Matthew 7:6: “Do not give what is holy to dogs or throw your pearls before pigs. Otherwise, they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces.”
This is part of my series on the animal analogies of Jesus. Here we encounter the pig and the dog. These are people who do not put a premium on spiritual things. Jesus Christ is saying, “Do not waste your time with those kinds of people.” Engagement with such people is going to damage you. It is going to affect you.
The reason the words “dog” and “pig” are used here is to describe a kind of nature. The nature of these people is that they do not value spiritual things. That is why you do not just go into arguments willy‑nilly. You do not have this approach of, “I am going to have to win this argument.” Who exactly are you talking with? And what value for your time are you going to get from it?
I am not talking about Christians now; I am talking about non‑Christians who do not value the finer things of spiritual truth. Some people simply do not value what you value. We need to understand that. When we understand that, we can then begin to be circumspect, begin to be wise in our approach, wise in our manner of approach.
That is the truth. In your heart, you want to give. In your heart, you want to connect, you want to communicate. But it is never going to happen with some people, because they have their own direction, they have their own pursuits, they have their own narrow form of existence.
Look at the dog, look at the pig. What value do “holy” and “pearls” have for them? What value do you think the dog and the pig have for what is precious? Zero. Zero value. These are people who have narrowed themselves down to a set of objectives. Dogs and pigs. It is about what they are going to eat.
Remember, Jesus Christ already said, “Do not be like the Gentiles.” He said, “These are the things the Gentiles pursue”—what I am going to eat, what I am going to drink, what I am going to wear—and they cannot understand you not following them. They cannot understand that those things are not the whole summary of your existence.
They cannot grasp that what you are going to eat and what you are going to wear is not the summary of your life. They cannot understand it, because it is the summary of their life. Their life is limited to this plane of existence. But you are different.
You are in Christ. You have been called to set your heart on things in heaven, not on things on earth (Colossians 3:1–2). And what do we have in heaven? We have pearls everywhere. So, in a way, you can talk about the things of heaven as being these holy things, as being these pearly things, which the dogs and the pigs do not have an appreciation for.
They do not just lack appreciation for it; they attack you for being who you are. They attack you for being different. They attack you for simply existing as someone whose summary of life is not their summary of life.
I want to draw your attention back to Jesus.
Remember, this verse is part of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:6). In this sermon, Jesus Christ said, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear… For the pagans pursue all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (see Matthew 6:25–33).
That whole sentence makes no sense to the pig, and makes no sense to the dog. And if you try to connect and communicate and talk to the dogs and the pigs about these things, they set you up as the enemy—to be gunned down, to be pursued. They set you up as the outsider. “Otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces.”
Jesus Christ is giving you instruction now: do not do it. Be circumspect. “Be wise as serpents and innocent as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Maybe one way of being as wise as serpents is to not give what is holy to dogs and not throw your pearls before pigs, because you will regret it.
Let me just put it that way: you will regret it. Jesus Christ already said you are going to regret it. So let us believe Him. “Otherwise they will trample them under their feet and turn around and tear you to pieces.”
That is the truth.
God bless you.