“Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.”
(Matthew 7:6 NKJV)
Red letters, Christ’s own words, have a unique way of checkmating our self-righteousness. I imagine at the time when “the sun never set in the English Empire” the bold captains of industry and Royal Navy cringed a touch when an Anglican cleric mentioned that “the meek shall inherit the earth”. Yet, no doubt they honestly believed they were righteous in the way they sailed about ordering and advancing the world.
A more docile self-righteousness as in our era, an era in which equality is the ideal of the day, is confronted by a Savior who thundered “don’t cast your pearls before swine”. We can neither minimize these Words, nor ignore them. They serve a Purpose and we must see a vanity and weakness in ourselves through them.
Our vanity is thinking that holding current cultural ideals identifies us as the true christians. The only thing that makes us Christian is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our prayer is that the love of Christ softens our hard hearts so that we appreciate both those who maintain order and those who are suffering under it. But, understand that this is the effect and not the cause of salvation.
Our weakness is the desire to define our own righteousness and extend it to those who agree with us. Our weakness is neglecting what is plain in the Word and pushing any message over one in which calls us to be repentant of heart and dependent upon Grace. Our weakness is an almost infinite ability to convince ourselves that we are in the right and then miss the moment in which we have become the swine.
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