Today, I am reading and commenting on  Matthew 7-9.

I want to look at two things from today’s passage and write about what together they say about reaching out to non-believers.  Near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs.”  That has always been explained to me as meaning that we should not try to argue about details of doctrine with those who do not share our faith.  That seems to me pretty accurate, but incomplete.  Later in today’s passage, after calling the tax collector Matthew to be His disciple Jesus attends a party at Matthew’s house with friends of Matthew.  Which led the Pharisees to ask His other disciples why Jesus associated with tax collectors and sinners.  Jesus heard this and replied, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”  To me, this sheds some light on what Jesus meant in the earlier quote.  I conclude that when Jesus says that we should not throw our pearls to pigs, He is not referring to non-believers in general.  Rather, He means that we should not attempt to make a case for following Him to those who are openly hostile to that, those who are seeking something to take offense at in our beliefs.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.