Expositor's Bible Commentary Commentary Jude 1:19

"These are they who make separations, sensual, having not the Spirit." — Jude 1:19 (ASV)

Again Jude returns to his triadic pattern of describing the false teachers. (1) They are “men who divide you” (GK 626). This rare word may mean that “they made distinctions,” perhaps as the later Gnostics divided Christians by classifying them into groups of initiates (“spiritual ones”) and lesser ones. (2) Furthermore, they are men “who follow mere natural instincts” (lit.,“psychic” or “unspiritual”; GK 6035). This word was likely used by the Gnostics to slander the orthodox when in fact the false teachers themselves were living on the natural level. Jude turns the word against them. The church today is still plagued by false teachers claiming superior knowledge and experience; yet their lives are often worse than those of the average pagan. (3) Finally, Jude says that they “do not have the Spirit” (i.e., the Holy Spirit), in spite of all their vaunted claims and teaching.