A teacher friend of mine recently invited me to identify the “bridge” within Matthew 7:1-6. I love a good challenge when it comes to scripture, so I jumped on the chance to take a few days to ponder it and get back with him. Now that I’m “on the other side”, so to speak, I’m excited to share the journey with all of you as well. Here’s the passage:

“Judge not, that you be not judged. ² For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. ³ And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? ⁴ Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? ⁵ Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. ⁶ “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 7:1-6

The first thing I did was to ask the Holy Spirit for a revelation. I sensed that the “bridge” might be the shift of focus between verses 5 and 6, and so was falling asleep thinking about it. Just as I was almost asleep I had a flash of insight that I later dismissed because it seemed so, well, unlike anything I had always been taught. I can hear some of you laughing, perhaps thinking you’ve been there! But because of the flash, I just couldn’t shake the urge to ask my friend “what are the pearls”?

Deciding to keep my questions to myself for the time being, the next day I took the time to check the commentaries. Growing up attending church, I had always gotten the impression that the pearls were words of wisdom or a sacred and precious teaching, and that the dogs & swine were the unclean – those who “wallowed” in sin – the profane or “persecuting wretches” who would trample the pearls underfoot. I read this in one of the commentaries, so it was this lens I used when I read through the rest of them. In my first attempt to answer wisely, I suggested to my friend the following:

“So when the Holy Spirit shares with me a revelation, knowledge, a word (i.e. a pearl), I am not to judge (3-5) but I am supposed to discriminate (6)?” That’s when he invited me to jump on a quick call. Guess what the first question was that he asked me? “What are the pearls (what does a pearl mean)?” I couldn’t help but laugh since I now understood it was the Holy Spirit prompting me to ask HIM that same question. I’m sorry, Lord, for ignoring you the first time and running after the wisdom of men instead!

What I learned from my friend that day was that pearls are words that a person shares with us in risk. Choosing to be vulnerable, they are sharing in confidence with us something of value to them. If you think of how a pearl is made through the irritation of the sand within the clam, it gives insight into why the word would be of value. The person may be hurting or troubled in soul. The word is holy because the person is choosing to confess it, bring it out into the open in order that they may be healed.

Think of a priest in a confessional, a pastor who is counseling, or a prayer ministry team after a service. Those who come up for prayer often share things with the one praying for them that they would not share with anyone else. What we do with the words they share determines whether we are dogs & swine or not. If we turn around and share the word spoken in confidence with someone else, and they in turn spread it around, for example. Or if we judge them for the speck that is in their eye without taking account the beam that is in our own, in essence we trample underfoot the value of a word shared with us in a vulnerable state.

I love the tenderness of this teaching by Jesus when you view it through this lens instead, it’s so sweet! And I can clearly see the bridge now. Can you? The bridge is the audience “shift”. First He addresses those who trample pearls by calling them out as hypocrites. Then He addresses those who have pearls to first discern who it is they choose to share them with. It shows how much He cares about our emotional well-being, and I love that.

Ugh! I’m not a priest nor an active part of a prayer ministry team, but I know in my heart there have been times I have trampled precious words underfoot, and I know what it feels like when this has happened to me or to someone I love. Father forgive me for those times!