Do Not Cast Pearls

"Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, "Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.” (Matthew 7:1-5)

Christ Jesus is giving us the command not judge harshly, or criticize, and then He says, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls in front of pigs, lest they trample them with their feet, and turn around and tear you to pieces.” (Matthew 7:6)

Wow! Talk about confusing right? The word-pictures here are not easy to interpret. Don't give holy things to dogs and don't put your pearls in front of hogs. Who would ever do that? And the thought of being torn apart by hogs or dogs sounds equally bad. So what is Christ Jesus saying here? What is the General Command that He is giving us? Come on in, open your Bible, sit awhile and lets do some Bible surfing.

To help clear up this verse some commentators believe that this is another instance of transposition, where of the two things proposed, the latter part of the verse is actually connected the first thought or part of the verse. Do not give what is holy to dogs,— and turn around and tear you to pieces.: throw your pearls in front of pigs, lest they trample them with their feet, This is how it is translated in the New Century Version of the Bible ~ “Don’t give holy things to dogs, and don’t throw your pearls before pigs. Pigs will only trample on them, and dogs will turn to attack you.” 

 

The earliest comment on this verse is in the ‘Teaching’ (Didache); the first book of the Christian church on “service order” from around a.d. 100, includes this statement,: ‘And let no one eat or drink of your Eucharist, except those who have been baptised in the name of the Lord. For it is concerning this that the Lord hath said, Give not that which is holy unto the dogs.’This seems to capture the principle of Christ Jesus' command.

18th century theologin and author, Gore said, ‘We are not to shriek the highest truths of religion at a street corner. We are to wait till people show a desire for the deepest things before we offer them religion. Such was the method of the early Church. It went out into the world. It let all the world see the beauty of its life.… But it did not teach them the secrets of its life—its Creed, its Eucharist, its Prayers—till they were ready for them, and showed their readiness at least by inquiry.’

That which is holy in its literal sense is the flesh of the sacrifices. Metaphorically it stands for all that is most holy to Christ followers. First-century teachers referred to pearls symbolically to speak of insightful and valuable teaching. Consequently, the pearls here symbolize Christ Jesus’s teachings given by the disciples. Dogs … swine - most see the metaphor as a reminder that some will reject the Gospel and the disciple’s way of life with contempt and scorn (cf. Prov. 9:8), they can be down right mean people. They will trample on (i.e. revile and profane) what you offer them, and assail you with ridicule and blasphemy. While they are in this frame of mind, nothing can be done with them. They will not listen to God's truth.¹

As Christians we must exercise discernment; after all not everyone is a sheep. Some people are dogs or hogs, and some are wolves in sheep’s clothing! We are the Lord’s sheep, but this does not mean we should let people pull the wool over our eyes! This is the reason we must use good discernment. As God’s people, we are privileged to handle the “holy things” of the Lord. He has entrusted to us the precious truths of the Word of God (2 Corinthians 4:7), and we must regard them carefully. While it is true that we are to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.” (Mark 16:15), it is also true that we must not cheapen the Gospel by a ministry that lacks discernment. Even Christ Jesus refused to talk to Herod (Luke 23:9), and Paul refused to argue with people who resisted the Word (Acts 13:44–49).²

That said we need to be on our guard against too quickly putting our neighbors and those we meet down as dogs and swine, and thereby excusing ourselves from reaching out to them in Christ Jesus' name. This verse is not a command against evangelizing the lost, especially since the Bible is full of verses that support evangelism, Matthew 28:18–20 is a great example of this. That means “Dogs” and “pigs” cannot refer to all those who do not know Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour. Calvin rightly noted this verse refers, only to persons of any race who have given clear evidences of rejecting the gospel with vicious scorn and hardened contempt.³ So as you read Matthew 7:6 remember this verse is basically a general command from Christ Jesus to use discernment in relating His truths to others.⁴

This was one of those hard teachings because of the language. To those who heard the Sermon on the Mount, the examples Christ Jesus used were probably culturally relevant and easier understood. That said I hope I have helped you make some sense of this verse.

Until next time we do some Bible Surfing, may our Lord and Saviour, Christ Jesus bless you and yours mightily.

Biblesurfer

1 Dummelow, J. R. (Ed.). (1936). A Commentary on the Holy Bible (pp. 649–650). New York: The Macmillan Company.

2 Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). The Bible exposition commentary (Vol. 1, p. 30). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

3 Carson, D. A. (1984). Matthew. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew, Mark, Luke (Vol. 8, p. 185). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

4 Augsburger, M. S., & Ogilvie, L. J. (1982). Matthew (Vol. 24, p. 18). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Inc.