Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine.--Jesus (Matthew 7:6)
One of the most oft-abused sayings of Jesus is in Matthew 7:1: "Judge not that you be not judged." Scoundrels often throw this at Christians in order to try to cover their malevolent actions from those who are shining the light of truth on them. This passage has no such protective meaning. In the context, Jesus is talking about hypocritical judgment: get the log out of your own eye before you start talking about the speck in your brother's eye. He doesn't deny the speck is there. Just get the log out if your own eye first. Hypocrisy is his meaning, not judgment.
But, because none of us are perfect, some will conclude that we should never pass judgment on the sins of others. Thus, Jesus immediately follows his condemnation of hypocritical judgment with his statement in verse 6 not to give that which is holy to dogs or pearls to swine. In other words, don't waste your time on people who obviously have given evidence they aren't going to listen. We must make judgments about who the "dogs" and "swine" are so we can use our time wisely! In John 7:24, Jesus said, "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment." We are required to make some judgments about people. Even Jesus did this, of course. After he told the rich young ruler what he needed to do to enter eternal life, the man went away sorrowfully because he loved his money more than he loved his God (Mark 10:17-22). Jesus didn't chase after him and try to appease him. He told him the truth, the man left, Jesus let him go. Three times in Romans 1, Paul said God "gave up" certain people to their godless (including perverted, homosexual) activities. We sometimes must make these judgments. It isn't coincidental that right after Jesus talked about not giving holy things to dogs and swine, he goes into a discussion of prayer. Make your judgments, but ask God to guide you. We don't want to give up on people too early.
But there are plenty of people out there who need help. We shouldn't waste time on those who won't listen. And we have to make those judgments. Jesus commanded us to.
