Not everyone can receive God's word, Jesus pointed out. Not everyone will appreciate your kindly advice. Careful!
As we say these days, oil and water don't mix.
For discussion of the topic of persecution, go here.
As we say these days, oil and water don't mix.
You don't give Temple offerings to the dogs, nor do you toss your pearls in front of pigs. They might run wild and turn on you and tear you up.
Does it not strike you as obscene
to give food meant for God's work to dogs? Similarly,
one doesn't feed pigs with
precious things like pearls.
But what can this doublet mean? Well, we know that pigs and dogs are considered unclean under the Old Testament law. And observant Jews of the era regarded Gentiles as dogs because they did not observe the requirements of the Mosaic law.
Yet Jesus would be the first to tell you that the uncleanness to worry about is the sin that soils a person's inner being.
Who is it that does not look upon evil, who cannot abide the depravity of the human spirit? Who is it who struck Adam and Eve spiritually dead by cutting them off from the kingdom? The answer is obvious.
In other words, we -- in our fallen state -- are the dogs and pigs. Every one of us either was or still is at war with God, slashing him every time we hurt one of our fellow humans.
What Jesus does is reconcile us to God, making peace between us and God so that we begin to cease from learning war any more. Dogs and pigs cannot be given holy food. Likewise, fallen humankind cannot receive the bread of life, Jesus himself, or the water of life, the Holy Spirit. No, first a person must be lifted out of her or his fallen state and cleaned up by being washed in the blood of the lamb, all sin debt having been paid off by the crucifixion of Jesus.
I will agree that this couplet can be read in other ways, as is true of so much of Scripture.
Some regard it as a bit of folk wisdom that advises people to be careful about what they share with others. Some people are simply not suited to share in your advice. Most of us have experienced this sort of situation. You give kindly advice about your friend's spouse and he turns and is ever after implacably against you. Or, sometimes experts in Jewish law would not recount their interpretations with certain people who were deemed unfit.
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 to 7), the pearls saying comes right after the saying about getting the two-by-four out of your own eye before trying to remove the speck from your brother's eye. So the sermon's composer likely saw the saying as easily relating to that matter. Don't be critical of others, even if seemingly well-intentioned, or you may get trouble.
The sermon's compiler doubtless thought that the pearls saying fits well with the judge not saying. Yet, I would argue, that many times the "payback" for judgmentalism comes unexpectedly from some source other than the person with whom you have found fault. Instead of that person turning and rending you, you are cut to the quick by someone else. In fact the most risky part of you judging another is that you fail to forgive that person of a wrong done you so that God then uses that same standard against you, and you remain outside Christ's circle of grace.
In any case, this teaching also fits with Jesus' use of parables. Mark emphasizes that only Jesus' disciples could receive the fuller meaning of his teachings. The masses had to make do with their own ideas as to what the parables mean. For more on this topic, see Appendix C.
In addition, the couplet fits well with another Christian topic: persecution. What is the cost of following Jesus? You find out when you toss your pearls of spiritual food out before you. The unspiritual turn and attack.
But what can this doublet mean? Well, we know that pigs and dogs are considered unclean under the Old Testament law. And observant Jews of the era regarded Gentiles as dogs because they did not observe the requirements of the Mosaic law.
Yet Jesus would be the first to tell you that the uncleanness to worry about is the sin that soils a person's inner being.
Who is it that does not look upon evil, who cannot abide the depravity of the human spirit? Who is it who struck Adam and Eve spiritually dead by cutting them off from the kingdom? The answer is obvious.
In other words, we -- in our fallen state -- are the dogs and pigs. Every one of us either was or still is at war with God, slashing him every time we hurt one of our fellow humans.
What Jesus does is reconcile us to God, making peace between us and God so that we begin to cease from learning war any more. Dogs and pigs cannot be given holy food. Likewise, fallen humankind cannot receive the bread of life, Jesus himself, or the water of life, the Holy Spirit. No, first a person must be lifted out of her or his fallen state and cleaned up by being washed in the blood of the lamb, all sin debt having been paid off by the crucifixion of Jesus.
I will agree that this couplet can be read in other ways, as is true of so much of Scripture.
Some regard it as a bit of folk wisdom that advises people to be careful about what they share with others. Some people are simply not suited to share in your advice. Most of us have experienced this sort of situation. You give kindly advice about your friend's spouse and he turns and is ever after implacably against you. Or, sometimes experts in Jewish law would not recount their interpretations with certain people who were deemed unfit.
In the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 to 7), the pearls saying comes right after the saying about getting the two-by-four out of your own eye before trying to remove the speck from your brother's eye. So the sermon's composer likely saw the saying as easily relating to that matter. Don't be critical of others, even if seemingly well-intentioned, or you may get trouble.
The sermon's compiler doubtless thought that the pearls saying fits well with the judge not saying. Yet, I would argue, that many times the "payback" for judgmentalism comes unexpectedly from some source other than the person with whom you have found fault. Instead of that person turning and rending you, you are cut to the quick by someone else. In fact the most risky part of you judging another is that you fail to forgive that person of a wrong done you so that God then uses that same standard against you, and you remain outside Christ's circle of grace.
In any case, this teaching also fits with Jesus' use of parables. Mark emphasizes that only Jesus' disciples could receive the fuller meaning of his teachings. The masses had to make do with their own ideas as to what the parables mean. For more on this topic, see Appendix C.
In addition, the couplet fits well with another Christian topic: persecution. What is the cost of following Jesus? You find out when you toss your pearls of spiritual food out before you. The unspiritual turn and attack.
The price of honesty
A number of years ago in New Jersey a firebomb claimed the lives of a born-again couple, depriving two young boys of their parents. The firebomb, left as a package on the doorstep, consumed the couple's house and all the paper evidence the man had been compiling concerning a business fraud he had become aware of. The case remains unsolved.
For discussion of the topic of persecution, go here.
Next Page: Section 36
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