New Take on Pearls and Swine

"...neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." - Matthew 7:6 (KJV)¹

We sometimes get things so backwards, with our arrogance and propensity for self justification. Look at the Pearls and Swine directive from a better perspective

Jesus is not suggesting that certain classes of people are to be viewed as pigs or dogs ... Anyone who has ever had serious responsibilities of caring for animals will understand immediately ... The problem with pearls for pigs is not that the pigs are not worthy. It is not worthiness that is in question here at all, but helpfulness. Pigs cannot digest pearls.²

Jesus isn't offering an insult to those who don't accept our "pearls" of wisdom, he is chiding us who push things on others that they can't use!

[T]he point is not the waste of the "pearl" but that the person given the pearl is not helped...Our children or others do not know what else to do with us pearl pushers. And even though they love us--as parent or friend, for example--they simply cannot take any more of our "pushy irrelevance," as they see it, or possibly our stubborn blindness.²

- fritz

^{1 - Matthew 7:6
2 - The Divine Conspiracy by Dallas Willard, published by HarperCollins, copyright 1998, page 229
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