After showing how Jesus (Michael in the text) reacted to those in authority who opposed him, Jude then turns to the false teachers and mentions how they responded to authority figures, like the Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, which Jesus set in authority over the Church (Ephesians 4:11). Of them, Jude claimed they “speak evil of those things which they know not…” (Jude 1:10; cp verse-8). In other words, they have no spiritual understanding, and they speak evil of or blaspheme[1] those who are spiritually minded, because of their insensitivity concerning anything godly. What they do know or understand comes to them naturally by sight, by hearing, by touching, by smelling and by tasting, just like any of the wild beasts of the field.
Jude uses two words that are translated know in the KJV. The first is oida (G1492) and it has to do with subjective knowledge or that which comes to a person without effort. It has to do with awareness as opposed to ‘study’ and it is intuitive understanding as opposed to objective knowledge or that acquired through experience. This is the knowledge the false teachers don’t have and blaspheme (slander) it, when they see it in others. The other word translated know in Jude 1:10 is epistamai (G1987) and has to do with knowledge that comes to one as a result of prolonged attention to whatever is in front of him. It was used of Jews who knew how the Lord had chosen Peter from among them to preach the Gospel to the gentiles, which, as a result, uncircumcised gentiles believed and received the Spirit of God, just as Jesus’ Jewish disciples did in the beginning (Acts 15:7). It is also used of Apollos who had diligently preached Christ to others, knowing (G1987) only the Baptism of John (Acts 18:25). In other words, John’s doctrine of Christ was the only thing Apollos considered. Finally, it is used of the demoniac in Asia who knew (G1097) Jesus through knowledge he acquired about him, probably through others, but he knew (G1987) Paul through prolonged consideration, i.e. he watched him (Acts 19:15).
So, Jude told his readers that the false teachers simply ignore the knowledge they’ve heard from spiritually minded folks, who are gifted by God, and chose to understand only the things they had given their attention to. They had no spiritual awareness themselves and received only that, which they could acquire through personal experience, and in doing these things, i.e. ignoring the spiritual and emphasizing the physical, they are defiled (Jude 1:10).
Jude then interpreted what the false teachers were doing by offering three examples from the Old Covenant text (Jude 1:11. First, he told his readers the false teachers had gone the way of Cain. Cain’s religion was physical in that he offered the Lord what he labored to produce, but his brother offered what only the Lord could give—life. In Cain the physically minded are contrasted against the spiritually minded.
Next, Jude showed how the false teachers ran greedily after the error of Balaam. That is, Balaam had lusted after the gold he had been offered to curse the people of God. While he couldn’t curse what God didn’t curse, he was able to put the children of God in disfavor by teaching them to break covenant with him by worshiping other gods, which is what the false teachers in the first century AD were doing by deceiving believers into returning to Judaism. These things were done, because the churches in the Roman provinces: Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia (cp. 1Peter 1:1), which are in what is now modern Turkey, were so rich. The rulers of Jerusalem and the false teachers they influenced lusted after the gold they presumed they could have, if they could place those churches under the authority of the high priest at Jerusalem.
Finally, Jude pointed to the example of Korah, who slandered Moses and Aaron, the duly appointed leaders of the people of God, saying they took too much upon themselves, because it was obvious that all the children of God were holy. The reasoning was that, if God was among all the people, Moses and Aaron presumed too much by appointing themselves as their leaders (Numbers 16:3).
In all these things the false teachers poured out their attention upon what they knew by experience, physically, while completely ignoring any knowledge they could have been given by the more spiritually minded folks in the church. They worshiped the Lord in accordance with what they were able to do in their own strength. They recognized the great reward that could be theirs, if they were able to turn the hearts and minds of the people of God to their way of worship, and they reached out to acquire that reward by slandering the folks the Lord had put in authority over the Church. In other words they used the knowledge they did have in a manner that defiled them and their perceived service toward God (Jude 1:10; cp. 1Corinthiasn 3:17).
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[1] The Greek word translated speak evil of (KJV), revile (NASB), slander (NET) is blasphemeo (G987) in the Greek, and is elsewhere translated blaspheme (cp. Mark 3:28-29; Acts 26:11).
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