All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Matthew 7:6
6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+7:6&version...
I heard this verse has to do with people who harden their hearts to the gospel. Can anyone explain this verse further?
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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6. Give not that which is holy to the dogs, and do not throw down your pearls before swine, lest these trample them under their feet, and those turn and tear you.
6. Give not that which is holy It is unnecessary to repeat oftener, that Matthew gives us here detached sentences, which ought not to be viewed as a continued discourse. The present instruction is not at all connected with what came immediately before, but is entirely separate from it. Christ reminds the Apostles, and, through them, all the teachers of the Gospel, to reserve the treasure of heavenly wisdom for the children of God alone, and not to expose it to unworthy and profane despisers of his word.
But here a question arises: for he afterwards commanded to preach the Gospel to every creature, (Mark 16:15;) and Paul says, that the preaching of it is a deadly savor to wicked men, (2 Corinthians 2:16;) and nothing is more certain than that it is every day held out to unbelievers, by the command of God, for a testimony, that they may be rendered the more inexcusable. I:reply: As the ministers of the Gospel, and those who are called to the office of teaching, cannot distinguish between the children of God and swine, it is their duty to present the doctrine of salvation indiscriminately to all. Though many may appear to them, at first, to be hardened and unyielding, yet charity forbids that such persons should be immediately pronounced to be desperate. It ought to be understood, that dogs and swine are names given not to every kind of debauched men, or to those who are destitute of the fear of God and of true godliness, but to those who, by clear evidences, have manifested a hardened contempt of God, so that their disease appears to be incurable. In another passage, Christ places the dogs in contrast with the elect people of God and the household of faith, It is not proper to take the children's bread, and give it to dogs, (Matthew 15:27.) But by dogs and swine he means here those who are so thoroughly imbued with a wicked contempt of God, that they refuse to accept any remedy.
Hence it is evident, how grievously the words of Christ are tortured by those who think that he limits the doctrine of the Gospel to those only who are teachable and well-prepared. For what will be the consequence, if nobody is invited by pious teachers, until by his obedience he has anticipated the grace of God? On the contrary, we are all by nature unholy, and prone to rebellion. The remedy of salvation must be refused to none, till they have rejected it so basely when offered to them, as to make it evident that they are reprobate and self-condemned, (autokatakritoi,) as Paul says of heretics, (Titus 3:11.)
There are two reasons, why Christ forbade that the Gospel should be offered to lost despisers. It is an open profanation of the mysteries of God to expose them to the taunts of wicked men. Another reason is, that Christ intended to comfort his disciples, that they might not cease to bestow their labors on the elect of God in teaching the Gospel, though they saw it wantonly rejected by wicked and ungodly men. His meaning is lest this inestimable treasure should be held in little estimation, swine and dogs must not be permitted to approach it. There are two designations which Christ bestows on the doctrine of salvation: he calls it holy, and compares it to pearls. Hence we learn how highly we ought to esteem this doctrine.
Lest these trample them under their feet Christ appears to distinguish between the swine and the dogs: attributing brutal stupidity to the swine, and rage to the dogs And certainly, experience shows, that there are two such classes of despisers of God. Whatever is taught in Scripture, for instance, about the corrupt nature of man, free justification, and eternal election, is turned by many into an encouragement to sloth and to carnal indulgence. Such persons are fitly and justly pronounced to be swine Others, again, tear the pure doctrine, and its ministers, with sacrilegious reproaches, as if they threw away all desire to do well, all fear of God, and all care for their salvation. Although he employs both names to describe the incurable opponents of the Word of God, yet, by a twofold comparison, he points out briefly in what respect the one differs from the other. Calvin
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Permalink Reply by feet breath on
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Forgive my comprehension problem. I don't quite understand what you mean.
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Permalink Reply by Tammy on
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LOLOL. I didn't get it either Feetbreeze. He probably didn't understand all himself. lol. Kidding. It was copied & pasted from some great theologian which is always hard for me to comprehend. If I get a chance today or tomorrow girl, I'll bring it back to redneck language.
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Hahaha ohh hahaha you guys are funnnnyyy hahaha It is good to have a great sense of humor.
Feetbreeze -
I will take the same insert from Calvin's notes on the bible and replace some of the old English wording in it with today's language.
Tammy -
You are funny sis. Funny in a good way, great to see you have a wonderful sense of humor. I really like the writings of the saints of old, Calvin being among my favorite writers. To me their writings are theological poetry, but they do send me to the dictionary from time to time because some of the words they used are no longer relevant in our language today.
Blessings and love to you two. :0)
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I've tried really really hard to understand them. I've tried so hard to read them but I just don't have the patience brother because I find myself having to look up every other word. I envy those of you who are able to understand these great men of God. One is Tozer. Man I wish I could understand that man's writings. I'll get a quote here & there from them but to understand the complete writings, no way jose. And yes, I have found laughter is the answer to life as far as surviving through many difficult situations. It's quite the healer & the Lord has blessed me with a double dose of it.
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Yeah! Redneck language. Now that's something my tiny brain can comprehend.
David, thanks for trying to help. I'm just not good at comprehension. Let's put it this way. In 11th grade I was supposed to do a Compistion class. I couldn't comprehend it, it was way too difficult. So, I had to get switched to a much humbler class for writing.
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Feetbreeze-
The beautiful thing is that God has called us to be his own and the Gospel which we believe can be understood by anyone. God is so, so good to us.
Blessings
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- I have altered Calvin’s notes on Matthew 7:6, only by replacing words that are no longer relevant in our daily usage of our language with common ones today. Blessings and enjoy.
6. Give not that which is holy to the dogs, and do not throw down your pearls before pigs, lest these trample them under their feet, and those turn and tear you.
6. Give not that which is holy: It may be unnecessary to often repeat that Matthew gives us here detached sentences, which should not to be viewed as a continued conversation, but I will remind us that the instruction given here is not at all connected with what came immediately before in the verses surrounding Matthew 7:6, but is entirely separate from it. Christ reminds the Apostles, and, through them, all the teachers of the Gospel, to reserve the treasure of heavenly wisdom for the children of God alone, and not to expose it to unworthy and blasphemous despisers of his word.
But here a question arises: for he later commanded us to preach the Gospel to every creature, (Mark 16:15;) and Paul says, that the preaching of it is a deadly taste to wicked men, (2 Corinthians 2:16;) and nothing is more certain than that the Gospel is every day presented to unbelievers, by the command of God, for a testimony, that they who hear the gospel may be without an excuse. I respond, as the ministers of the Gospel tend to respond, and those who are called to the office of teaching, that we cannot distinguish between the children of God and pigs; it is our duty to present the doctrine of salvation without discrimination, to all. Though many people may appear to us, at first, to be hardened and immovable, love forbids that such persons should be immediately pronounced to be hopeless. It should be understood, that dogs and pigs are names not given to every kind of wicked men, or to those who are far of having the fear of God and of true godliness, but to those who by clear evidences have manifested a hardened dislike of God, so that their disease appears to be incurable. In another passage, Christ places the dogs in distinction with the elect people of God and the household of faith, It is not proper to take the children's bread, and give it to dogs, (Matthew 15:27.) But by dogs and pigs he means here those who are so completely soaked with a wicked disrespect for God, that they refuse to accept any remedy/help.
Hence it is evident, how badly the words of Christ are interpreted by those who think that he limits the doctrine of the Gospel to only those who are teachable and well-prepared. For what will be the consequence, if nobody is invited by sound teachers to receive the Gospel, until the teachers perceives by the obedience of the hearers of the Gospel that God will give them grace unto salvation? On the contrary, we are all by nature unholy, and prone to rebellion. The remedy of salvation must be refused to none, till they have rejected it so profoundly when it is offered to them, as to make it evident that they are reprobate and self-condemned, (autokatakritoi,) as Paul says of false teachers in Titus 3:11.
There are two reasons, why Christ forbade that the Gospel should be offered to those that passionately hate the gospel. It is an open profanation of the mysteries of God to expose them to the mocking of wicked men. Another reason is that Christ intended to comfort his disciples that they might not stop investing their labors on the elect of God in teaching the Gospel, though they saw it excessively rejected by wicked and ungodly men. His meaning is lest this immeasurable treasure should be held in little estimation; pigs and dogs must not be permitted to approach it. There are two designations which Christ gives the doctrine of salvation: he calls it holy, and compares it to pearls. Hence we learn how highly we ought to esteem this doctrine.
Christ appears to distinguish between the pigs and the dogs: attributing brutal stupidity to the pigs and rage to the dogs. Experience shows that there are two such classes of despisers of God. The verses in the word of God that teach about the corrupt nature of man, free justification, and eternal election, are turned by many into an encouragement to become lazy and to enjoy fleshly desires. Such persons are correctly and justly pronounced to be pigs. Others, again, tear the pure doctrine, and its ministers, with sacrilegious reproaches, as if they threw away all desire to do well, all fear of God, and all care for their salvation. Although he employs both names to describe the incurable opponents of the Word of God, yet, by a twofold comparison, he points out briefly in what respect the one differs from the other. Calvin
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Here is something I copied & pasted from the web: There is no need to present the gospel to those with negative volition toward God.Give not that which is holy, etc. By some, the word holy has been supposed to mean flesh offered in sacrifice, made holy, or separated to a sacred use. But it probably means here anything connected with religion--admonition, precept, or doctrine. Pearls are precious stones found in shell-fish, chiefly in India, in the waters that surround Ceylon. They are used to denote anything peculiarly precious, Revelation 17:4; 18:12-16; Matthew 13:46. In this place they are used to denote the doctrines of the gospel. Dogs signify men who spurn, oppose, and abuse that doctrine; men of peculiar sourness and malignity of temper, who meet it like growling and quarrelsome curs, 2 Peter 2:22; Revelation 22:15. Swinedenote those who would trample the precepts under feet; men of impurity of life; corrupt, polluted, profane, obscene, and sensual; who would not know the value of the gospel, and who would tread it down as swine would pearls, 2 Peter 2:22;Proverbs 11:22. The meaning of this proverb then is, do not offer your doctrine to those violent and abusive men, who would growl and curse you; nor to those peculiarly debased and profligate, who would not perceive its value, would trample it down, and abuse you. This verse furnishes a beautiful instance of theintroverted parallelism. The usual mode of poetry among the Hebrews, and a common mode of expression in proverbs and apothegms, was by the parallelism, where one member of a sentence answered to another, or expressed substantially the same sense with some addition or modification. See my Introduction to Isaiah. Sometimes this was alternate, and sometimes it was introverted--where the first and fourth lines would correspond, and the second and third. This is the case here. The dogs would rend, and not the swine; the swine would trample the pearls under their feet, and not the dogs.
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In short: Don't present the gospel to those who are automatically going to violate it. I feel this takes great discernment because we need to be careful about who we consider worthy.
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Discernment? That's difficult.
All JW are trained not to pay attention to anything other than their own doctrines. One is an elder, the other his wife (she brings another person, her husband doesn't come in the house anymore) and my mom (not an official JW, not baptized). It'd be wonderful to share the gospel with all three of them. But, the Governing Body brainwashes them. Besides, if one person hears the gospel than the other person/s will probably hear it/find out.
I don't know how to discern properly since they're all taught to basicly think the same. It'd be easier if it was just the elder's wife and my mom. Honestly, him being and elder and a man is intimidating. I've seen the elders at kingdom hall. Seeing them...a person gets feeling of being controled and fear.
I'm not sure if was some elders or just regular members. But, last April 5th I went to the memorial (to take notes to see what info. I could get out of them). I was by the restroom and I heard some men talking asking/saying "Is that a new one" or something like that. Chills went through my body after hearing that statement.
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