Jude 1:16
“These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →These men are grumblers and faultfinders who follow their own desires, boast with swelling words, and flatter others for personal gain.
What Does Jude 1:16 Mean?
Jude returns to describe the troublemakers in everyday terms. They are murmurers and complainers, never content, always finding fault, walking after their own lusts. Their dissatisfaction is not righteous; it is the restlessness of a heart that wants its own way. Out of their mouth come great swelling words, speech inflated with self-importance.
Yet their pride bends easily when it profits them: they show admiration toward people of standing because of advantage, flattering the powerful to gain something for themselves. Boastful one moment and fawning the next, they reveal that self-interest, not truth, rules them. Jude exposes the pattern so the church can recognize it. The way of Christ runs the opposite direction, in humility, contentment, and honesty that seeks nothing for itself. Jude wants his readers to prize that lowliness over the empty noise of self.
In the Original Language
gongystai (γογγυσταί), "murmurers" — grumblers, the same word used of Israel complaining in the wilderness.