Jude 1:19

Jude 1:19, in plain English

These scoffers are the ones creating divisions, living by worldly values, and they don't have the Holy Spirit—they're spiritually empty.

Why it's here

Jude identifies them precisely. They cause fractures in the community (divisions). They operate from worldly thinking, not heavenly. And most importantly: they lack the Spirit. That's the diagnosis. A person without the Holy Spirit might look fine from the outside, might sound convincing, might seem spiritual, but they're missing the one thing that actually makes you a Christian. That's why they can be so dangerous—you can almost mistake them for believers until you realize there's no actual spiritual life there.

Who's speaking

Jude, identifying the core problem with the false teachers.

Where it sits in the story

Having the Holy Spirit isn't an extra feature; it's essential. Without it, you might have knowledge, charisma, even moral appearance, but you're not actually part of God's family.

The scholarly reading

These mockers cause divisions, operate at the purely natural level, and lack the Holy Spirit.

Language and setting

The triad of accusations—causing divisions (apodiarizouses—literally 'drawing off boundaries'), being natural (psychikoi), and being devoid of the Spirit (pneuma me echontes)—echoes 1 Corinthians 2:14-15 where Paul distinguishes between the 'natural person' (psychikos anthropos) and the 'spiritual person' (pneumatikos). Jude employs this Pauline dichotomy to diagnose the heretics' fundamental incapacity: they inhabit a lower ontological plane, operating according to flesh and sensory instinct rather than the pneumatic capacities that characterize redeemed existence. Their divisiveness stems from this spiritual deprivation—they cannot apprehend the Spirit-given unity of the body.

Voice

Jude, providing spiritual diagnosis

Significance

The false teachers represent a devolution from the Spirit-filled reality of Pentecost to a pre-Pentecostal, indeed pre-redemptive, state. Their divisions enact their spiritual orphanhood, fragmenting what the Spirit unites.

17But you, beloved, remember what was foretold by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ

18when they said to you, “In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow after their own ungodly desires.”

19These are the ones who cause divisions, who are worldly and devoid of the Spirit.

20But you, beloved, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit,

21keep yourselves in the love of God as you await the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.

Read all of Jude 1 — Jude intended to write about salvation. Instead, he writes about danger — false teachers who have crept in unnoticed. His response is urgent.