Sayings

If we say that someone is casting pearls before swine, we mean that they are wasting their time by offering something that is helpful or valuable to someone who does not appreciate or understand it. That person does not value what should be valued.

This phrase is used by Jesus when he says, “‘Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” Jesus appears to be warning his disciples to preach only before receptive audiences. Or is this a warning to the disciples to speak the gospel in a way that matches the context of those who don't share their understanding of the truth. Is it a question of a situation where our words fail to convey what is in our hearts and minds. 

I had a colleague who used to say that communication often stopped at the ears of another.    In other words, it was not our carefully crafted thoughts but the level of understanding of the hearer to receive our message that enabled communication.  Karen Thompson Walker, in The Age of Miracles confessed , “They say that humans can read each other in a hundred subtle ways, in the briefest expressions of a face, but somehow, on that day, I had communicated with amazing efficiency the exact opposite of what I most wanted in the world.” 

Another commentator says that, “Each generation of the Church in each setting has the responsibility of communicating the gospel in understandable terms, considering the language and thought forms of that setting.”

In Acts 17 we find Paul reversing the communication  paradigm by starting with the understanding of his hearers and expressing the gospel truth in their language and context. What a difference context makes. And context makes a huge difference in the way we read and understand scripture in any given situation 

It's like and artist paining a picture. When they start out painting, they need to understand the full context of the scene first, and then, after fully understanding what their looking at, they can then focus on the details of the colours and the shadows and the highlights.

Seeing the big picture will help us understand what we’re looking at, and it will help  us from seeming misinterpreting gospel truth to someone who does not share our common language of faith. No matter how precious our spiritual concepts if they don’t communicate the gospel then  surely they are pearls that have little value in communicating the gospel today.

Lord, I often pray, May the words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer. But at times, my words don’t seem to communicate your truth to those around me. I read in the gospels that the common people heard you gladly, and that there is a promise that your peace, which transcends all our powers of thought, will be a garrison to guard your hearts and minds in union with Christ Jesus. Lord, may I have your Christly mind  as I follow you in sharing the words of eternal life. Amen