Speaking evil of the things they don’t know

But these speak evil of whatever they do not know; and whatever they know naturally, like brute beasts, in these things they corrupt themselves. – Jude 1v10

I think it is important to note that what we are looking at here are descriptions of false teachers; they are marks of those who are false teachers. That does not mean that everyone who does these things is a false teacher, but that we need to be very careful as believers that we do not identify ourselves with them by our behaviour. I don’t want to have anything to do with the characteristics of a false teacher.

Saying that, there are many who in the rush to be accepted and gather attention to themselves, and without thinking through the issues, act just like the false teachers. These guys we talked about yesterday are speaking evil of what they do not know. Two things are implied here. Some of them speak evil because they don’t know God Himself. Others speak evil because they don’t know anything about submission to authority. In that way, according to the next verse, they are following the pattern of the rebels of the Old Testament.

I think the problem is covered here in verse 10. Men tend to speak according to their own wisdom and knowledge. ‘Speaking evil’ happens because we don’t know the whole picture, all we see is one little slice; the slice that affects us. Does God know what is going on? Of course He does. He does not need us to mimic the false teachers who despise authority and those in leadership.

We need to be more focused on trusting God, praying for those in authority, and perhaps just keeping our mouths shut and letting Him deal with them