Do not give dogs what is holy; do not throw your pearls before swine. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.“Don’t give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.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.Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before the swine, lest haply they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you.
7 sermons cite this verse
… That's why Jesus said, as I talked about last week in Matthew chapter seven, verse six, he said, don't throw pearls to pigs. They will trample pearls, then they'll turn and tear you apart. Pearls would be the truth of God. Honesty, integrity. Don't wrestle with pigs. You're both going to get dirty. And the pig will like it. And even if you win, you've beaten a pig. there's too many pick fights online. There's too many pick fights in our culture today. It's not worth the time and energy and effort. And if you are in some sort of a leadership position, a coach, a teacher, a manager, CEO, don't waste your time chasing negativity. Don't ever think, well, hey, if I sat down with them and really explained everything and had some coffee, They were pigs. Jesus said that. Now, I don't mean they're literal pigs. He wasn't saying that we call people, hey, you're a pig, you're a pig, you're a pig. He was saying they have a pig-like nature. …
… George Bernard Shaw was the one that popularized that phrase, but as you research it, he ripped off Christ's words in Matthew chapter 7, verse 6, when Jesus said, Do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under your feet and turn and tear you to pieces. The pearls. That's the truth. That's the holy things of God. That's the gospel of God. The pigs are the hypocrites. Is it just me or have you discovered that hypocrites are hypocritical? And then the prey, not P-R-A-Y, P-R-E-Y, would be you and me. Jesus was saying, use your judgment, use your discernment to stay away from pig fights. And as you look around our culture today, isn't it true that we're just surrounded by pig fights? We're surrounded by a lot of pigology. I am kicking off a series called Now We Go to School. And today we're learning about pigs. And I'm going to talk to you today about a sector of our culture where we see more wrestling with pigs than any other sector. …
… do not give what is holy to dogs do not throw your pearls before pigs lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you to pieces. Wait a minute. We're working our way through the Sermon on the Mount these days, and we have in fresh memory his words in chapter 7, verse 1, don't we? Do not judge. Sounds pretty judgmental to me, doesn't it, you? Doesn't verse 6 sound... I mean, if you call somebody a dog or if you call somebody a swine, doesn't that sound like judgment? Remember when we were on this passage before, do not judge, that we did a little disclaimer then because I knew what was coming. We said then it doesn't mean that you lack discernment. It doesn't mean that you become gullible and believe everything you hear and everything you see. remember we said that judging had to do with a censorious attitude, the idea of condemning someone without knowing the facts? Remember, Jesus knows all the facts. …
… Who do I think I am? And in Matthew 7, verse 6, here's how we are to think about. Here's a word from Jesus, a proverb, the rare proverb from Jesus. I realize we have a book of proverbs, but there are occasionally proverbs from the mouth of Christ. And in verse 6 of Matthew 7, this is my assignment this week. I was confused when it first gave it to me, but I'm so excited. I said, yes, do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine. lest they trample them under their feet and turn and tear you in pieces. I wish I had time to talk to you about how this is what's known as an ABBA structure. It's not A-B-A-B or A-A-B-B. If you look at the verse one more time, put it back up, please, on the screen. It's A-B-B-A. You can think like Abba, like the band, right? So the first sentence line in this proverb relates to the last, and the second one relates to the third. So if you give what's holy to the dogs, they will eat it, be displeased, and devour you. If you give what's precious, the pearl, to the pigs, they'll just trample it underfoot, okay? So what's the point of this? Why did God assign this to be the first thought we would have beginning this new year, beginning this new season, helping us frame how we are to think about ourselves? Here's why. When you know something is valuable, it changes how you …
… Let me help you. Let me help get this speck out of your eye. The Bible doesn't say we're not to get it out. To the contrary, we are to help get it out. but not with a log in our own eye. Now the third thing, and very quickly, there's a time for examination. Examine yourself. That's what our Lord is teaching us here in Matthew chapter 7. Look in verse 3. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? examine get your heart right with God the person that you need to be the hardest on is you the person that you need to be the most merciful to is me and the person sitting next to you and the people in your family but consider is there a log in your eye today is there sin unconfessed unrepentant of be done with it I'm light years from perfection but there's no sin that I harbor I would be a sheer unmitigated fool to stand up here and try to preach with a heart that's not clean and not pure but daily I examine my heart, my life and ask the Lord to help me to examine, search me oh God and know my heart, try me and know my ways and see if there be some wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. …
… and then thou shalt see clearly to cast the mote out of thy brother's eye. 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. The three words I want you to keep in your heart and in your mind as we study the word of God this morning. The first word is the word discriminate. The second is the word tolerate. And the last word is the word to examine. So these three words, discrimination, toleration, examination, are the backbone, the spine of what I want to say today. As I talk to you about tolerance, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Now there should be, number one, there should be a time of discrimination. Now, discrimination has become an ugly word, but it's not always ugly. If you don't teach your children to discriminate, you have failed as a father or a mother. To discriminate means to see what is good and to see what is bad. …
And today we come to a very interesting passage of Scripture. We're going to read Matthew chapter 7, verses 1 through 6 in a moment. The title of my message is a little different today. When Yardsticks Become Boomerangs. You'll find out why I called it that in just a moment. Let's look in verse 1. Our Lord says, Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged. And with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you again. And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the being that is in thine own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye, And behold, a beam is in thine own eye. Thou hypocrite, first cast the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. 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. …