Jude 1:16

16 These are the "grumpers," the bellyachers, grabbing for the biggest piece of the pie, talking big, saying anything they think will get them ahead.

Jude 1:16 Meaning and Commentary

Jude 1:16

These are murmurers
That is, at others; secretly, inwardly, in a muttering way, grunting out their murmurs like swine; to which, for their filthiness and apostasy, false teachers may be filly compared: and their murmurs might be both against God and men; against God, against the being of God, denying, or at least wishing there was no God, and uneasy because there is one; against the perfections of God, particularly his sovereignty over all, his special goodness to some, his wisdom, justice, truth, and faithfulness; against his purposes and decrees, both with respect to things temporal, spiritual, and eternal; against the providence of God and his government of the world, and the unequal distribution of things in it; and especially against the doctrines of free grace, and the ordinances of the Gospel: and not only are they murmurers against God, and all divine things and persons, but also against men; particularly against civil magistrates, who restrain them, and are a terror to them; and against the ministers of the Gospel, whose gifts and usefulness they envy; and indeed against all men, their neighbours, and what they enjoy, and at everything that goes besides themselves: it follows,

complainers;
some join the above character and this together, and read, as the Vulgate Latin version, "complaining murmurers"; others, as the Syriac version, place not only a comma, but a copulative between them; and as the former may design secret and inward murmuring, this may intend outward complaining in words; not of their own sins and corruptions, nor of the sins of others, with any concern for the honour of religion; or of the decay of powerful godliness in themselves or others; or of the failure of the Gospel, and the decrease of the interest of Christ; but either of God, that he has not made them equal to others in the good things of life, as the Arabic version renders it, "complaining of their own lots"; or that he lays so much affliction upon them more than on others; or of men, that their salaries are not sufficient, and that they are not enough respected according to their merit; and indeed, as the Syriac version reads, "they complain of everything", and are never satisfied and easy:

walking after their own lusts;
which are carnal and worldly, (See Gill on 2 Peter 3:3);

and their mouth speaketh great swelling [words];
both against God and men; and this may point at their boast of knowledge, their great ostentation of learning, their vain and empty doctrines, their high flights, their rhetorical style, and bombast language:

having men's persons in admiration because of advantage;
crying up men of their own stamp for the advantage of the party; and giving flattering titles to men of wealth and riches, for the sake of their money: so the Ethiopic version, "they studied to please persons, to make gain of them"; they were respecters of persons; so the phrase is used by the Septuagint in ( Deuteronomy 10:17 ) ( 28:50 ) , and in ( Job 22:8 ) ( Job 32:22 ) ( 34:19 ) , and in ( Proverbs 18:5 ) and in ( Isaiah 9:15 ) .

Jude 1:16 In-Context

14 Enoch, the seventh after Adam, prophesied of them: "Look! The Master comes with thousands of holy angels

15 to bring judgment against them all, convicting each person of every defiling act of shameless sacrilege, of every dirty word they have spewed of their pious filth."

16 These are the "grumpers," the bellyachers, grabbing for the biggest piece of the pie, talking big, saying anything they think will get them ahead.

17 But remember, dear friends, that the apostles of our Master, Jesus Christ, told us this would happen:

18 "In the last days there will be people who don't take these things seriously anymore. They'll treat them like a joke, and make a religion of their own whims and lusts."