Most people are familiar with the expression, “pearls before swine.” I wonder how many people realize it came from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount?
“Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you” (Matthew 7:6).
What was Jesus getting at when He spoke these words to the crowd that had followed Him to learn how to live as members of God’s kingdom?
I think Dallas Willard has the best understanding of what Jesus was teaching. He notes, “Pigs don’t eat pearls. You need to give the kind of food they are able to eat.”
Dietary Concerns
Our autistic grandson has very specific dietary choices. He loves cheese pizza, but he hates cheese on a hamburger. His brain is wired to make that kind of distinction. It would be wrong for me to force him to eat a cheeseburger when a simple hamburger is an option.
We also have a number of friends who are diabetic. Suppose they were invited to our house for dinner, and all we provided was food with a high glycemic index. If we persuaded them to eat our food, their health could be dramatically harmed.
The list of dietary restrictions could go on and on, but you get the picture.
Could it be that Jesus was instructing those who wanted to help their friends become citizens of God’s kingdom to have this same sensitivity when it comes to spiritual food?
Harry Emerson Fosdick recommended that we view a person like an island. He suggested that we listen to them long enough—like rowing a small boat around the island—until we find an opening to their heart. This kind of sensitivity gives us the best opportunity to speak to them about Jesus.
Using Dallas Willard’s language, we don’t try to force-feed them what we think they need. Instead, we learn what they can eat and offer that to them.
Hurdles or Bridges
Can you imagine the athletic accomplishment required to sprint 110 meters while striding over 3.5-foot-tall hurdles in 12.75 seconds? Only one person has accomplished this feat: Ja’Kobe Tharp, who broke the record on June 10, 2026.
Most of us couldn’t even climb over a single 3.5-foot hurdle, much less sprint 110 meters. On the other hand, the vast majority of us could take a quiet stroll over a small bridge while talking with a friend.
Fosdick and Willard interpret Jesus’ message about “pearls before swine” as an encouragement for people to walk their friends across a bridge to a relationship with Jesus, rather than placing hurdles before them.
We are inviting people to have a relationship with Jesus. Shouldn’t we be willing to take the time to form a genuine relationship with them in order to help them along?
Unfortunately, some of our attitudes, words, and actions act more like hurdles than bridges. What if we simply brought people to Jesus, left them with Him, and let Jesus transform their lives?
Naturally Becoming Grace-Giving People
How can we naturally become people who know when it is time to speak and when it is time to be quiet? How do we become people who realize when our words construct hurdles that make it hard for someone to experience Jesus’ friendship? How can we love like Jesus and take people by the hand across the bridge to a relationship with Him?
A good place to begin is by knowing Jesus well enough to trust Him to work in a person’s life, letting go of our need to control. The current culture wars are filled with hurdles people have to climb over, rather than bridges they can cross.
Does Jesus really need our help with regard to many of these cultural issues, or can we trust Him to transform people after they get acquainted with Him? The better we know Jesus, the more we will trust Him to turn a Saul into a Paul, or a tax collector named Levi into Matthew, the Gospel writer.
If we consume large amounts of culture-related information, it becomes difficult not to try and “feed” another person a diet of that material. However, if we fill our minds with life-giving content based on the good news of God’s love, we will naturally tend to share that with others.
As we get better acquainted with Jesus, let’s become more informed by His message. Much of the bluster and dogmatism seen in some Christians comes from insecurity. As we become more deeply acquainted with Jesus and His message, we will be better able to tolerate the opinions of others because we are firmly secure in our own beliefs.
If we focus more on the relationship rather than on being right, we will have a better chance of being used by the Lord as a bridge for others to enter into a relationship with Him.
You’ve heard the expression, “win the battle, but lose the war.” As we talk to others about matters of faith, being right might win the discussion battle, but establishing a genuine relationship with the person will win the war.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross, Bruce Kirby, and I discussed this passage on YouTube today.
Real Voices 