Matthew 7:1-11
Finding Our Place Again

"Don't judge, so that you won't be judged. For with whatever judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but don't consider the beam that is in your own eye? Or how will you tell your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye;' and behold, the beam is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.

"Don't give that which is holy to the dogs, neither throw your pearls before the pigs, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

"Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!"

World English Bible

It is obvious to me that this passage was written about those people, if you know what I mean, and of course you do! There are always several of them in any church, the ones who are always right or have to be right, the ones who spread their piety around like a flower girl at a wedding, the ones who take every occasion to pray their ornate prayers in public. These are the ones that act like they are the second coming incarnate! It's bad enough when their ego shows—then there are the ones who pretend not to have an ego, and they upset me that much more!

Well, that's one terribly incomplete way to interpret this passage.

When we're honest with ourselves, when we open up to God's cleansing of our sinful selves, we can see our actions in the verses about being judgmental. There's a large part of us that wants to have control so we gain the illusion that all will be well. Judging others is often part of that futile attempt at control. We avoid the bearded man on the street so we won't get mugged. We don't involve the younger man in the project because we can't count on him to be reliable. We don't associate with that odd woman because she would embarrass us in social circumstances. All about knowing and controlling the future, and all about trying to be God.

The opposite of trying to be God, strangely enough, is living like Christ lived. Other people were at times embarrassing to Him, particularly Simon Peter. He couldn't count on anyone else when His situation was most desperate. We suspect people will let us down, but Jesus knew that they would. Still, He knew, and we know, too, that God has more than enough power to do amazing deeds with the most unlikely people.

That to me is key to understanding the odd verse in the middle of this passage. Many people have seen a contradiction in verse 1 ("don't judge other people") and verse 6 ("don't give what is holy to wild dogs"). It would appear that we are commanded to judge which people are worthy of what is holy, and which we should consider to be pigs and wild dogs. That makes no sense!

In the verses that immediately follow, Jesus calls us all wicked. In the verses before, He tells us that we all have dirt in our eyes. We ought to admit it instead of presuming that we are holy and others are wicked. Once we accept who we are, and can accept and love others as they are, then we can meet them where they are. That to me is the point of verse 6—if you toss pearls to a pig, the pig will try to eat them, find they aren't edible, and be upset at the deception. The phrase translated "what is holy" sometimes can refer to the ceremonial jewelry worn by the priests, which certainly would be meaningless and useless to a dog.

Instead of trying to impress dogs and pigs with our piety and wealth, we ought to reach other people in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them. Jesus in another passage pointed out how absurd it was to wish a cold person warmth, or a hungry person food. The words alone are meaningless and insulting. We wouldn't do that to our children—we'd provide them blankets and food! We'd give them what they needed, what was relevant and immediate in their lives.

That's how we should walk in God's Way, too. We are not God, we are God's beloved creation. We are not judges, we are fellow travelers. We are not to focus on the "what" as much as the "who", because the "Who" that created us loves all of us. I need that reminder over and over again!