From time to time I’m asked what Matthew 7:6 means.  “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.”

Jesus said this in the context of talking about unrighteous, hypocritical judging of others (Matt. 7:1-5; cf. John 7:24).  The sentence right before verse 6 has Christ telling Christians to basically help their brother get sin out of his life only after first having repented of that same sin in their own lives.  We are to point out in a loving manner when our brethren sin rather than doing so in a holier-than-thou, sarcastic way.  We should approach them in a loving, humble manner with the goal being to help them and ourselves get closer to heaven (Gal. 6:1-2; 2 Tim. 2:24-26).

Yet sometimes people don’t want to be helped in their sins and shortcomings.  Sometimes people are very arrogant and unreasonable.  Trying to talk and reason with such people and show them from Scripture the truth…even in a way that says, “I’m no better than you”…is a waste of time and counterproductive because all they will do is attack in you in return.  They are the dogs and pigs of Matthew 7:6 who will trample underfoot the holy instruction from God you wish to give them, and they will reject it and turn on you instead.

Thus, Christ is basically saying in verse 5 to try to help a brother caught up in wrongdoing and to do so without hypocrisy…but then in verse 6 he warns that some will prove to be scoffers, foolish, and unreasonable.  With them it is best not to even try.  There is wisdom in heeding this counsel from Jesus.  It really helps keep one’s blood pressure at a reasonable level.

A preacher once told me, “What does the moon do when all the little dogs bark at it?  It just keeps on shining.”  Keep on shining, friends.  As Ronald Regan said to George H. W. Bush on the day Bush became president, “Don’t let the turkeys get you down.”