WHAT IS HOLY?


Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces. 
(Matthew 7: 6 – NAS)


How often do we reference “pearls before swine” these days? Quite a lot, but mostly in a dismissive way. It gets used by someone in sympathy with another who is attempting to reach an audience. When the intended audience doesn’t respond, the speaker dismisses the target audience and “consoles” the friend at the same time by saying, “Pearls before swine,” meaning that the audience isn’t worthy of the attention given them.

We use the phrase as a judgment against those who are ignorant or unperceptive, who fail to recognize value in good work. But that is not what Jesus is focusing on here, and we would be better served to pay attention to Him. 

“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine....”

Jesus asks us to look closely at what has been placed in our hands, and to value those things properly.  

Pearls were of great value in Jesus’ time, because they were difficult to come by and their remarkable beauty made them very desirable. Pearls are not crystals like most other gemstones. That distinction, and the process by which they are made, gives pearls a reputation of high worth. These are not mere pebbles that we treat as objects of beauty: they are undeniably  beautiful objects. Pearls do not get mistaken for lesser things (though lesser things can attempt to imitate them). 

Now that we’re clear about pearls, let us remember how Jesus began this verse. “Do not give what is holy to dogs.”  

Holiness goes far beyond monetary value. Holiness is about the striving for perfection. It is about those things that have been dedicated to the very best, even consecrated to the service of God.  

Jesus tells us not to give such things to dogs or swine.  

He is not condemning the dogs or swine for being dogs or swine. Pigs were considered unclean animals in Jesus’ culture. It didn’t have to do with a condition of being covered with dirt, but rather that they had not been sanctified by the Lord. Pigs were frequently kept because they would eat garbage. Many dogs also were not considered to be of much worth. But they are what they are. 

Jesus, however, is not dismissing them as being unworthy. To the people He was speaking to, that much was already understood. Instead, Jesus was reminding us to pay attention to our own conduct. 

Do we scatter our pearls anywhere and everywhere, in hopes that someone out there will value them? Do we give away everything to the first creature that comes up to us and plops itself down ready to take anything we will give to it? If we do indeed do those things, what does that say about how we value what has been given into our hands? 

Of course, Jesus is not just talking about physical objects, whether things we have acquired or things we have made. He is also speaking about the “pearls of wisdom” that the Lord has given us in scripture, and in what Jesus has been teaching. How do we treat these things?  

How often are Bible verses scattered about in discussions, just to “make a point”? How often have believers used scripture to browbeat others? We justify that behavior – when we think about it – by relying on the fact that it is God's Word. “It will not come back void,” we tell ourselves. But have we treated it as holy? Have we treated it as if it had the beauty and pricelessness of a wonderful pearl? 

We do not. 

We often treat God’s Word as if all that wisdom and relationship were simply sticks to beat others with, tools for getting “our way.” 

Let us remember that this verse is in the middle of a long teaching wherein Jesus is trying to make a bunch of blockheads (namely, us) understand the conduct that He desires to find in His followers. This is not about telling us not to waste our efforts on the unworthy (although He does caution us as to how the Unworthy might respond to things). Instead, it is about how we treat what we are given. 

The Word of the Lord is like a strand of perfectly matched pearls. Are you going to throw away that strand on a street corner and hope that whoever finds it will value it? Are you going to pull the strand apart and toss each pearl into a crowd of passers-by, and hope that each one lands in the hands of someone who knows what it is? 

Who in their right mind would do that? 

Yet, that is how we treat the Lord’s words. 

Just how much do we value what the Lord has given to us? Do we toss scripture at outsiders and think that we have done enough in sharing the Good News? Do we expect them to behave like dogs and just lap everything up, taking it all in without understanding? What does it say about US that we treat the Word of the Lord this way? 

Holiness is about the ultimate of perfection. We say that God is holy. But how often do we think of what that means? 

The shining heart of all existence is the presence of God. The fire of the Most Holy is such that imperfection cannot come near to Him (unless Jesus stands protection for that which is imperfect). The nature of this holiness is inherent in all scripture. 

But we don’t treat it that way. We treat scripture as “mere words,” and so we toss them around every which way. Is it any surprise that nonbelievers trample them under their feet and then turn and run at us, ready to tear us to pieces? Have we in anyway way treated the scripture as something precious and valuable? Don’t we come across to others as simply using tools (and particularly unlovely tools, at that!)? 

Scripture and the relationship that we can have with God by understanding scripture... these are the things that are holy. These are the pearls of great price. These are what we should treat as being so precious they are gems in a crown. 

Let us all be careful about what we start casually tossing out to those passing by us, those that are around us. Let us remember what is holy.