Good Judgement and Bad Judgement, Part 4
Matthew 7v1-6
4th April 2025
This is our final study of:
Matthew 7v1-6
"Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it
will be measured to you.
Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the
plank in your own eye?
How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time
there is a plank in your own eye?
You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to
remove the speck from your brother's eye.
"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may
trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."
Jesus tells us not to have a judgemental attitude towards other people, and warns us of the consequences if we do. He accuses those of us who are judgemental of hypocrisy. Then He says:
Matthew 7v6
"Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may
trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."
The people who first heard this teaching must have been shocked when Jesus finished this part of the Sermon on the Mount with these words. They appear at first to contradict all that has gone before. How can we think of some people as being like dogs and pigs without being judgemental? This has led some commentators to believe that Jesus did not say all this at the same time. They imagine Matthew put these words together afterwards. I believe, instead, that Jesus said these things just as Matthew recorded them, to enable us to see the full meaning of all these words.
As we saw at the start of this series of studies, judgementalism is wrong but discernment is good. This last section is about discernment.
Let's now consider his concluding words in detail. He begins this final section by saying, "Do not give dogs what is sacred" and "do not throw your pearls to pigs". The only sacred thing we have that we can give away is the truth, as embodied in the Bible. Christian doctrine, the truth about election, justification by faith, the sovereignty of God, spiritual gifts, and so on may indeed be compared to pearls. We are very comfortable with this idea. The truths that God has shown us are very precious, and we long to share them with others. We are rather uncomfortable, however, with the idea that any of our fellow humans might be compared to dogs or pigs. Nevertheless, that is clearly what Jesus is doing here.
Some people think that Jesus was only saying that some people cannot understand the value of the truths that we hold so dear, just as a pig cannot appreciate a string of pearls. That is certainly true. Some non-Christians are seeking God and His kingdom, and are hungry to learn about Him, but others are contemptuous of God, of the Bible, and of Christian doctrine and practice. Tell these people about your beliefs, and they will ridicule you. In some parts of society, they may beat you or ostracise you. Some governments may imprison or even kill you. Even those people who yearn to understand the truth about God are incapable of receiving all of it at once. As the writer to the Hebrews said, some people need milk not solid food even after they've been saved (Hebrews 5v12).
The truth Jesus is imparting to us is that sharing too much of God's kingdom too early to people can do more harm than good. This brings us full circle. We need to judge people, not in terms of condemning them, but in terms of discerning what is good for them and what is unhelpful in their current condition.
I believe Jesus chose the terms He used to describe those who will react negatively to the deep truths of God: "dogs" and "pigs", deliberately. We should accept that dogs were considered in Jewish society in Jesus's day to be dirty, violent animals, and that pigs were considered to be outside Jewish culture, in keeping with the Law of Moses. Some people are dirty and violent, at least in their attitude to God, the Bible and the church. Some are unsuitable for inclusion among God's people in their present state.
We are not to condemn such people, but to love them. Such were many of us once. Many great saints were once steeped in sin and violently opposed to the God's kingdom. God had mercy on them, and on us. We are not to condemn them but to exercise wisdom as we try to help them and to tell them carefully about the Gospel of Christ.
This should inform our understanding of effective evangelism. Since many non-Christians are not ready to receive all the deep truths of God, the loving approach to sharing the Gospel with them is to start with something they can appreciate. This requires sensitivity to the individual person, because everybody is different. But it's not impossible.