What does it mean that false teachers are clouds without water?
This metaphor means false teachers create a promise or hope on the horizon but provide no substance or fulfillment. Their teaching appears to offer something, yet it vanishes, leaving adherents realizing it is nothing. Such teaching is an adulterated product, not the pure Word of God.
Les explains that this phrase pictures false teachers as clouds without water. He recalls a hot summer day during the Depression in Iowa, when a little puff of cloud appeared during drought and dust storms. His dad and uncle hoped for a drop of rain, but the cloud just disappeared. Les says that is exactly what false teaching does: it can bring a cloud on the horizon of hope, but suddenly the adherents realize it is nothing. It disappears like clouds without water, carried about with wind, trees whose fruit withereth. These are descriptions of what Paul says he was not. Paul did not come corrupting the Word of God, like a raging wave of the sea foaming out their own shame, or wandering stars reserved for blackness of darkness forever. The world is falling for false teaching, an adulterated product. Paul defended his apostleship, saying he did not come with false teaching or half truth.
These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
More Questions
What does Jude say the false teachers are in the love feasts?
The false teachers are spots in the love feasts, feeding themselves without fear.
Why are false teachers compared to clouds without water?
False teachers are like clouds without water: they excite people and make them think they are getting something real, but they never satisfy the inner longing for inner peace.