Matthew 7:6
Years ago, in a one-on-one with a colleague, we were working through a personnel issue she was having with a teammate. I knew more about the situation than she realized, so I told her to let it cool and come back to it the following week. During the conversation, I mentioned an old proverb. “The prudent sees danger and hides himself, but the simple go on and suffer for it.” Proverbs 22:3 (ESV). We both agreed the situation needed to cool, or at least that was what I thought.
About an hour later, our head of HR walked into my office, frowning, which spelled trouble. “You can’t quote Bible verses in one-on-ones with people. They take offense to it.” At the moment, I couldn’t even recall where I quoted scripture or what was said, as the conversation was far broader and the quote was a mere moment in the totality of the conversation.
This verse brought back that memory.
“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.”
Matthew 7:6 (ESV)
The verse catches the reader off guard. Jesus has just finished warning the disciples about judging their brother by a standard they cannot meet themselves, and now He turns and tells them not to hand the sacred things to those who will trample them. The two teachings sit side by side on purpose, since charity in judgment does not cancel discernment in delivery, and the same disciple who refuses to play God over his brother is the disciple who reads the room before he opens his mouth.
The phrase Jesus uses for “what is holy” was a specific technical term. The Greek word hagion refers to the consecrated meat of the temple sacrifices set aside for the priests under the strict regulations of Leviticus 22, while the rabbinical literature of the period used “pearls” as the standard metaphor for the choicest teachings from the Torah passed from a wise teacher to a worthy disciple.
Jesus speaks both vocabularies in one verse, since the holy meat from the altar and the pearls from the deep ocean were recognizably of high value to the crowd, the mere idea would have provoked instant revulsion. The dog of the first century was a diseased scavenger running in violent packs on the edges of villages, the slur Goliath threw at David in 1 Samuel 17:43, and the image Paul reached for to describe the Judaizers in Philippians 3:2. The pig was more contemptible still, the unclean animal at the center of every Jewish dietary boundary and named by Isaiah as the symbol of defiled idolatry. A priest who tossed sacred meat to alley dogs would have been driven from the priesthood, and a merchant who flung his pearls into a pig pen would have been treated as a lunatic. The two images are stacked together to amplify the application.
What’s hardest for us to hear is that some hearers will not simply decline the precious thing but will degrade it, and the giver may get bitten in the process. Spurgeon preached on this verse and called the church to remember that the “gospel is too precious to be cheapened by indiscriminate scattering.” The same prudence is required of each of us today.
A heavy weight we carry is balancing when to speak and when not to, when to share and when to keep silent. We saw this in yesterday’s Courtroom Construction devotional on how we judge.
Still, the warning holds true and must be considered alongside the fullness of scripture, the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and the prudence with which we live our lives. The prophet Isaiah reminds us that “as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:10-11 ESV).
The word of God accomplishes what God sends it to do, and the kingdom citizen is responsible for discerning where it can do its work. With the wisdom of Proverbs, the truth of Isaiah, and the warning of Matthew 7 all in hand, the wise steward is meant to know the difference before he releases it.
What I have learned in the years since that HR conversation is that Matthew 7:6 is not a verse about silence but a verse about stewardship. Paul named the calling plainly when he wrote, “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful.” (1 Corinthians 4:1-2 ESV). The kingdom citizen still speaks, still loves, and still tells the truth, but they read the terrain before they plant the seed.
James reminds us that the tongue can barely be tamed, while Jesus tells us to be careful where we cast the pearls, and between those two warnings sits the calling of every kingdom citizen. To know when to speak and when to hold.
Lord, give us the wisdom and discernment in our moments today.
Reflection Questions
- How are you building a bank account of wisdom so you are ready to share when needed?
- What does discernment without retreat look like in the calling God has placed in your hands this week?
Stay on Mission
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
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