Hidden Reefs in Spiritual Shoals

Jude 1:12-15 

12 These are spots in your love feasts, while they feast with you without fear, serving only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots; 13 raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

14 Now Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

These false teachers and disruptive ones participate in fellowship gatherings, though not from the heart nor in truth, but for deception.  They serve themselves and not others or even each other.  The spots are literally shallow reefs which are hidden beneath the water’s surface unseen until a ship hits them and is damaged or sunk.  These likewise lie hidden in our midst as their doctrine and philosophy await the unsuspecting to sail over them.  We need to navigate with God’s word as our charts to avoid such shallow shoals of misdirection and avoid spiritual shipwreck (1 Timothy 1:19).  These also are compared to useless clouds which blow about but never water anyone for spiritual growth.  They are also trees that do not bear good fruit (Matthew 7:16-20) which are only good to be yanked out of the earth with their rotted roots so that they do not grow back in others.  Bad company corrupts good habits, as it is written.  More comparisons show the futility of raging waves that make much noise but only cause destruction, quite unusable for navigating through life in Christ, and the example of stars lost in the heavens seemingly alluding to angels falling to earth like meteors as their master (Luke 10:18).  They have an eternal and dark destiny.  The stories of Enoch back up the scriptures on the judgement that awaits these ungodly ones as a warning to us to preserve the gospel message unadulterated and to communicate to these reverent fear for their blasphemy against our holy God and Lord Jesus Christ.  He will come for the final judgement (Revelation 19:13-14).