“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)
This is a parable. Jesus’ parables are often difficult to understand. The trick is to find the (often surprising) perspective in the parable that we’re supposed to inhabit. This parable is a satire. Jesus isn’t saying what he appears to be saying on the face of it. It sounds like he might be saying, “If you are a discerning judge of character, you will know when some people are so hostile to the message of the Gospel that you should just keep your mouth shut about it, lest they attack you.” But he can’t be saying that, for a couple of reasons.
First, the direct context. In this part of his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is literally telling us not to judge others, not to condemn others, but to learn better how to share the Gospel with others when they sin. Just read what immediately precedes this verse:
“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see 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,’ when there is the log 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.” (vv. 1-5)
People who condemn others are looking to justify themselves, to separate themselves from “bad people” in order to think of themselves as “good people.” Jesus reveals that self-righteous hypocrites with condemning hearts will find themselves condemned with the same “condemnation-unto-separation” they wanted to wield against others. Alternatively, he invites us to submit ourselves to his gracious judgment, and to take a confessional and empathetic approach toward helping others when they sin. We should recognize that we are the same (“brothers”) and that our struggles with sin are the same (“logs” and “specks” are the same materials). We can demonstrate the freedom and love of Christ’s kingdom when we humbly approach other sinners in relatable ways, looking to help them also to submit to Jesus’ gracious judgment. To think that he would then go on to say, “But you should be discerning—some people are so bad you shouldn’t share the Gospel with them,” would be entirely antithetical to his main point.
Second, the larger context of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If Jesus is really saying, “Do not share the holy and precious message of the Gospel with people who are hostile to the Gospel,” then it would seem that he himself did not take his own advice here. He told the wonderful truth of who he is and what he came to do, and was trampled down by his enemies for it. Are we to think that this was a failure of his wisdom, his discernment, his good judgment? Are we to think that Jesus, and all the Christian martyrs following him, would have done better just to keep their mouths shut to avoid being attacked by opponents of the Gospel? Are we to think that better discernment on Jesus’ part would have kept him off the cross?
To be sure, there are times when Jesus teaches us to be wise and discerning about what we hear from others, or even to shake the dust off our feet when people prove unreceptive to his message of peace. But that isn’t what Jesus is saying here.
So what is he saying here? Again, this parable is a satire, being used to expose the ridiculous position of self-righteous hypocrites who would condemn others for their sin. This parable assumes a scenario in which hypocrites view other sinners as beastly street dogs and unclean pigs. We know people in Jesus’ day who thought of other people as dogs and pigs—the self-righteous religious people like the Pharisees! They prayed, thanking God that they were not like those bad people, those sinners/women/Gentiles/dogs/pigs. The Pharisees saw themselves as distinct and separated from sinners. When they spoke the truth of God’s Scriptures, it was to attack other sinners. They used God’s Word as a weapon to condemn and separate.
It’s easy to imagine a self-righteous person using the Bible—in all its holy and precious truth—to attack people they condemn. Hypocrites are blind to their own sin, and blind to the reality of God’s gracious judgment in Christ. But when they “discern” sin in other people, they start lobbing holy hand grenades of truth. They throw bits of divine law, divine wisdom at others like missiles meant to do harm. Those holy and precious criticisms will not be helpful to sinners, they will not be well received or taken to heart, they will be despised and trampled upon. Maybe that sinner really has sinned, and maybe the hypocrite really spoke God’s true and beautiful Word to that sinner—but that sinner rejects it for the way the hypocrite used it as a weapon. And the sinner will attack the hypocrite in return. The hypocrite only served to drive a relational wedge between himself and the other sinner… which was, after all, what the hypocrite was looking to do. “Condemnation-unto-separation.” The truth-as-projectile approach of condemning people will explode on you, it’ll backfire, it’ll come back to bite you. The wicked will be snared in his own net to his destruction (Ps. 35:8). “Whoever who digs a pit will fall into it” (Prov. 26:27). “With the judgment you pronounce you will be judged” (Mt. 7:2).
