“Do not give that which 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). What does this mean? There was another instance of a similar statement when Jesus went Syrophoenicia, to the land of Tyre (Matthew 15:21-28). When Jesus got to Tyre, a woman came asking for help for her daughter who was demon possessed. Jesus turned around and said, “It's not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (Matthew 15:26). Some people have questioned that statement.
Was Jesus calling her a dog? Would you walk 150 kilometres to help one single person, let alone a person you despise? How long does it take to walk 150 kilometres? It would take a couple of days at least. There we see the intensity of Christ's love for her. Knowing how deeply He loved her, we see that the Lord was testing her to see whether she was willing to take any lowly position, recognizing that she deserves nothing from God. When she said, “That's fine. I'm a dog, but can I get the crumbs that fall from the table?” Jesus said, “O woman, your faith is great!” It’s only twice that Jesus ever said that to anybody, and both were to non-Jewish people. One was to a Roman centurion, and the other was to this Syrophoenician woman. Look how He appreciated her!
We need to understand that when Jesus speaks about dogs and swine in Scripture, He’s not despising people. He’s recognizing that we don't deserve anything at all from God. Anyone who thinks, “I deserve that God should do something for me” hasn't understood man's position before God. The only thing that you and I deserve is hell. If we go to God and say, “Lord give me what we deserve,” then He should be giving us hell. Anything better than that is God's grace. When we recognize that, then we will see that we get a lot that we do not deserve from God. But most people don't recognize that position.
So, when we see a statement like this, it is not that we are to treat anybody like dogs, or to treat anybody like swine. We are all sinners. Every single person is a sinner. We're all sinners. Some of us are saved by the grace of God with our sins forgiven, and some are still in their sins, but we're basically all sinners to start with because we've inherited that from Adam. So there's no reason for one person to think that he's better than the other, or to look down on another like a dog or a swine.
When Jesus said, “Don't give that which is holy to dogs,” He meant, “Don't give something which people don't appreciate to them.” All a dog wants is a bone. He doesn't want something holy. When a human being is more interested in material things on earth than God, there is a sense in which he is no better than an animal. What do you live for? Do you live just to bring up children, have sex, sleep, and eat good food? Well, that's what all the animals are interested in too! Animals are always interested in earthly things. Dogs are always looking down on the earth. So are swine. You never see a dog or a swine looking up to heaven. Animals are always looking down at the things of the earth, and that's the meaning of the word ‘dogs’ here - it means “people whose minds are set on earthly things.”
A true Christian has his head lifted up. He is looking at things above. For people who are not interested in the things above, it is pointless giving to them that which is holy. It's like casting pearls in front of swine. What swine need is a lot of rubbish (slop). That's what they love to eat, so it's pointless giving them that which is holy. Jesus is speaking of the Sermon on the Mount - the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount is not meant for unbelievers. That is the point of Matthew 7:6: don't give this message to those who are not born again, because they cannot appreciate it. We need to recognize what truth we can give to each person. That's what Christ is saying in this verse.
What people who are not born again need to hear is the message of repentance. They need to know that they are sinners. They need to know that they deserve hell. They need to know that they are lost, and cut off from God, and are heading to an eternal destiny in hell. That’s the message that non-Christians and even people born in Christian homes (who are not born again, who have not come into a living connection with Christ) need to hear.
Every human being, if he does not give God first place in his life, is really like an animal. An animal has no interest in God, no interest in prayer, no interest in hearing what God has to say. When you have a human being living on Earth with no interest in prayer, no interest in God, and no interest in hearing what God is to say to him, he is no better than an animal. An animal is interested in sex. When man is primarily interested in sex, he is like an animal. Every animal is interested in sex and food, and when human beings are interested only in food, sex, sleep, and having children, they are just like animals. But there was a difference when God made Adam. He made Adam from the same dust that He used to make the pigs, the dogs, and all the animals. It’s exactly the same dust.
If you look at the internal organs of dogs and swine, there's a lot of similarity there between man's internal organs and the internal organs of these animals. So what the Lord was saying is, physically, both of you are from the same material. And that's why God made animals and man both on the sixth day. The first part of the sixth day He made the animals, and the second part of the sixth day He made man. But there was one big difference with the animals: God didn't breathe on them. They automatically had breath when they were created from the dust, but as soon as man was made, God breathed into him, and he became a living soul (Genesis 2:7), and that was the thing that distinguished him from the animals immediately - the breath of God.
If God had not breathed into Adam, he may have looked like a man, but he would have been like an animal. But the moment God breathed into him, he became a living soul. He became an eternal being, unlike animals, which are not eternal. When an animal dies, they just become dust. But when God breathed into a man and man became a living soul, he became an eternal being at that moment. He became an eternal being answerable to God. He didn't have eternal life, because eternal life refers to life that had no beginning, and only God has that. But we can receive that eternal life when we repent of our sins and come to Christ and receive Him as our Lord and Savior. Then we will have eternal life. Otherwise, we are just eternal beings who go to hell and dwell there for eternity, separated from God.
What the Lord is saying is that there are two distinct categories of people on this earth. There are those who live just like animals (like dogs and swine), and there are others who recognize that they are supposed to be children of God, and who recognize that God has made them eternal beings answerable to Him. When God breathed into man, he was made of dust, but he also had a conscience that made him aware that he's answerable to God for his actions and words. Animals don't have a conscience. They don't have any sense of guilt when they do something wrong, whereas man (even if he's a completely illiterate barbarian in a jungle) has a sense of guilt because he has a conscience.
Even the barbarians in the jungles bow down and worship - maybe a rock or a stone or the sun, for example. There's some awareness that there is a Creator, there is an eternal Being to Whom they are answerable. You never find a religious dog anywhere, or a religious monkey or swine. Why is it that even barbarians have that sense of awareness of an eternal Being to Whom they’re answerable? That's because they have a conscience. Every man has a conscience, and that's what distinguishes man from swine, dogs, and other animals.
