Jude 19 These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
My little dog Bromley got sick last night. The reason she did is because Bromley doesn’t ever think about what she should do. She thinks about what she wants to do. So, she eats now and regrets later. Maybe you know some person like that. Maybe you are that person. If you see it, you eat it. If you want to say it, you say it. If you get mad, you hit back. You just do whatever you want to do. You are governed by your senses, what you can see, taste, smell, feel, and hear. But I’m here to tell you, unlike my dog, you are not just a physical being. You are a spiritual being.
Jude 19 says, “These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.” He is talking about false teachers. Jude says they are clouds without water, trees without fruit, raging waves of the sea that foam out shame, and wandering stars. They are empty and bankrupt. The reason is that they are living by their senses and not by God’s Spirit. When the Bible says they are sensual, it doesn’t mean they are immoral, although that is where they end up. It means that they are people governed by their senses. Verse 16 says they walk “after their own lusts.” Verse 18 says they “walk after their own ungodly lusts.” So, they are governed by their desires, and their desires by nature tend to be ungodly because they are not governed by God.
Friend, you are not a dog, you are not just a physical being; you are a spiritual being. Philippians 3:19 talks about what people are when they are not governed by the Spirit. It says, “Whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame.” People literally brag about things that should be shameful because they are basically a belly on legs, a caricature of desire and the senses with no godly sense. But, God created them to be spiritual beings.
James 3:15 talks about wisdom that is earthly, sensual, and devilish. That is, this false wisdom is governed by the devil, it is bound to this earth, and it comes only through our natural senses. Isaac was deceived by Jacob into thinking Jacob was Esau. Isaac was old and almost blind. Jacob deceived his father Isaac by taste, the meat he brought, by smell, the garments of Esau, and by feel, the hair that made Jacob feel like Esau. Isaac was as deceived by the senses he had as by the one sense, sight, that he did not have. No one is more easily deceived than the one who is depending upon their senses.
So, remember that you are a spiritual being. Contend for the truth, remember what is right, and walk in the Spirit. The Bible says we are to pray in the Holy Ghost. I need to remember that there is more to life than just what I see, smell, taste, feel, and hear. There is God Almighty Who is literally above me and in me, Who wants to guide me, guard me, and help me to be in practice what I am in reality, a spiritual being.