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Friday, June 8, 2012

Pearls Before Swine

Matthew 7:6 (NKJV):  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.

Wow!  What a Bible verse!  When I first originally read this verse, I didn't quite understand what it meant.  But as the years go by and now that I have experience under my belt, God has taught me what this really means. 

When we first become Christians, we are babies.  As we grow, we grow in knowledge of God's word.  We also grow in life experience.  We can look back at our different life experiences (hard times, good times, everything) and interpret those life experience through the lens of faith.  For those of us who have gone through hard times, when we see someone who has gone thru a similar experience, we naturally want to minister to that person and share from our own experience with that situation to help them.  Should we be so eager to share our life experience?  Or should we practice discernment in the situation?  Same with a lost person.  Should we be quick and eager to witness to them?  Should we debate every non-believer who wants to debate us? Should we allow just any non-believer to be part of our Bible studies?

This verse I believe warns us to not rush into things.  It teaches us to be careful who we share the gospel with, who we share our experiences with,who we debate with, and which non-believers we should allow in our Bible studies.

For example, some of the time, if you try to share the gospel with that person, that person may want to debate you.  I for one have been drawn into this.  I will go into a chat room and try to debate people.  But in the end, I end up being frustrated and upset. Why?  Because that person really didn't want to know about the gospel nor wanted to learn about God.   There are some people who are just interested in debating just because....They really don't want to know about God.  So what ends up happening, during the debate, you will share Bible verses, your experiences (possibly) and other information you feel would be helpful in winning them over.  That person you are debating will use that info you gave them to really nail into you!  They will call you names, call your God names, say what you believe is wrong, etc..etc..etc..So what they end up doing is they take your pearls that you have cast to them, trample those pearls under their feet, and then tear you to pieces.

Also, in our eagerness for people to be saved and to share the gospel, we will allow non-believers to be part of a Bible study.  This is a good thing of course.  But it is not a good thing if that non-believer bullies people in the Bible Study, and it is actually tolerated.  It is not a good thing if that person is tearing down God and arguing with the people.  These things should NOT be tolerated in any lengths of the imagination.  So how do we remedy this?

At the beginning of the Bible Study, you set down some strict rules.  The rules should be:

1.  If you are a non-believer, you are welcome to this Bible Study.  You are more than welcome to respectfully ask questions about God, The Bible and you can even respectfully voice your doubts. But you can only do this if you truly want to know about God.

2.  If you do not h ave any desire to know God, then you are not welcomed here.  You are not allowed to debate nor do and say things that will cause division within the group.

3.  If you are caught mistreating or bullying anybody for any reason even if it is your first offense, then you are kicked out of the study..no questions asked.

Yes, we should witness to nonbelievers and even allow them in our Bible Studies.  But not if it means that they cause division in the group.  Not if it means that they are allowed to bully and mistreat other people.  If that person truly wants to know about God, they will follow the rules of the Bible study and treat people with respect and kindness.  If they can't do that, and even if it's their first offense, they should be kicked out of the group.  Period.

Moral of this...As Christians, we shoudl practice discernment in sharing the gospel and sharing our experiences so our pearls don't get trampled on and we get torn to pieces.

1 comment:

  1. I can relate to this post so much! Especially these past few days. We have a few non believers in our Bible study. I'm the type of person who is welcoming to everyone. I don't find it hard to accept people who have different beliefs than I do. But lately it's been hard to mesh the two (the ones who believe and those who don't). I don't want to be "hateful" I want to be accepting, but they don't realize that they are being exactly like the way they supposedly judge us for. A few of the non believers in my group joined because they are "interested in this bull". My sister Jackie took offense by that, but I just wanted to show them that they can influence us in any way. They have been pretty cooperative until recently. They bullied one of our members and it got to the point where the poor kid quit our study. Jackie kicked the rude guys out and now there's a little battle lol. Do you think it was wrong of us to kick the guy out? I care about everyone, but I care about the kid who was being bullied more. I might blog about this very subject and other things because lately there has been too much negativity. Sorry for the long comment lol.

    -Zach

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