Matthew 7:6
Casting pearls before “swine”.
Jesus came not to be served, but to serve. He did that. His faithful
disciples also assume the role of servant. They serve God, one another, and
those who are lost, and those who are in need and distress. In this
materialistic society where self-centeredness is the rule of the day, the
Christian is taught to be gracious and compassionate.
Christians have God-given obligations to preach and teach the truth and to help
those in need. We are told to be good neighbors, and this is illustrated in the
parable of "The Good Samaritan" by a willingness to become involved.
We must not take these responsibilities lightly (Romans 1:14; Galatians 6:10).
But, as is usually the case, there is another side to our responsibilities as
servants. Sometimes Christians, in their eagerness to be compassionate and
Christ-like, fail to recognize that God put limitations on this aspect of our
discipleship. It is not always good stewardship to expend the time and energy
to teach the truth or to render assistance to those apparently in need of such.
In fact, sometimes to do so is poor stewardship and betrays our Lord's trust in
us. While we do not want this fact to be used as an excuse to ignore our
responsibilities to act, neither do we want to waste the things the Lord has
entrusted to us, including our lives and ourselves.
The Principle: Casting Pearls Before
Swine
"Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not
throw pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn
and tear you to pieces." (Matthew 7:6).
Of course, these words of Jesus are allegorical. I doubt that any were
literally casting pearls before swine. The meaning is pretty simple to figure
out; "Do not persist in offering what is sacred or of value to those who
have no appreciation for it, because your gift will not only become
contaminated and be despised, your generous efforts could also be rebuffed and
perhaps even openly attacked."
The "dogs" and "swine" here stand for the unappreciative
and worldly; unappreciative and uncaring men and women who belittle the value
of what is offered to them. "That which is holy" would be the meat
offered in sacrifice to God. A dog could care less whether it came from the
altar or the garbage. The swine have no appreciation for either the beauty nor
the value of the pearls under their feet.
Your life, time, energy, opportunities and abilities are God's pearls. They're
His! You and I are merely His stewards overseeing His possessions (1
Corinthians 6:19,20; 4:1,2; 1 Peter
4:8-11). We must show discernment as to what use we make of God's possessions.
It is possible to waste them either by using them when we should not as well as
not using them when we should.
Examples of the Principle Applied
"Jesus therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him
by force, to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain to be by Himself
alone." (John 6:15).
Jesus was very popular at this stage of His ministry. The main reason for this
is that He had just miraculously fed five thousand plus people. The purpose was
twofold; the people were hungry, and Jesus wanted to illustrate the more
important spiritual bread, the bread of life, that He was offering them in His
teachings.
But the people did not want the bread of life. They wanted more of the physical
bread to eat. They began following Him for the wrong reason (vs. 26-27). Jesus
offered them spiritual bread, but they did not want that (vs. 40-41). When
Jesus refuses to duplicate the earlier miracle, continuing instead to redirect
their attention toward the words of life, the people finally lose interest and
leave (vs. 66). They were unappreciative of the pearls Jesus was offering them.
Jesus simply refused to allow His efforts to be wasted on those who had little
interest in His purpose and mission.
On another occasion, those who continued to ignore the implications of His
earlier miracles, demanded He provide yet more. They were testing Him and were
not really interested in what these signs signified about Jesus' identity.
Jesus simply refused their request (Matthew 16:1-4). He was not here to perform
for them or to satisfy their curiosity (Luke 23:8,9).
Jesus made it quite clear that His disciples were to move on when a city
indicated its lack of interest in the gospel offered it by preachers and
teachers (Matthew 10:11-14). Paul
continued this practice (Acts 13:44-52;
18:5-7).
What is the disciple to do when someone is in physical need because of a
refusal to support himself? Jesus tells us not to cast our pearls before swine,
and the application of this would be not to give such a person assistance (2
Thessalonians 3:10,11).
Need For Discernment
"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore, be
shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves." (Matthew 10:16).
How do we know when to say "yes" or "no"? We need to have
wisdom and discernment. But some may use this as an excuse not to act when they
really should. Most certainly that is so. Remember, we will all answer to God
who knows our hearts. I will stand before Him having made some mistakes in
judgment because I cannot read hearts. He knows that. But do not let me stand
before Him having selfishly or lazily shirked my duty. He will hold me
accountable.
But it may not be as difficult to determine when to offer the pearls of God and
when not to do so. Jesus said that even those in the world are capable of
making such judgments (Luke 16:8; cf. vss. 8-13). In fact, He says that they
sometimes do a better job of it than "the sons of light."
Jesus told us how we can "know them by their fruits" (Matthew 7:20). We are urged to ask God for wisdom in
these and other matters (James 1:5-8). We must realize that sometimes the right
thing to do is to say "no" (Philippians 1:8-11). A good steward
learns when those times are.