words are incorrectly attached to this verb.
Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary
10 .] Contrast of the behaviour of these persons to that just related . 2Pe 2:12 . These on the other hand, whatever things they know not, speak evil of (the reference in is to the spiritual world. Those who understand and above of human authorities, are at a loss for an explanation here: so Arnaud, “il est assez difficile de prciser, quelles taient ces choses qu’ignoraient ces impies”): but whatever things naturally, as the irrational animals, they understand (viz. the objects of sense: of which Jud 1:8 has already been mentioned as one. , as c., : Wetst. cites Xen. Cyr. 7, , : but it appears from Sturz, Lex, Xen. , 1. f. that the place is Cyr. ii. 3. 5, and the word , not . In Xen. Apol. Socr. iii. 9. 1, we have . In 2Pe 2:12 , the comparison to irrational creatures is not confined to the sort of knowledge which they have, but is extended to the persons themselves and their conduct), in these (in the element and region of these) they corrupt themselves (or, are depraved).
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Jud 1:10 . . The libertines do the contrary of what we are told of the respect shown by the angel even towards Satan: they speak evil of that spiritual world, those spiritual beings, of which they know nothing, cf. 2Pe 2:12 . The common verb . shows that the of Jud 1:8 are identical with here. For the blindness of the carnal mind to all higher wisdom cf. 1Co 2:7-16 , a passage linked with our epistle by the distinction between the and and by the words , . See too Joh 8:19 , 1Ti 6:4 , . For the form see my ed. of St. James, p. 183.
. This stands for in Jud 1:8 and is explained by in Jud 1:4 , in Jud 1:7 , in Jud 1:8 , in Jud 1:16 .
, “by instinct,” so Dion. L. x. 137, . Alford cites Xen. Cyrop. ii. 3, 9, , .
. The natural antithesis here would have been “these things they admire and delight in”. For this Jude substitutes by a stern irony “these things are their ruin”. Cf. Phi 3:19 , where speaking of the enemies of the Cross the apostle says: , , , Eph 4:22 , .
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
know. App-132.
naturally. Greek. phusikos. Only here. Compare 2Pe 2:12.
brute. See 2Pe 2:12.
in. App-104.
corrupt themselves = are destroyed. Greek. phtheiro. See 1Co 3:17.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
10.] Contrast of the behaviour of these persons to that just related. 2Pe 2:12. These on the other hand, whatever things they know not, speak evil of (the reference in is to the spiritual world. Those who understand and above of human authorities, are at a loss for an explanation here: so Arnaud, il est assez difficile de prciser, quelles taient ces choses quignoraient ces impies): but whatever things naturally, as the irrational animals, they understand (viz. the objects of sense: of which Jud 1:8 has already been mentioned as one. , as c., : Wetst. cites Xen. Cyr. 7, , : but it appears from Sturz, Lex, Xen. , 1. f. that the place is Cyr. ii. 3. 5, and the word , not . In Xen. Apol. Socr. iii. 9. 1, we have . In 2Pe 2:12, the comparison to irrational creatures is not confined to the sort of knowledge which they have, but is extended to the persons themselves and their conduct), in these (in the element and region of these) they corrupt themselves (or, are depraved).
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Jud 1:10. ) all things, which.- , they are not acquainted with) This is said of spiritual things, belonging to God and the saints.-, naturally) by their natural faculties, respecting natural things, by a natural mode of knowledge, and a natural appetite. That which is physical is here opposed to that which is spiritual, Jud 1:19.-, they know) A more subtle knowledge is conveyed by the former expression, , they are (not) acquainted with.-, they perish [corrupt themselves]) Comp. the following verse.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
The Lords Day
I was in the Spirit on the Lords day.Rev 1:10.
1. The religious importance of the first day of the week arose from the conviction that Christ had risen from the dead on that day. The conviction is certainly found to exist very early in the Church, and we can hardly resist the conclusion that its origin must be sought in the fact that, in some mode which we shall never exactly understand, it was on the first day of the week that Christ so manifested Himself to His Apostles as to create in them the assurance of His being actually alive among them in the fulness of personal life. The phrase of the Apocalypse, then, is not hard of explanation. The first day of the week was known as the Lords Day, because in truth the Lord had then made clear His title to the lordship He claimed. It was on that day, so the Church believed, that the Son of Man, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, was declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection of the dead. It was as an Easter Day in every week that the first day of the week first secured its religious importance.
The Church had no definite command from the Lord to change the date of its rest-day, nor indeed did the Church do that all at once; it was not possible. But the first day of the week, the day on which He rose from the dead and appeared to His disciples, the day, too, on which the Holy Spirit came, the Church has, by a sort of inspired instinct, set apart to Christian fellowship, meetings for prayer and worship, and the celebration of the Holy Supper. Gradually it took the place of the seventh day as the day of rest.
There is no historical fact that enjoys better proof than thisthat the observance of the day by intermission of toil and by special religious exercises was the constant practice of the Christian Church from the days of the Apostles. The civil laws, when the secular arm was extended to the Church, tell the same tale. Constantine forbade lawsuits on this day: the courts were to be closed. The Valentians, elder and younger, follow. Theodosius enacts that all Sundays in the year be days of vacation from all business of the law whatsoever.
Secular business of a more private kind was also strictly forbidden, though ploughing and harvesting were at first excepted from the prohibition. Christian soldiers were required to attend church. And what is of special interest, in view of present-day tendencies, no public games or shows or frivolous recreations were allowed by law on the Lords Day.
From the very beginning the English people believed that this was a day apart, a day given of God, a day in which men could recover their connection with spiritual things, and refresh their hearts by waiting upon the invisible God. Perhaps no one has described the English Sunday better than the Royalist poet, George Herbert:
Sundays the pillars are
On which heavns palace arched lies;
The other days fill up the spare
And hollow room with vanities:
They are the fruitful beds and borders
In Gods rich garden; that is bare
Which parts their ranks and orders.
2. The spirit of man is tidal and the soul wins its victories as the sea wins hers. The tides of the spirit are known to us allthe great reactions, the swinging tides of feeling, interest, and energy. These are from above, coming down upon us, unlike the pedestrian guides of common sense and principle which direct us evenly on our way. This does not apply merely to the ebb and flow of sweet or tender feeling, though it includes that also. Rather one thinks of the occasional heightening of life all round, the intensification of its powers in moments when it means intensely, and means good. Now this occasional quality of human nature is the explanation of the common delight in the observance of special days. Birthdays and other anniversaries, the return of friends from afar, the festivals commemorating national and religious events, are all of them times of spiritual rising tide. It is fitting to give them their opportunity, to set time apart, and to forbid encroaching duties.
Dr. Haegler, in his Expenditure and Repair of Vital Force, says that the night succeeding a days labour does not afford a complete recuperation of zig-zag lines. The Monday line shows a man at his maximum strength. With each succeeding day the line is shortened a little. On Tuesday morning the workman, refreshed by sleep, has regained most of his lost energy, but not all. On Wednesday the line is shorter still, that is, there is a larger margin of loss. On Thursday and Friday and Saturday the lines are shortened more and more. On Saturday night the minimum of strength is reached. Now comes Sunday. If the workman observes it, he regains his full normal vigour and begins again where he began a week ago. If he refuses to observe it, and keeps on doing so, he will never regain his normal standard of vital force, but will suffer a constant drain and decline until he ends in physical breakdown. Thus it appears as a scientific fact that the man who habitually refuses to rest on Sunday is living on his reserve. He is literally working himself to death.
3. The need for the observance of set days is embedded in human nature. Eternal as the constitution of the soul of man is the necessity for the existence of a day of rest. And on this ground alone can we find an impregnable defence of the proportion one day in seven. The seventh being altered to the first, one might ask why one in seven might not be altered to one in ten. The thing has been tried; and by the necessities of human nature the change has been found pernicious. One day in ten, prescribed by revolutionary France, was actually pronounced by physiologists insufficient. So that we begin to find that, in a deeper sense than we at first suspected, the sabbath was made for man. Even in the contrivance of one day in seven, it was arranged by unerring wisdom. Just because the Sabbath was made for man, and not because man was ordained to keep the Sabbath-day, we cannot tamper even with the iota, one day in seven.
Professor Hodge of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., demonstrated in his biological laboratory that the nerve cells are not fully restored from a days wear by a nights rest, and that they need to be fully restored every few days, and that such perfect restoration cannot be accomplished with less than thirty to thirty-six hours of continuous rest, which means a rest-day added to the adjoining two nights, a rest such as the Sabbath regularly affords.
I beg and pray of you, said Dolly Winthrop, to leave off weaving of a Sunday, for its bad for soul and bodyand the money as comes i that way ull be a bad bed to lie down on at the last, if it doesnt fly away, nobody knows where, like the white frost. And youll excuse me being that free with you, Master Marner, for I wish you wellI do.1 [Note: George Eliot, Silas Marner.]
I certainly do feel by experience the eternal obligation because of the eternal necessity of the Sabbath. The soul withers without it; it thrives in proportion to the fidelity of its observance. Nay, I even believe the stern rigour of the Puritan Sabbath had a grand effect upon the soul. Fancy a man thrown in upon himself, with no permitted music, nor relaxation, nor literature, nor secular conversationnothing but his Bible, his own soul and Gods silence! What hearts of iron this system must have made. How different from our stuffed-arm-chair religion and gospel of comfort! as if to be made comfortable were the great end of religion. I am persuaded, however, that the Sabbath must rest not on an enactment, but on the necessities of human nature. It is necessary not because it is commanded; but it is commanded because it is necessary. If the Bible says, Eat the herb of the field, sustenance does not become a duty in consequence of the enactment, but the enactment is only a statement of the law of human nature. And so with the Sabbath, and this appears to be a truer and far more impregnable base to place it on. You cannot base it on a law; but you can show that the law was based on an eternal fitness. There I think it never can be dislodged.2 [Note: Life and Letters of the Rev. F. W. Robertson, 211.]
Sunday is a quiet hollow, scooped out of the windy hill of the week.3 [Note: George MacDonald.]
4. To observe a day in any worthy sense, one must enter into its spirit. The true worth of Sunday to us all depends on our coming to find in it the opportunity, the hope, the means of some such rising above this world as that of which St. John speaks; some approach towards that entrance among things eternal which he links with the Lords Day. Yes, whatever may be our place and work in life, our share in its pleasures and hardships and interests and sorrows, if Sunday is to mean more and not less to us as the years go by, we must be using it to learn a little more of our duty, and of our need, of ourselves, as God sees us, and, above all, of His will, His ways, His mercy, and His justice.
As is the Spirit, so is the Lords Day. The one is proportionate to the other. You cannot make any day the Lords Day for a man who has no Lord. You cannot make any day a Sabbath, if a man has no Sabbath in him. True, our Saviour said, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath, but then the Sabbath which is made for the man must be made in the man, and by him. Forced rest is not restful. The man whose day is only an outer quiet can have no inner peace. There is no dreariness so dreadful as the dreariness of a period of loneliness, of solitude, to a man who fears his own society and pants for the distraction that comes from the society of other men. Hence there can be no Lords Day for any man unless he be in the Spirit, and just in proportion as he is in it will the day be to him rich with a message from heaven, great with the grace of God.
We all remember times when we have gone to our work all out of tune, and unable to fix the mind on what we had to do, half dead, as it were, to the demand; to find, as the time went on, that things were slipping through our hands to no sort of purpose; and when night came we had to say sadly, with the emperor, I have lost a day. We have lost the day, because we have not caught its spirit. But on another day we have found we were so clear of head and sure of hand that we have done the work of two men, and come out all aglow with the spirit which has borne us as on the wings of eagles.
I go into my study, and become absorbed in a book. The author may be dead and gone this thousand years, and no other trace of him remain on the earth; but if he has hidden his spirit in that book, and I can find it, he opens his heart to me, and I open mine to him, and find myself touched as he was touched when he wrote that chapter. I cannot help the tears in my eyes as I read, any more than he could help them when he wrote, or the strong throb of the heart, or the ripple of laughter. I see what he saw in human homes and human lives, catch the vision he had of the open heavens, or the lurid flame and smoke. I am in the spirit of this master of my morning, and his spirit is in me; my senses are simply the messengers between his soul and mine. I seem to hear the voice when I read they used to hear who knew the writer. There is a spell on me which makes time and place of no account, and I wonder how my morning has slipped away.1 [Note: R. Collyer, The Joy of Youth, 53.]
5. When we are in the Spirit on the Lords Day, the gates of a new world open to us. The seer in Patmos saw visions and heard the sound of trumpets. The tradition is that he was banished to Patmos, to work in the mines there, because he was of the outcast and branded Christian sect; and if this is the truth, we cannot doubt that his overseers would keep a stern hand on him, and allow no day for rest, or time for worship. He would have to dig and delve his full stint, like the slave he was, until the time came to lay down his pick and go to his hovel. Or, if it was known among his keepers that this day was more sacred to him than any other in the week, they would mark it for him, it may be, with the rubric of a deeper misery.
Sunday was not a holiday in the mines, but the spirit of this redeemed man is free, and he has access to the spiritual world. While his feet and hands toil at their dreary tasks, he passes into an ecstatic state, suspending his connexion with this material world, and leading him into the other land, unseen of any eyes but his. In this exalted state the boundaries of both time and space are thrown down, and he moves free in a larger world. He is back again in the morning light of the day of Christs rising. Again he runs to the empty tomb with Peter; again the woman whom they have left solitary by that empty tomb comes and tells them what she has seen; and again, amid the evening shadows, he himself hears the words, Peace be unto you. Similarly he escapes from the narrow confines of the island, and shares the life of the infant Church scattered along the coast-lines of the Great Sea. He is their brother and companion, both in the tribulation and in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ; he is with them both in darkness and in glory. He is with them, too, in that patience of the saints which both the tribulation and the Kingdom have taught themthat wonderful patience of the Early Church, which had learned to be patient with life, both in its present trial and in its deferred hope.
Principal Alexander Whyte, in giving a New Year exhortation in 1913, testified: If my experience of the Lords Day is of any value or any interest to any of youwell, here it is. I have had a long lifetimes experience of, on the whole, a somewhat scrupulously kept Lords Day. And that day, so kept, has been to me one of my chief blessings in a life full of such blessings. I can testify, and that with the most entire integrity, that from my childhood down to this hour, I have greatly loved and greatly valued the seclusion, and the silence, and the rest, and especially the reading proper to the Lords Day. And at the end of a long life, I look back and bless God for those who brought me up in the nurture and admonition of the Lords Day. Especially do I recall my Lords Day reading before my teens, and during them and after them. Speak for yourselves. But it would ill become me and it would be very unsafe for me if I were to be silent about the Scottish Sabbath, or were I to do less than all that in me lies to secure such a Sabbath to my own household and to yours.
Alexander McLarens upbringing would now be called rigidly Puritanic, but instead of its having left on his mind any unhappy impression, all through life it was recalled with feelings of gratitude and pleasure. As for Sabbath day employments, no recollections were more lovingly dwelt on than their unvarying round. When I was a boy, he would say, I was taken regularly to two services long before I was old enough to listen attentively to the sermon, but no remembrance of wishing the service to be over dwells in my memory. There was no evening service in those days. Parents were expected to teach their children then, and they did. In my fathers house, after an extra good tea, the lesson began, very often with the repetition of the second chapter of Ephesians, each member of the family, including father and mother, repeating one verse. I, as youngest, brought up the rear. I knew nothing of dreary Sundays, so often spoken of as being the rule in Scotland, especially long ago.1 [Note: E. T. McLaren, Dr. McLaren of Manchester, 8.]
O day to sweet religious thought
So wisely set apart,
Back to the silent strength of life
Help thou my wavering heart.
Nor let the obtrusive lies of sense
My meditations draw
From the composed, majestic realm
Of everlasting law.
I know these outward forms, wherein
So much my hopes I stay,
Are but the shadowy hints of that
Which cannot pass away.
That just outside the work-day path
By mans volition trod,
Lie the resistless issues of
The things ordained of God.2 [Note: Alice Carey.]
6. A set day kept in the spirit goes far to hallow all our days. Christianity is not satisfied with one-seventh of our time. It lays imperious claims to the whole, and in our settings forth of the duty of Sunday observance, we may not stoop in her name to contract for a fraction, on the understanding that the residuum may legitimately be given to the world. It behoves us to bate not one jot of the sacred claims of Him who desires not ours but us for His purchased possession. In abandoning Egypt, not a hoof may be left behind. If the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath, we will bear in mind that this appropriation on His part does not imply the ceding of His lordship over all our days. He is Lord over the Sabbath, to interpret it, to preside over it, to ennoble it by merging it in the Lords Day, breathing into it an air of liberty and love, necessarily unknown before, and thus making it the nearest resemblance to the eternal sabbatism. But, in doing this as its Lord, He claims the first-fruits as holy only that the lump also may be holy, thus to secure that
The week-days following in their train
The fulness of the blessing gain,
Till all, both resting and employ,
Be one Lords day of holy joy.
It is said that those who serve a battery on the battlefield are obliged at intervals to pause in calm self-possession, heeding not the awful excitement, that the guns may cool; yes, and that the smoke may lift to enable them to take accurate aim; and further that they may replenish their stores of ammunition. And so no Christian can truly fight the battle of the week without the quiet Sabbath to cool his guns, to lift off earth-lowering shadows, and to replenish his stores of strength from the secret place of the Most High.
Through the week we go down into the valleys of care and shadow. Our Sabbaths should be hills of light and joy in Gods presence; and so, as time rolls by, we shall go on from mountain-top to mountain-top, till at last we catch the glory of the gate, and enter in, to go no more out forever.1 [Note: H. W. Beecher.]
A conscientious observance of the Sabbath brings a double blessingrelease from the pressure of outward business, and escape from the tyranny of a mans own strength. All unvaried activity is apt to become engrossing; and the best thing a man can do, in order to preserve the completeness of a rich and well-balanced humanity, is to shake himself loose as frequently as possible from the domination of an exclusive current of thought. Nothing more dangerous or more hostile to moral health than what the Germans would call a pampered subjectivity.1 [Note: The Day Book of John Stuart Blackie, 52.]
Among the counsels written by Mr. Gladstone in 18541857 for the use of his eldest son is the following:
Sunday, the day of the Resurrection, is at once the emblem, the earnest, and the joy, of the renewed life: cherish it accordingly: grudge, and as it were resent, any intrusion of worldly thoughts or conversation: except upon real necessity, strive to shut out rigorously any worldly business: always view the devotion of the day to God, not as a yoke, but as a privilege; and be assured that if and so far as this view of it shall seem over-strained, the soul is not in its health.2 [Note: Letters on Church and Religion of W. E. Gladstone, ii. 414.]
The Lords Day was observed as a remembrance of the Risen Lord. Its observance is a direct testimony to the greatest fact of the Gospelthe Resurrection; and to one of the chief doctrines of our faithChrists Divinity. If it was not His day, the day He had for ever purchased and baptised to Himself by rising again from the dead, Christianity had no foundation, forgiveness no security, mens faith was vain, they were yet in their sins. It was a point of personal loyalty to Christ to keep it. It was one great way of showing love and worship to their Redeemer. It was not a command so much as a privilege. They did not ask, What shall I lose by keeping it? but, What may I not miss by neglecting it? Is this our attitude to the Lords Day? Is it a day of personal gratitude to One who gave Himself for me? You keep your friends birthday, you think of him, send messages and presents to him. Have you no thoughts, words, gifts for Christ on His birthday? You ask for ways of showing Him love, of letting it be known that you are His. Here is one. Show Him your love by dedicating to Him this day.3 [Note: R. W. Barbour, Thoughts, 56.]
Still Sundays, rising oer the world,
Have never failed to bring their calm,
While from their tranquil wings unfurled,
On the tired heart distilling balm,
A purer air bathes all the fields,
A purer gold the generous sky;
The land a hallowed silence yields,
All things in mute, glad worship lie,
All, save where careless innocence
In the great Presence sports and plays,
A wild bird whistles, or the wind
Tosses the light snow from the sprays.
For life renews itself each week,
Each Sunday seems to crown the year;
The fair earth rounds as fresh a cheek
As though just made another sphere.
The shadowy film that sometimes breathes
Between our thought and heaven disparts,
The quiet hour so brightly wreathes
Its solemn peace about our hearts,
And Nature, whether sun or shower
Caprices with her soaring days,
Rests conscious, in a happy sense,
Of the wide smile that lights her ways.1 [Note: Harriet P. Spofford, Poems.]
The Lords Day
Literature
Aitken (J.), The Abiding Law, 75.
Brindley (R. B.), The Darkness where God is, 151.
Burder (H. F.), Sermons, 408.
Collyer (R.), The Joy of Youth, 53.
Dean (J. T.), Visions and Revelations, 1.
Fuller (M.), The Lords Day, 327.
Henson (H. H.), Christ and the Nation, 210.
Kelman (J.), Ephemera Eternitatis, 1.
Knight (G. H.), Abiding Help for Changing Days, 147.
Lees (H. C.), The Sunshine of the Good News, 47.
Liddon (H. P.), Easter in St. Pauls, 275.
Moule (H. C. G.), Thoughts for the Sundays of the Year, 14.
Nicoll (W. R.), Sunday Evening, 189.
Ogden (S.), Sermons, 248.
Paget (F.), Studies in the Christian Character, 32.
Pearson (A.), The Claims of the Faith, 140.
Rowland (A.), Open Windows, 20.
Smith (D.), Christian Counsel, 53.
Stanley (A. P.), Sermons on Special Occasions, 78.
Vallings (J. F.), The Holy Spirit of Promise, 207.
Christian World Pulpit, xxxviii. 275 (W. H. Bliss); lii. 56 (A. M. Fairbairn); lxvii. 361 (H. H. Henson).
Church of England Magazine, xvii. 369 (G. Burgess); xxxv. 185 (G. Venables).
Church of England Pulpit, lix. 313 (J. Pattison); lxi. 379 (W. M. Sinclair); lxiii. 252 (M. P. Maturin).
Expositor, 1st Ser., ii. 115 (E. H. Plumptre).
Homiletic Review, xxxi. 323 (A. Da Montefeltro).
Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible
Reciprocal: Lev 11:20 – General Deu 9:12 – corrupted 1Sa 17:28 – I know Mat 7:16 – shall Mat 12:45 – and the Act 13:45 – spake Act 19:9 – but spake Rom 1:26 – vile 1Co 15:32 – beasts 2Co 11:15 – whose Gal 5:13 – only Eph 5:4 – filthiness Phi 3:2 – evil 1Ti 1:19 – which 1Ti 6:4 – He 2Ti 3:2 – blasphemers Tit 3:2 – speak 1Pe 2:15 – the ignorance 1Pe 4:4 – speaking 2Pe 2:2 – evil 2Pe 2:10 – in the 2Pe 2:12 – as natural
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jud 1:10. This means they act more like beasts than men. (See 2Pe 2:12).
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jud 1:10. But these, who defile the flesh, as they rail at dignities (Jud 1:8), at whatever they know notthe whole range of invisible and heavenly things, and even the nobler sentiments of our naturethey rail; and whatever they know naturally as brute beasts (irrational animals), their instincts and propensities, even these they abuse, for they surrender themselves to them, and in these destroy (or corrupt) themselves; and so they are worse than brutes. As drunk as a beast is, in truth, a libel on the lower creation. Drunkenness and like abuses of natural appetite are sins of man only. The two verbs used in this verse, know and know, are different, but it is not easy to express the distinction between them. What they know not admits some knowledge, though it denies the accuracy and the completeness of it: what they know describes such knowledge as thought and use of faculty may give; though from the added word naturally, it is clear that the knowledge is largely of a sensual kind.
Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament
A double crime is here charged upon these seducers by our apostle, namely, pride, in speaking evil of things they know not; and wickedness, in abusing the knowledge they had.
1. Their sin was great in speaking evil of what they did not know, (they reviled dignities and magistrates, the usefulness of whom they knew not) and possibly condemned the mysteries of the Christian faith, which they understand not, notwithstanding they called themselves Gnostics, and pretended to higher degrees and larger measures of knowledge than other men.
Learn, That truth is usually slandered by ignorant and conceited men; because men do not understand the things of God, therefore they do condemn them.
2. Their wickedness was great in abusing the knowledge that they had, and in acting contrary to it. What they knew naturally, or by the light of nature, to be sinful in those things, as brute beasts, did they corrupt and defile themselves.
Here note, 1. That where sin reigneth, it turneth men into brute beasts, Psa 49:12. Hence they are compared to dogs for filthiness, to swine for uncleanness, to wolves for cruelty; of the two it is worse to be like a beast, than to be a beast: the beast is what God has made it; but he that is like a beast, is what sin and the devil has made him.
2. That it is a sign of a man turned to a beast, to follow the lusts and passions of corrupt nature. Like brute beasts they corrupt themselves. It is just with God to leave them to be led by sense, who will not be guided by grace, and to suffer them to fall into the ditch of beastly sensuality, who forget that they are men.
Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament
Jdg 1:10-11. But these Without any shame; speak evil of those things which they know not Namely, the things of God; of whose nature and excellence, truth and importance, they are entirely ignorant. See on 1Co 2:14. But what they know naturally as brute beasts By instinct, as animals void of reason; in those things they corrupt themselves They make them occasions of sin: or, they are corrupted by the gross and scandalous abuse of them, to the dishonour of God, and their own infamy and destruction. Thus the apostle signifies that, notwithstanding their high pretensions to knowledge, they had no knowledge even concerning the use of their own bodies, but what they derived from natural instinct as brute animals; and that, instead of using that knowledge rightly, they thereby destroyed both their souls and bodies. Thus, in this passage, he condemned the lascivious practices of the Nicolaitans, and of all the ungodly teachers, who defended the promiscuous use of women, and confuted the argument taken from natural appetite, by which they vindicated their common whoredoms. Wo unto them Of all the apostles, Jude alone, and that in this single passage, denounces a wo. St. Peter, to the same effect, pronounces them cursed children. Macknight, who renders the clause, wo is to them, considers it as only a declaration of the misery which was to come on them: in which sense only the phrase is used by our Lord, Mat 24:19; Wo unto them that are with child, &c., for certainly this was no wish of punishment, since to be with child, and to give suck in those days, was no crime. But it was a declaration of the misery which was coming on persons in that helpless condition. For they have gone in the way of Cain The murderer; and ran greedily Greek, , have been poured out, like a torrent without banks; after the error of Balaam The covetous false prophet, being strongly actuated, like him, by a passion for riches, and therefore drawing money from their disciples by allowing them to indulge their lusts without restraint. See on 2Pe 2:15. And perished in the gainsaying of Core Having opposed Gods messengers, as Korah did, like him and his company, vengeance will overtake them, as it did him. Here, as in many passages of Scripture, a thing is said to have happened which was only to happen. This manner of speaking was used to show the absolute certainty of the thing spoken of. The gainsaying, here mentioned, implies rebellion; for when princes and magistrates are contradicted, it is rebellion. By declaring that the ungodly teachers would perish in the rebellion of Korah, Jude insinuated that these men, by opposing the apostles of Christ, were guilty of a rebellion similar to that of Korah and his companions, who opposed Moses and Aaron, on pretence that they were no more commissioned by God, the one to be a prince, the other a priest, than the rest of the congregation, who, they said, were all holy, Num 16:3; Num 16:13. By comparing these false and wicked teachers to Cain, Balaam, and Korah, Jude has represented them as guilty of murder, covetousness, and ambition.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
10. But these speak evil of such things as they know not; and such things as they know naturally, like irrational animals, in these they are corrupted. These men are spiritually dead, knowing nothing about spiritual things. They may be great in human learning, all of which is polluted by depravity, only augmenting their spiritual corruption and damnation.
Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament
1:10 {8} But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
(8) The conclusion: These men are doubly at fault, that is, both for their rash folly in condemning some, and for their impudent and shameless contempt of that knowledge, which when they had gotten, yet nonetheless they lived as brute beasts, serving their bellies.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. The seriousness of the error vv. 10-13
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The things the false teachers did not understand but reviled probably refer to aspects of God’s revealed will that they chose to reject (cf. 1Co 2:7-16).
"Jude, like his brother James, denounces the sins of the tongue frequently in this short letter." [Note: Richard Wolff, A Commentary on the Epistle of Jude, pp. 91-92. Cf. 1Co 2:8; 1Co 2:10-11; 1Co 2:15-16.]
What the false teachers did understand was the gratification of the flesh, and that would destroy them.
"Their way of life is to allow the instincts they share with the beasts to have their way; their values are fleshly values; their gospel is a gospel of the flesh. Jude describes men who have lost all sense of, and awareness of, spiritual things, and for whom the things demanded by the animal instincts of man are the only realities and the only standard." [Note: Barclay, p. 222.]
"Jude is stating a profound truth in linking these two characteristics together. If a man is persistently blind to spiritual values, deaf to the call of God, and rates self-determination as the highest good, then a time will come when he cannot hear the call he has spurned, but is left to the mercy of the turbulent instincts to which he once turned in search of freedom." [Note: Green, p. 171.]
"Slow suicide (not always slow) is the result of such beastliness." [Note: Williams, 7:14.]