The Folly of Indiscriminate Evangelism Text: Matthew 7:6
Introduction: The Need for Spiritual Discernment
We are a people who have been commanded to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. We are to be generous, open-handed, and lavish with the good news. We are to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them and teaching them to obey everything Christ has commanded. This is the great and glorious mission of the church. But our Lord, in His wisdom, knows that zeal without knowledge is a dangerous thing. A fire out of the hearth is a disaster. And so, in the very heart of the Sermon on the Mount, immediately after telling us not to judge hypocritically, He gives us a command that requires the sharpest and most sanctified judgment. He tells us that there is a time to speak, and a time to be silent. There is a time to offer the gospel, and a time to withhold it.
This is a hard saying for many modern evangelicals. We have been conditioned to believe that our only duty is to broadcast the message as widely as possible, and that any refusal to engage, any decision to walk away, is a failure of love or a lack of courage. We think that being winsome means being perpetually agreeable and never giving offense. But Jesus here commands us to be discerning. He commands us to recognize that not all soil is good soil. Some ground is not just indifferent; it is hostile, and to sow seed there is not just fruitless, it is foolish and even dangerous. This verse is not a contradiction of the Great Commission; it is a necessary governor on it. It is the wisdom that protects the stewards of the mysteries of God from being naive, and from bringing reproach upon the very gospel they proclaim.
To misunderstand this verse is to open ourselves up to all sorts of grief. It is to engage in endless, fruitless debates with malicious scoffers online, thinking we are doing apologetics. It is to cheapen the sacred things of God by treating them like common wares to be hawked in a marketplace of contempt. And it is to foolishly expose ourselves to the rage of those who hate the light because their deeds are evil. Jesus is not telling us to be stingy with the gospel. He is telling us to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. He is telling us that true stewardship requires discernment.
The Text
"Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces."
(Matthew 7:6 LSB)
The Holy Things and the Pearls
First, we must identify what Jesus means by "what is holy" and "your pearls."
"Do not give what is holy... and do not throw your pearls..." (Matthew 7:6a)
In the Old Testament, "what is holy" often referred to the consecrated portions of a sacrifice, the holy food that was set apart for God and for the priests. It was not to be treated as common, and it certainly was not to be thrown out to the scavenging dogs in the street (Ex. 22:31). It represented that which belonged to God in a special, covenantal way. The "pearls" carry a similar idea of immense, hidden value. In the parable, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant who finds one pearl of great price and sells all that he has to buy it (Matt. 13:45-46).
Putting these together, the holy things and the pearls are the glorious truths of the gospel. They are the mysteries of the kingdom of God. They represent the intimate realities of our fellowship with the triune God: forgiveness of sins, adoption as sons, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the communion of the saints, the Supper of the Lord. These are not mere bits of information to be dispensed lightly. They are precious, sacred, and of infinite worth. They are the family secrets of the household of faith. We are to proclaim the gospel publicly, yes, but the deeper intimacies of the faith, the sacred meal of the covenant, the fellowship of the church, these are holy things. They are pearls.
The error we must avoid is thinking that this command makes us the exclusive gatekeepers of salvation. The gospel is to be offered freely to all who will repent and believe. The invitation is broad. But this verse is not about the public proclamation; it is about the prolonged engagement with those who have demonstrated their contempt. It is about discerning when the offer has been definitively and scornfully rejected.
The Dogs and the Swine
Next, who are the dogs and the swine? This is where careful distinction is crucial.
"...to dogs...before swine..." (Matthew 7:6b)
In the ancient world, dogs were not the beloved household pets we think of today. They were unclean, scavenging pack animals that roamed the streets. Swine were the epitome of uncleanness for the Jews. These are not terms of endearment. Jesus is using stark, harsh language to describe a certain kind of person. But we must be very careful here. The dogs and swine are not simply all unbelievers. Nicodemus was an unbeliever when he came to Jesus, but he came with honest questions. The woman at the well was a mess, but she was thirsty for living water. Paul on the road to Damascus was a persecutor, but God knocked him to the ground and opened his eyes.
The dogs and swine are those who have moved beyond simple unbelief into a state of hardened, cynical, and malicious contempt. They are the scoffers Peter warns us about, who walk according to their own lusts (2 Peter 3:3). They are not interested in truth; they are interested in mocking the truth. They do not want a discussion; they want a brawl. They are the ones who, when presented with the gospel, do not just disagree but sneer. Their laughter is not the laughter of misunderstanding, but the laughter of scorn. You know them when you see them. They are the internet trolls whose every comment is dripping with sarcasm and vitriol. They are the academics who dismiss the resurrection with a condescending smirk. They are those whose hearts are so calloused that the gospel is not just foolishness to them, but an object of their bitter hatred.
This is not a judgment of their eternal state. Only God knows that. It is, however, a judgment of their present disposition. It is a discerning recognition that you are not dealing with an honest seeker, but with a vicious mocker. And to continue to press the holy things of God upon such a person is an act of profound folly.
The Inevitable Reaction
Jesus then tells us what will happen if we ignore this command. The consequences are twofold.
"...lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces." (Matthew 7:6c)
First, the swine will "trample them under their feet." A pig has no appreciation for a pearl. If you throw a pearl into a pigpen, the pig will sniff it, realize it cannot be eaten, and in its frustration and ignorance, it will trample it into the mud. This is what the mocker does with the gospel. He takes the glorious truth of the incarnation, the substitutionary atonement, the bodily resurrection, and he tramples it. He treats it with utter contempt. He makes it the punchline of a dirty joke. He turns the cross into an object of ridicule. He shows no respect, no reverence, no understanding of its value. He despises the most precious gift in the universe.
But it doesn't end there. Second, the dogs will "turn and tear you to pieces." After the swine tramples the pearl, the dogs attack the one who offered it. This is a crucial point. The contempt for the message inevitably becomes rage against the messenger. When a hardened sinner's rebellion is exposed by the light of the gospel, and he refuses to repent, his only recourse is to attack the one holding the lamp. He cannot refute the message, so he seeks to destroy the messenger. This can be verbal, with slander and vicious personal attacks. It can be reputational, seeking to ruin your standing in the community. And as history shows, it can be brutally physical. This is what happened to the prophets, to the apostles, and to our Lord Himself. They offered the pearl, it was trampled, and they were torn to pieces.
Jesus is giving us a command rooted in loving wisdom. He does not want the gospel profaned, and He does not want His servants needlessly destroyed. There is a time for bold witness, even unto death. But there is no virtue in being a fool. There is no glory in provoking the rage of a committed enemy of God when it is clear he has no intention of listening. In such cases, as Jesus instructed His disciples elsewhere, you are to shake the dust off your feet and move on (Matt. 10:14).
Application in a Scoffing Age
So how do we apply this in our day? First, this applies to our personal evangelism. We must pray for discernment. We must learn to distinguish between the curious, the confused, the seeking, and the snarling. With the former, we must be endlessly patient and gentle. With the latter, we must know when the conversation is over. We are not called to win every argument, especially when the other party is arguing in bad faith. To remain engaged with a mocker is to give him a platform to trample the pearls and to give him an opportunity to tear you. Sometimes the most spiritual thing you can do in a conversation is end it.
Second, this has massive implications for the church, particularly in the administration of the sacraments. The Lord's Supper is a holy thing. It is a pearl of great price. It is the family meal for the covenant people of God. To invite those who are openly and unrepentantly hostile to the faith to partake is to give what is holy to dogs. To allow those who are living in scandalous sin, trampling the grace of God underfoot, to come to the Table is to throw pearls to swine. This is why church discipline is not an optional extra for the super-spiritual; it is a necessary outworking of this very command. We are fencing the Table not to be exclusive and proud, but to protect the holy things of God from profanation and to protect the unrepentant from drinking judgment on themselves (1 Cor. 11:29).
Finally, we must remember that this discernment is not natural. It is a gift of the Spirit. We cannot look at a man's heart. But we can look at his fruit. We can listen to his words. And we can, by the grace of God, know when we are standing before an honest doubter and when we are standing before a pig in a parlor. Our default posture must be one of generous, open-handed proclamation. But when that proclamation is met with hardened, persistent, and vicious contempt, we are commanded by our Lord to have the wisdom to stop casting our pearls into the mud.