Protect What is Valuable

“Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”  Matthew 7:6

Not everyone will accept the truth of God.  Some folks will treat the word of God as if it was useless.  Jesus warned His people about this by using an animal illustration.  He said not to give what was holy, God’s word and the testimony of His saints to dogs and do not cast your pearls, that is, your valuable spiritual knowledge of God’s word and your intimate relationship to Him before pigs.  He said that pigs would only trample your testimony with their feet and then rip into you with their cursing and blasphemy.

In scripture, dogs and swine are used to represent things that were “unclean” among the Jews.  Dogs were grouped with evil workers (Philippians 3;2) and with sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolators, and liars (Revelation 22:15).  In II Samuel 9:8, “dogs” described one who was shamed or disgraced, and in other passages, impure, irreverent, or worldly.  The Jews called Gentiles “dogs” (Matthew 15:26).  Today, actual dogs are referred to as “man’s best friend” because of their loyalty to their owners, but there are some dogs that are vicious.

In Leviticus 11:7-8, God instructed Moses and Aaron to disregard swine as food or for sacrificial offerings.  They were considered unclean.  Actual pigs will eat anything, wallow in filth, and are fairly selfish creatures.  Jesus instructed His followers not to give that which is holy to dogs, that is, do not give what is sanctified and separated from what is sinful, and not to cast one’s pearls, that is, the valuable truths of God which the believer possesses.  But what about the admonition, actually more of a command by Jesus, to spread the gospel to a lost and dying world (Matthew 24:19-20)?  In telling us to be careful to whom we share God’s truth, Jesus is indicating that we must be discriminant to whom we are to present the gospel and to whom we should not relay the precious gems of His glory.  Jesus loves everyone, especially those that belong to Him.  He wants the best for His people, desiring to protect and preserve them.

Matthew Henry wrote, “Our Lord Jesus is very tender of the safety of His people and would not have them needlessly to expose themselves to the fury of those that will ‘turn again and rend them’.  Let them not be ‘righteous over much’ (Ecclesiastes 7:16), so as to destroy themselves.  Christ makes the law of self-preservation one of His own laws, and ‘precious is the blood’ (Psalm 72:14) of His subjects to Him”.  While we are to be carefully discriminating to whom we give our witness of Christ and God’s word, how can we know the difference in those who would be accepting of the gospel and those who would not, some of whom may be of a violent nature.  How can we discern the “dogs” and the “swine”?

The answer to that is to listen to the Holy Spirit.  He will not lead us into danger.  Those to whom He does lead us have already had their hearts prepared to listen.  Those of our choosing, in our zeal to see everyone saved, may not be receptive to our message.  The old saying about leading a horse to water but not being able to make him drink can be an analogy of what happens when we witness about Christ.  We can only tell them how and why they need to repent and believe on Christ, but it is the work of the Holy Spirit that convicts a sinner.  In addition to following the Holy Spirit’s lead, our own common sense comes into play to help us recognized those who would “trample our pearls under their feet”.  One current example that I think of are those who are sometimes violently protesting the right of the Israelis to protect themselves from their enemies.  Any person who tried to stand up to that crowd and present the gospel would likely be beaten and perhaps killed.

A personal example of treading carefully among possible dogs and swine was a time when a young woman that I know was invited by a friend to dine with the friend’s family.  The family members were all drinking alcohol, and the father asked her if her parents drank.  She replied that they did not.  He then asks, sarcastically, “What are they, Holy rollers or something?”  She could have gone into a long lecture about the need to repent of sin and trust Christ for salvation and the dangers of alcohol, but she would have set herself up for ridicule and also would be made even more uncomfortable than she already was.  She just replied, “No, they have just chosen not to drink”.

Matthew Henry made another comment regarding Matthew 7:6.   He wrote that we must be careful in whom we identify as dogs and swine as used in this verse.  We must have evidence.  We must not generalize or lump folks into groups of which they may not belong.  Jesus looks at each individual’s heart.  Even though we can’t see into a person’s heart, we still need to consider that each person has the potential to come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Those whom the Holy Spirit steers us away from still deserve our prayers.  Who knows but what our prayers for someone may eventually lead them to listen to the gospel presented by another believer at some future date.