Jude 8-10

Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively

There are “spiritual leaders” in our culture that elevate human wisdom and undermine confidence in God’s word. Instead of the Truth, they champion their dreams, personal experiences, and worldview. They lack understanding because they choose to ignore God’s clear guidance. They are the blind guides Jesus’ described when He said, “if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit”(Matthew 15:14).

Jude goes on to describe them in four separate word pictures –

“These are hidden reefs at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever”(Jude 12-13).

• Beware shepherds who are concerning with feed themselves instead of their flock.
• Waterless clouds that deliver no nutrients to the ground resulting in uprooted trees, dead and without fruit.
• Wild waves of the sea never know peace.
• Wandering stars are meteors that burn up in the atmosphere into nothingness.

We can be protected from such meaningless teachers by living lives dependent on the Hope that is found in the Trinity as mentioned by Jude –

“But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life”(Jude 20).