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Not Proud Judging, Not Naïve Casting: Holy Discernment (Matthew 7:6) · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reform thinking. And welcome back.
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Today we're doing a deep dive into a really a really bracing
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sentence from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 7.6.
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It's one of those verses that can feel a bit jarring.
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It sits at this pivot point in Christ's teaching, and it really
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acts as a crucial guardrail. It does.
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We're getting into a challenge that I think everyone who takes
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truth seriously has to face. Right.
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How do you handle sacred things, holy things, in a world that
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seems to swing between two extremes?
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Exactly. On one side you have this sort
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of self-righteous, censorious pride.
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People who are just, you know, quick to condemn everyone else
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but never look at their own issues.
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And then the other extreme is this kind of spiritual
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carelessness, this idea that love means you have to be
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completely open, completely undiscerning all the time.
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And that often leads to the very thing that is holy being
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profane, being trampled on so. That tension is exactly where
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we're going to focus today. We've looked at the source
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material you sent over and really frames Matthew 7.6 as a
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safeguard against falling into either ditch.
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Our mission here is to unpack what Christ is actually
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instructing how to exercise a holy discernment to be neither a
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harsh, hypocritical judge nor a spiritual simpleton who just
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hands over God's truth to people who want to mock it.
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The voice itself is so stark. Do not give dogs what is holy,
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and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample
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them under foot and turn to attack you.
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It is, and it's deeply practical wisdom for anyone who sees
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themselves as a steward of God's truth.
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So we need to figure out what those metaphors mean, where that
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ethical line is, and what the real consequences are if we fail
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in that stewardship. OK, so let's start with the
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placement of the verse. It's not random.
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The way Matthew 7.6 is positioned shows the the genius
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of Christ's teaching structure. It really does.
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It's a hinge verse right in the middle of Matthew 7.1 to 12, and
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it's there to provide balance. Without it, the section right
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before it could be, and often is completely misused.
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You're talking about verses one through 5, the famous judge, not
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that you be not judged. Exactly.
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I mean, how often do you hear that verse used to shut down any
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kind of moral evaluation at all? All the time.
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It's become a sort of, you know, catch all for a kind of moral
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relativism. Right.
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But Jesus is not abolishing moral discernment.
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The sources are really clear on this.
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He's prohibiting a very specific kind of judgment, a
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hypocritical, censorious judgment, the kind that actually
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enjoys finding fault in other people.
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And he illustrates it so vividly with that image of the speck and
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the log. You have someone who just
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obsessed with this tiny flaw in their brother's life, this
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little speck of sawdust, but they're completely ignoring this
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massive wooden beam sticking out of their own eye.
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It's the Pharisaical mindset, isn't it?
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An obsession with external verdicts, with appearing
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righteous. But it's coupled with a profound
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lack of self-awareness and personal repentance.
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So Jesus's first command is always self examination.
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The problem isn't judgement itself, it's the arrogance and
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the hypocrisy behind it. And that is precisely why verse
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6 is so necessary. If Jesus had just stopped at
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verse 5, you can imagine the conclusion a lot of people would
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draw. Sure.
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OK, so I must never evaluate anything.
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I have to tolerate every attitude, every behavior, no
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questions asked. He anticipates that pendulum
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swing. He knows that a move toward
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undiscerning tolerance is just as dangerous as the pride he
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just condemned. So he immediately gives us the
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counterweight in verse 6. So humility is the starting
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point, but it's not meant to lead to what gullibility?
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Exactly. It's meant to lead to clarity.
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The logic is so tight when you see it.
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First, deal with your own sin, your arrogance, your blinding
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hypocrisy. That's verses 1 to 5.
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Get the log out of your own eye. Yes.
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But once you've done that, once you've gone through that process
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of repentance, your responsibility doesn't end.
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You don't get to just renounce discernment altogether.
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You have to be humble but not simple minded, merciful but not
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wasteful with the truth. And that gives us the right way
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to read the end of verse 5. First take the log out of your
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own eye and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of
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your brother's eye. So removing the log isn't about
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retiring from moral evaluation. Not at all.
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It's the prerequisite. The clear vision you get from
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your own repentance is what qualifies you to discern rightly
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and act prudently toward others. Humility doesn't disqualify us
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from the seeing sin. It's what makes it possible to
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see it correctly, especially when we're dealing with people
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who are hostile to God. OK, but that tension is really
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difficult to manage on your own. I mean, the command to be
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profoundly humble but also actively discerning.
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We're naturally going to lean one way or the other.
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We are. And that feeling of inadequacy,
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that sense of how can I possibly do This, is why the passage
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flows directly into verses 7 through 11, the command to pray.
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That's a connection I think a lot of people miss.
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It's so subtle but so vital. The sincere disciple, feeling
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the weight of verse 6, is going to ask, how am I supposed to
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know the difference? How do I tell an honest skeptic
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from a hardened scoffer? How do I get that kind of
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wisdom? And Jesus's answer is, you ask
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the Father for it. Spiritual wisdom, the kind of
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discernment you need to steward truth.
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It's not native to our fallen hearts.
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It's a gift. A gift you get by asking,
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seeking and knocking. So the verses on prayer aren't
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just a random tangent. No, they're the divine mechanism
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for getting the very thing you need to obey.
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Verse 6. Discernment is the fruit of
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prayerful dependence. It's sought from the Father who
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gives good gifts. So if you're struggling to apply
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verse 6, it's probably because you've been neglecting verses 7
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through 11. I think that's a fairway to put
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it. And then this whole section,
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this whole ethical block, concludes with verse 12.
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The Golden Rule. So whatever you wish that others
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would do to you, do also to them.
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It ties it all together. It demands that all our actions,
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all our moral evaluations, all our truth telling has to be
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governed by a genuine love for our neighbor.
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But again, we have to be careful there.
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Love isn't the same as permissiveness.
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Absolutely not. Real love asks what is actually
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best for this person? How would I want sacred things
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to be guarded if I were the 1 hardened in sin?
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Would I want someone to just enable my mockery to keep
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feeding me pearls so I can trample them and deepen my own
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guilt, or would? I, in the end, be better served
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by someone who honors God enough to set a boundary, someone who
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withdraws and prays for me, an action that might just, you
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know, shock me into seeing the seriousness of my contempt.
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So the whole progression is laid out.
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It starts with repentance. Dealing with your own sin first,
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then discernment. Handling holy things wisely,
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then dependence. Asking God for that wisdom.
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And finally, it's all wrapped in Love's governance.
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To make sure all the other steps are motivated by sincere
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charity. It's a complete toolkit for
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avoiding both the self-righteous judge and the careless
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simpleton. It is.
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It's perfectly balanced. OK, let's turn to the verse
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itself then. Matthew 7.6.
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It's so compact, almost like a proverb, and it's all about, as
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you said, spiritual stewardship. The structure is very tight.
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You have two parallel prohibitions.
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Do not give, do not throw, and those are followed by A2 fold
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danger, lest they trample and turn to attack.
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We have to start by defining what's being offered, what is
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holy, and the pearls. Right, the term holy here to
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Hagen it means something set apart for God, Consecrated.
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It's distinct from what is common or profane.
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So we're talking about more than just good advice.
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Oh, much more. We're talking about the Word of
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God, the gospel message itself, which demands repentance and
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faith, the public honor of Christ's name, all the sacred
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truths of the Kingdom that are guarded by the Church.
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It's a sacred trust, not a commodity to be, you know,
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marketed or tossed around for a laugh.
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Precisely. And now think about who Jesus
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warns us not to give it to the dogs.
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In our culture that doesn't sound so bad, but in a 1st
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century Jewish setting? It's a deeply loaded image.
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These weren't pets. They were wild, scavenging
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animals. They often fed on garbage.
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They were an image of ritual uncleanness, shameless appetite,
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and moral corruption. So the image points to a
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specific spiritual posture. Yes, the here isn't seeing
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holiness. They're just seeing something
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they can consume or tear apart or use for their own ends.
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They don't recognize its value. And then the second image
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reinforces that. Pearls and pigs.
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It intensifies the prohibition. Pearls were incredibly valuable,
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something you'd treasure and protect you.
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Would usually leave them lying in the mud.
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And pigs, which were also fundamentally unclean animals
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under the law, represent a creature that just cannot
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perceive that kind of worth. To a pig, a priceless Pearl is
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no different than a rock or a clod of dirt.
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It gets treated like mud under foot.
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So the parallel is making a clear point.
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The issue isn't just that the person is an unbeliever.
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No, it's that they are, in that moment and with that posture,
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unwilling and actively incapable of treating sacred truth as
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sacred. Jesus is forbidding A foolish
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act, an act that might look like patient love but is actually
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just poor stewardship. It's important to draw a line
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here, though. Jesus isn't saying don't bother
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with evangelism. Not at all.
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He's not discouraging a broad, patient proclamation of the
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gospel. He's warning against the
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reckless exposure of precious things to known profanation.
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It's about guarding the integrity of the message.
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And the rationale he gives tells us exactly how to identify this
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posture, lest they trample them under foot and turn to attack
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you. That's the key.
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He defines the dogs and pigs by what they do.
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It's a predictable 2 stage response from someone with
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hardened contempt. The first danger is profanation,
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the trampling. And this isn't confusion.
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It's not someone honestly wrestling with a hard truth.
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This is contempt. It's mockery.
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It's when God's name is ridiculed and sacred things are
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turned into punch lines. The sources used this phrase I
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thought was really helpful, subsidizing the mockery.
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That's good, because if you keep engaging with someone who's
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already shown that trampling posture, you can end up just
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giving them fresh material for their scorn you believe become
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complicit in their sin. So there's a point where
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faithful witnessing crosses a line into enabling sin.
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I believe so. And that leads to the second
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danger escalation, the turning to attack.
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The contempt for the message becomes contempt for the
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messenger. It rarely stays abstract.
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The scoffer lashes out. The trampling becomes verbal
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aggression or even physical abuse.
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The messenger becomes the target of the scorn.
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So the warning is twofold. It's pastoral in that it
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protects the holiness of the truth.
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And it's protective. It guards the disciple from
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needless abuse that comes from just being foolishly persistent.
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Jesus is a realist about human depravity.
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Hardened rejection doesn't stay neutral, it becomes active
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hostility. OK, so given how harsh these
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metaphors are, we have to be incredibly careful about who we
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apply them to. Oh absolutely, Jesus is not
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giving us a generalized insult for every single non believer.
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Many people outside the church are just ignorant, or they're
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wounded, or they're genuinely curious.
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The category has to be defined by the actions Jesus describes.
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It must be We're talking about someone who has demonstrated A
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settled, contemptuous posture toward holy things.
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They repeatedly use truth as a prop for mockery.
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And when they're pressed, they get aggressive.
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The criteria are right there in the verse, a pattern of
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trampling and turning to attack. So it's the pattern of behavior,
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not just the fact that they don't believe yet.
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Correct. And that makes the application
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so challenging. This is a directive for a humble
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heart. A heart that has already done
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the hard work of removing its own log and can now see clearly
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it is not and this is critical. It is not permission for a proud
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heart to just sneer and dismiss people it finds annoying.
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So the motive for withdrawing the truth is never contempt for
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the person. Never.
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The motive is honor for God. It's a refusal to participate in
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profanation. And in a strange way, it's a
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belief that withdrawing the Pearl might be the most loving
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thing to do, to leave that person alone with their
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conscience before God. This isn't an isolated idea in
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the Bible, is it? Matthew 7.6 feels like a
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concentration of a Wisdom principle that runs all the way
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through Scripture. It absolutely is.
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The Bible consistently calls for a kind of holy realism.
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It recognizes that when you speak truth, you're going to get
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different responses. Some people will repent, some
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will be curious, and some will be hardened scoffers.
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And wisdom is learning to tell the difference between the
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teachable and the trampler. Yes, and the clearest background
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for this is the Old Testament wisdom tradition, especially the
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book of Proverbs. Proverbs is constantly setting
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up that contrast between the wise person and the scoffer.
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Constantly. The wise person loves
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instruction. They welcome correction.
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But the scoffer or the fool is hardened.
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They're unyielding. They use correction as an excuse
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to show contempt. There's some very direct
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parallels. I'm thinking of Proverbs 9.
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Whoever corrects A scoff or gets himself abuse.
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And he who reproves a wicked man incurs injury.
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And then the direct command. Do not reprove A scoffer or he
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will hate you. That's not a suggestion based on
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feelings, it's a statement about a predictable outcome.
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The scoffers default response is hatred, so the wise person has
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to be prudent. Right, and Proverbs 23.9 says do
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not speak in the hearing of a fool, for he will despise the
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good sense of your words. The idea is to conserve your
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most precious resources, and there's nothing more precious
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than sacred truth. Jesus's own ministry seems to be
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a perfect illustration of this. It is on the one hand, he was
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famously welcoming to sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes,
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anyone on the margins. He answered every sincere
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question. But on the other hand, he
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consistently refused to play the games of hardened unbelief.
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Especially when people were just demanding a show.
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The scene with Herod Antipas is the classic example.
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Luke tells us Herod summoned Jesus because he was hoping to
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see a miracle, a performance. Right, he questioned him at
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length. And what did Jesus do?
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He gave him no answer. Complete silence.
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Why? Because Jesus recognized Herod's
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posture. He wasn't seeking truth or
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repentance. He was seeking entertainment.
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To give him a Pearl, a sign of God's Kingdom, would have been
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to profane it, to waste the sacred for amusement.
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There's also that sobering line in John's Gospel where it says
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Jesus did not entrust himself to certain people.
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Because he knew what was in man. That's sovereign discernment.
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He could see the difference between genuine curiosity and
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calculated manipulation. And he passed the same wisdom on
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to his disciples. He did.
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When he sends out the 12, he tells them to proclaim the
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message openly, but he also tells them that if a town won't
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receive them, they should leave. And shake off the dust from your
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feet. Which is a symbolic act of
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warning. It's an enacted warning that
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says settled rejection has consequences.
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It recognizes that the messenger is not obligated to keep
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offering sacred things in the face of settled, scornful
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refusal. Matthew 7.6 is the principal
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behind that practice. And we see this play out over
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and over again in the book of Acts.
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The apostles had a strategy. They did.
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Paul and Barnabas are the prime examples.
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They always started with patient, open proclamation, but
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they also knew when to make a strategic withdrawal, especially
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when rejection hardened into slander and abuse.
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Like in the city and Antioch. Acts 13.
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A perfect example. After the Jews in the synagogue
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determinedly rejected the word, Paul and Barnabas didn't just
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get into an endless circular argument.
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They made a declaration. It was necessary that the Word
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of God be spoken first to you since you thrusted aside.
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Behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.
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That is a strategic withdrawal based on discernment.
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They are preserving the integrity of the message and
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focusing their labor on receptive ground.
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They don't keep feeding the dogs.
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They go find the wise who will receive the instruction.
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There's a similar story in Ephesus in Acts 19 A.
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Little different but the same principle, Paul reasoned in the
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synagogue for months. But then, it says, some became
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stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the
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way before the congregation and. What did he do?
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He withdrew. He took the disciples with him
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and separated them from that context.
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And notice the language there. It wasn't just unbelief, it was
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becoming stubborn, continuing in unbelief and speaking evil.
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That's the language of trampling and attacking.
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Paul's withdrawal was a strategic, pastoral act of
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stewardship. He protected the disciples from
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that corrupting influence, and he honored the Gospel by
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refusing using to keep offering it in a place designed for its
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slander. We even see this principle in
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the instructions to church leaders in the epistles.
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Yes, Paul tells Timothy to avoid foolish, ignorant controversies
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because they just breed quarrels.
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He has to correct opponents, yes, but gently.
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And he recognizes that not all disagreements are about finding
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truth. Sometimes they're just about
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pride. And Titus is told to warn a
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divisive person once, then twice, and after that to have
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nothing more to do with them. Because the issue is a
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repetitive, settled malice. It's the posture of the scoffer.
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So the consistent principle from Proverbs through the apostles is
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that gospel work requires both patience and prudence.
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We offer Christ freely, but we refuse to submit holy truth to
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the terms of a contemptuous debate.
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OK, let's get into some of the doctrinal implications here for
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someone coming from a Reformed perspective.
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Matthew 7.6 isn't just a communication tip, it's grounded
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in some core theological commitments.
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It is. It rests very heavily on our
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understanding of God's holiness, our view of sin, what we call a
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sober anthropology, and the church's role as a steward.
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Let's start with God's holiness. The whole verse just assumes
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there's a real objective difference between what is holy
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and what is profane. It does.
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It assumes that reverence is not optional.
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God is holy. He's distinct, set apart, worthy
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of awe. So when Jesus says don't give
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what is holy to dogs, he's assuming that the things God has
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consecrated for his glory are not common or trivial.
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And that really challenges a lot of modern Christian practice,
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doesn't. It it cuts right against it.
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There's a constant temptation to try and domesticate God, to
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market sacred things by stripping them of their weight
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and solemnity to make them more palatable.
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But if the church is supposed to reflect God's character, we have
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to guard holiness, not dilute it.
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If the gospel is a Pearl, it's because God made it precious.
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And we have to treat it that way.
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Second, the verse rests on a sober anthropology, a clear eyed
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view of human nature grounded in the doctrine of total depravity.
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The images of trampling and attacking.
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That's not the language of a neutral disagreement.
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It's the language of moral hostility.
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That's the key distinction. An unbeliever isn't just someone
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who is missing a piece of information.
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Apart from God's regenerating grace, the fallen human heart is
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hostile to God. It doesn't naturally prize what
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God calls precious. And that explains why just
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arguing more and more is so often fruitless.
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Some people don't just lack the data, they actively despise the
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claim that God has over their lives.
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And this clarifies our understanding of salvation.
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Saving faith is a work of the Holy Spirit through the Word.
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It's not the result of our clever arguments or our sheer
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persistence in a debate. So when wisdom tells us to
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withdraw the Pearl from a scoffer, it isn't cynicism.
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No, it's theological realism. It's recognizing that the
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scoffers heart won't be won over by giving them more material to
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mock. Only God can grant repentance
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and that actually frees us from this crushing pressure that says
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I have to win this argument or this person won't be saved.
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And 3rd this all leads to the doctrine of the Church, the
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ecclesiological implications. Right.
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The Church is a steward. We've been entrusted with the
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ministry of the Word in sacrament.
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These pearls are not our own invention.
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They are treasures of the Kingdom and we have to
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administer them wisely. This applies directly to things
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like worship. Public worship is meant to be a
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covenantal meeting with the living God.
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It should be structured by reverence, not by a desire to
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entertain those who might scorn the very reality we're
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celebrating. And it gives the theological
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rationale for the reformed practice of fencing the table.
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Yes, the practice of explaining the requirements for partaking
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in the Lords Supper. It's often misunderstood as
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being elitist or judgmental. But it's really a pastoral
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application of this principle of holiness.
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It is. It comes right from Paul's
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warning in First Corinthians 11. He says that those who eat and
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drink without discerning the body, without proper reverence
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and self examination, they eat and drink judgment on
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themselves. So fencing the table protects
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the sacred ordinance from being treated like a common meal, and
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it protects the unprepared person from incurring God's
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discipline. It's an act of love.
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So Matthew 7.6 really forces us to view the means of grace
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correctly. It does it.
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That's against two big errors. The first is a kind of magical
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view, thinking that just by, you know, mechanically handling holy
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things, forcing a Bible verse into Austell chat, it will
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automatically work. And the second error is
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pragmatism, treating holy things as just content to be repackaged
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to fit consumer demand, removing the offense of the cross just to
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get more engagement. Jesus's warning pushes back
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against both. It tells us to administer God's
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gifts according to God's wisdom, prioritizing holiness and
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reverence, and trusting the Spirit to bring the results.
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OK, let's get really practical. How do we actually obey this?
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We need a kind of decision tree to make sure we're not being
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proud on one side or naive on the other.
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And that decision tree has to start with the self examination
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of verses one through 5. That's the non negotiable first
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step. You have to ask, is there a log
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in my own eye? Right.
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Is my impulse to withdraw here coming from personal anger, from
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vanity, from a desire to win the argument or feel superior?
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If so, you're not stewarding truth, you're using it as a
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weapon. And if that's the case, you're
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unfit to handle holy things in that moment.
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You need to repent and pray for the wisdom that's offered in
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verses 7 through 11. Discernment is a duty to steward
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wisely, not a right to dismiss people you don't like.
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OK, so once the heart is humble, what's the next branch on the
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tree? You assess the setting and the
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stakes. A private conversation over
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coffee is very different from a public spectacle on social
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media, which is a platform basically designed for
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performance and outrage. So.
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Wisdom asks what is this context?
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Ordered tort? Is it ordered for truth seeking
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or is it for entertainment and performance?
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Is the person actually listening or are they playing to an
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audience? The more public and performative
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it is, the more careful you have to be, because the risk of the
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pearls being trampled goes up exponentially.
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Refusing to put sacred truth on the altar of public scorn isn't
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fear of man. No, it's fear of God.
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It's taking the message so seriously that you refuse to let
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it be cheapened. OK, next step we have to
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evaluate the hearer based on their response.
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Scripture seems to give us three basic categories.
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It does. The first is the seeker or the
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teachable person. This is someone who might be
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ignorant or hesitant or burdened, but they're asking
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honest questions. They're willing to be
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instructed. And with them we are patient, we
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speak plainly, we repeat ourselves if we have to.
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We are feeding the sheep, drawing the lamb.
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The second category is the skeptic.
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This person pushes back. They might even be sharp, but
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they are engaging with the actual claims of the gospel.
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They're arguing about Christ, about sin, about repentance, not
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just mocking the whole enterprise.
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So with them, we continue the conversation.
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We do, but maybe we slow down, We clarify our terms.
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We aim for the conscience, not for a conversational victory.
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We can endure their resistance as long as it's resistance to
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the real message. And then there's the third
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category, the scoffer. This is who Jesus is warning
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about. This is the person who doesn't
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just disagree. They deride.
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They don't question the terms. They sneer at the very idea of
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holiness. They repeatedly use sacred truth
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as material for ridicule. They are actively trampling and
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attacking. And once that pattern is clear,
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the decision tree leads to to a different path.
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It has to. At that point you set a
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boundary, you warn, and if the contempt continues, you
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withdraw. Proverbs says correcting A
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scoffer gets you abuse. Jesus authorizes his servants to
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step back. Let's walk through that sequence
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for handling the clear scoffer, that sounds like explain,
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appeal, warn, then disengage. That's a great way to structure
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it. First, you explain the truth
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clearly one last time. Second, you appeal to their
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conscience. Please just consider the
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kindness of Christ here. 3rd And this is the crucial step, you
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warn them when the conversation crosses into sin.
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What does that warning sound like?
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It can be simple and direct. I'm willing to talk about this
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seriously, but I won't continue. If you're just going to mock
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what is holy to me and to God, you name the behavior.
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And if that warning is ignored, you disengage.
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You disengage, You refuse to keep supplying them with
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ammunition for their scorn. This is how we obey the command
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to avoid foolish, quarrelsome controversies.
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And how you disengage is just as important.
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Yes. You don't storm out, you don't
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do a mic drop, you state the boundary calmly, and you leave
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the door open for future sincerity.
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Something like. If you ever want to discuss this
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with honest questions, I would be glad to.
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For now I have to stop. Exactly that protects your
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conscience. It honors the message.
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And then your next step is to pray for them.
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You recognize that only God can change their heart, and you
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redirect your energy to more receptive fields just like the
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apostles did. Let's wrap up by applying this
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to a few areas of modern life. First, personal evangelism.
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We have to maintain that balance.
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The goal is always to honor what is holy and to love the
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neighbor. We have to avoid being either a
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quarrelsome debater who just loves a fight or an undiscerning
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simpleton who enables profanation.
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And it's so important to remember that most people who
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resist Christianity are not scoffers.
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They're ignorant or scared, or they have profound
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misunderstandings. They deserve our patients.
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They do. Faithfulness is not measured by
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how long you can argue. It's measured by speaking truth
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in love with wisdom, and wisdom knows when speech is helping and
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when it's just hardening a heartburner.
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When you see that clear pattern of the scoffer, Matthew 7.6 is a
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permission slip from the Lord to stop feeding that behavior.
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It is it's stewardship we have to repent of, the pride that
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says I have to win this fight and the field that says if I
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stop, they'll think I'm weak. True strength is the wisdom to
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withdraw the Pearl. What about public teaching and
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especially social media? This is maybe the most obvious
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modern application. Those platforms are structurally
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designed to reward outrage, and trampling A hostile comment
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thread is the digital equivalent of throwing pearls before pigs.
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So Christians have to resist turning holy things into
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engagement bait. Fiercely, the platforms reward
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the short, the clever, the confrontational, and that puts
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pressure on us to treat the gospel like a product or a
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political slogan. Jesus's warning is a direct
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confrontation to that entire pragmatic mindset.
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So what does wisdom look like there?
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It might mean self limitation. It often does.
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It might mean choosing formats that encourage seriousness, like
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this one, over short, antagonistic exchanges.
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It means declining hostile invitations and refusing to get
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into a sparring match when it's clearly just theater.
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We can even apply this to the tools the platforms give us.
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Muting, blocking, archiving a thread.
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Yes, when a space becomes a tool for profanation, when the
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comments are just endless trampling and attacking.
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Disengaging is not cowardice, It's stewardship.
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It's protecting the integrity of the message and refusing to
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subsidize the sin of the scoffer by giving them an endless stage.
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And finally, what about the life of the Church itself, the
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ecclesiastical application? It shapes everything.
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Corporate worship needs to be guarded from a casualness that
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treats holy things as common. Worship is a covenantal meeting
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with a holy God, not an outreach event for scoffers.
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The ordinances, the Lord's Supper and baptism have to be
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administered with reverence. Fencing the table protects the
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ordinance and protects the person from judgment.
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And church discipline is the most formal application of this.
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When a pattern of settled, hardened contempt persists
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inside the church, the shepherds have to act not to attack the
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person, but to protect Christ's name, guard the flock, and call
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that center to repentance. The principle is the same across
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the board. Treat God's gifts as holy.
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So we come back to where we started.
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Jesus demands a humble discernment.
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Truth spoken in love, holiness guarded with reverence.
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We don't have to choose between being a moral bully and a
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spiritual simpleton. We're called to be wise
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stewards. And the best guardrail against
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misusing this verse, against becoming proud, is to look at
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the cross. Christ is the truly Holy One.
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And he came into a world filled with scoffers.
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He spoke truth. He knew when to be silent and he
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knew when to withdraw. And.
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In the end, he was the ultimate Pearl.
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He was trampled, mocked and attacked, and he willingly
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endured all that contempt to redeem the very people who were
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contemptuous. The cross shows that God's
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holiness and God's love meet perfectly.
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Sin is judged and sinners are invited.
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Our motive for setting these boundaries can never be personal
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pride. We do it not because we are
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fragile, but because God is holy and His gospel is precious.
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We refuse to feed the scoffer, not because we hate them, but
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because we honor His truth. And we refuse to help them
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deepen their guilt by trampling on the very thing that could
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save them. And that leaves us with a final
29:17
thought for you to consider this week when we apply Matthew 7.6
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and wisely disengaged from a scoffer.
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We are not writing them off. We are entrusting judgement and
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the possibility of future repentance to the only One who
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can tune a heart of stone into a heart of flesh.
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So consider this. How can reserving your words
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become an act of prayer for God's sovereign action?
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Thank you for joining us for this deep dive.
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We look forward to being with you again as we continue to
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unpack the crucial truths of Scripture.