8Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. 9But Michael the archangel, when he disputed with the devil and argued about the body of Moses, did not dare pronounce against him a railing judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you!” 10But these men revile the things which they do not understand; and the things which they know by instinct, like unreasoning animals, by these things they are destroyed.
Jude graphically describes these grace-flaunting, grace-fleecing pseudo-Christians, whose behavior begins in the thought life and leads to outward perversions of sexual immorality that “defile the flesh.” Today’s pornography renders imagination less necessary by providing visuals that would make the people of Sodom and Gomorrah blush.
These posers march to their own authority, bowing to no one, even to the point of thumbing their noses at “angelic majesties” (a reference to the angelic world). They have no idea how absurd their arrogance makes them. The apostle Peter also wrote similarly of false teachers who infiltrated the church:
[T]he Lord knows how . . . to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge the flesh in itscorrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties, whereas angels who are greater in might and power do not bring a reviling judgment against them before the Lord. (2 Peter 2:9–11)
Jude uses the example of one of the greatest of angels, Michael, called “the archangel” (a reference to one among the higher ranks of angels). Though he was far more powerful than any human, Michael did not act as arrogantly as those men of Jude’s day. The story Jude cites does not come from the OT record, so it must come from an apocryphal source, either oral or written. But since the book of Jude, which is part of the inspired canon of Scripture, treats the story as historical, we accept it as such, regardless of its origin. Jude’s point is this: if the archangel Michael, who is more powerful than the pseudo-Christian imposters, respected the power of the devil, how can these arrogant men act so flippantly to angelic powers? Michael, with delegated authority, simply said, “The Lord rebuke you!” But such rational thinking is beyond the ability of those men who react instinctively, that is, whose thinking cannot exceed what the human mind can naturally comprehend. Their inability to see truth as God reveals it is their downfall.
O Lord, I submit to Your Word, which enables me to rationally understand and embrace Your truth and not to rely on my own creaturely instincts.
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