These are the ones who cause divisions
This phrase identifies individuals within the community who create discord and disunity. In the early church, unity was crucial for the spread of the Gospel and the strength of the Christian community. The act of causing divisions is often linked to false teachings or heretical beliefs, which were prevalent in the early church era. The Apostle Paul also warns against such divisive individuals in Romans 16:17, emphasizing the need for believers to be vigilant and to avoid those who disrupt the harmony of the church. The emphasis on unity reflects Jesus' prayer for His followers in John 17:21, where He desires that they be one, just as He and the Father are one.

who are worldly
The term "worldly" refers to those who are focused on earthly, material, and fleshly desires rather than spiritual matters. This aligns with the biblical concept of the "world" as a system opposed to God, as seen in 1 John 2:15-17, where believers are warned not to love the world or anything in it. The worldly mindset is characterized by a lack of spiritual discernment and an emphasis on temporal pleasures and values. This contrasts with the call for Christians to be transformed by the renewing of their minds (Romans 12:2) and to set their minds on things above (Colossians 3:2).

and devoid of the Spirit
Being "devoid of the Spirit" indicates a lack of the Holy Spirit's presence and influence in one's life. In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is essential for guiding, teaching, and empowering believers (John 14:26, Acts 1:8). The absence of the Spirit suggests that these individuals are not true followers of Christ, as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is a mark of genuine faith (Romans 8:9). This phrase underscores the importance of the Spirit in producing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) and living a life that pleases God. The lack of the Spirit results in a life driven by the flesh, which is contrary to the life of a believer who walks by the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-17).

1. Jude
The author of the epistle, traditionally identified as Jude, the brother of James and half-brother of Jesus. He writes to warn believers about false teachers.

2. False Teachers
Individuals within the early Christian community who were causing divisions and leading others astray with their teachings.

3. The Early Church
The community of believers to whom Jude is writing, facing challenges from within due to false teachings and divisions.Recognizing False Teachers
Be vigilant in identifying those who cause divisions and lead others away from the truth of the Gospel.

The Danger of Worldliness
Understand that a worldly mindset is contrary to the Spirit and leads to division and strife within the church.

The Importance of the Holy Spirit
Emphasize the necessity of being filled with the Spirit to discern truth and maintain unity in the body of Christ.

Guarding Against Division
Actively work towards unity in the church by fostering love, understanding, and adherence to sound doctrine.

Spiritual Discernment
Cultivate spiritual discernment through prayer and study of the Scriptures to recognize and resist false teachings.Verse 19. - There follows yet another description of the same men, taking up that in verse 16, and generalizing it in harmony with what is suggested by the apostolic prediction. In three bold strokes it gives a representation of them which is at once the sharpest and the broadest of all. This final description, too, at last lays bare the root of their hopeless corruption. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit. The pronoun "themselves" cannot be retained in face of the weight of documentary evidence against it. The verb (which is one of very rare occurrence) is held to be capable of more than one sense - seceding, causing divisions, creating factions, making definitions or distinctions. The most natural meaning seems to be that adopted by the Revised Version, they who make separations. So Tyndale; Cranmer and the Genevan have "these are makers of sects," and Luther gives "makers of factions." It may be that they caused divisions by setting themselves up as the only enlightened Christians, and, on the ground of that enlightenment, claiming to be superior to the moral laws which bound others. The term translated "sensual" has unfortunately no proper representative in English. It is "psychical," being formed from the noun psyche, which is rendered "life" or "soul." This psyche is intermediate between "body" and "spirit." It is in the first instance simply the bond or principle of the animal life, and in the second instance it is embodied life. Thus it is that in man which he has in common with the brute creation beneath him, But it becomes also more than this, expressing that in man which renders him capable of connection with God. For in the third instance it denotes the seat of feeling, desire, affection, and emotion; the center of the personal life - the self in man. The adjective itself occurs in the New Testament only in a few passages of marked importance - 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 Corinthians 15:44, 46; James 3:15; and the present verse. Here it designates the men as men who live only for the natural self - men who make the sensuous nature, with its appetites and passions, the law of their life; natural or animal men, as the Revised Version gives it in the margin. Wickliffe renders it "beastly;" Tyndale, Cranmer, and the Genevan, "fleshly;" the Rhemish, "sensual." The third clause admits of being rendered either "having not the spirit" (in which the Authorized is supported by Wickliffe, Tyndale, and Cranmer), or "having not the Spirit" (so the Revised Version, following the Genevan and the Rhemish). For it is in many passages difficult to decide whether the word "spirit" means the Holy Spirit of God or man's own spirit - that in him in virtue of which he can have fellowship with the Divine, and on which God specially acts; "that highest and noblest part of man," as Luther puts it, "which qualifies him to lay hold of incomprehensible, invisible things, eternal things; in short... the house where faith and God's Word are at home." The rendering of the Revised Version is favoured by the occurrence of the term in the following verse. The Spirit of God was not in the lives or the thoughts of these men, and hence they were creators of division, and sensual. Their pretension was that they were the eminently spiritual. But in refusing the Divine Spirit they had sunk to the level of an animal life, immoral in itself, and productive of confusion to the Church.

Parallel Commentaries ...


These
Οὗτοί (Houtoi)
Demonstrative Pronoun - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3778: This; he, she, it.

are
εἰσιν (eisin)
Verb - Present Indicative Active - 3rd Person Plural
Strong's 1510: I am, exist. The first person singular present indicative; a prolonged form of a primary and defective verb; I exist.

the [ones who]
οἱ (hoi)
Article - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 3588: The, the definite article. Including the feminine he, and the neuter to in all their inflections; the definite article; the.

cause divisions,
ἀποδιορίζοντες (apodiorizontes)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 592: To make a logical distinction, make an invidious distinction. From apo and a compound of Alexandros and horizo; to disjoin.

[who are] worldly
ψυχικοί (psychikoi)
Adjective - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5591: Animal, natural, sensuous. From psuche; sensitive, i.e. Animate.

[and] devoid of
ἔχοντες (echontes)
Verb - Present Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Plural
Strong's 2192: To have, hold, possess. Including an alternate form scheo skheh'-o; a primary verb; to hold.

[the] Spirit.
Πνεῦμα (Pneuma)
Noun - Accusative Neuter Singular
Strong's 4151: Wind, breath, spirit.


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NT Letters: Jude 1:19 These are they who cause divisions (Jud. Ju Jd)