We now continue with the following verses:
And why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, “Let me remove the speck from your eye,” when behold, the plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite, first remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Saint Luke of Crimea shows the only proper way to correct a neighbour who sins in these words:
“The Lord Jesus forbids us to be severe judges of our brethren. He forbids us to act in the way we usually do: we fail to perceive our own grave sin, while the speck—a mere grain of dust—in our brother’s eye, that is, a minor fault, we clearly see and highlight. Being ourselves filled with sin, we condemn our brother who has erred only slightly before God. We see a monk who does not eat with sufficient austerity, and we condemn him for not fasting. But who are those who judge him? They are people who drink to excess and overindulge every day, yet they harshly condemn the monk who does not subsist solely on bread and water. … We are always exceedingly sharp-sighted regarding the sins of our neighbours, while failing to notice the plank in our own eye. … But what then—are we to remain silent when our brother is drowning in sins? Are we to look on indifferently, in silence, as people fall into transgression? No, not at all. We must reprove and forbid, but the point is that there is a great difference between condemnation and reproof. We treat the sins of our neighbours wrongly: we see them sin and maliciously set ourselves up as their judges. This is precisely what the Lord Jesus Christ forbids, for it is possible to act in an entirely different manner. We should not remain silent, but should correct gently, quietly, without condemnation, with love, with a desire for their amendment, without spite or malice. This is how people act who have no plank in their eye. This is how people act who are pure in heart. They gently and quietly persuade sinners to abandon their transgressions.”
Blessed Augustine teaches that before we begin to speak to another person, we should reflect whether we ourselves are currently guilty of the same sin, or perhaps once were. Here are his words:
“Therefore, we must piously take care that, when necessity compels us to judge or rebuke someone, we first consider whether the vice in question is one which we have never possessed, or one from which we have already been delivered. And if we have never possessed it, we should remember that we too are human and could yet acquire it. But if we have had it and have been delivered from it, then we ought to recall the frailty common to all, so that hatred may not precede this judgment or rebuke, but rather mercy, and that this may serve the correction or conversion of the one for whose sake it is undertaken.”
Here we may also turn to the reflections of Saint John of Kronstadt on something that is frequently encountered today. Namely, some people very lightly and condescendingly speak about the faults of the Saints. This searching out and highlighting of flaws in the lives of the Saints is used by such Christians to justify their own vices and erroneous teachings. Here is how Saint John writes about this:
“I have seen and heard people who cunningly and maliciously speak about certain dark stains in the life and activity of great men—even holy men. Because of these dark stains, whether true or false, they repudiate the entire life of the person, calling him a hypocrite and nearly an apostate from God. They will present you with ‘facts,’ yet these facts are as dark and dubious as their own cunning and suspicious souls, which, from another’s blemish or another’s sin, wish to extract justification for their own depraved deeds. … You say: in this Holy Father or in that pious man there are such and such sins. So what? He too is a human being. No one among mankind is without sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). And are you without sin? If not, why do you cast the stone of condemnation upon your brother? … Oh, how repugnant to me is that diabolical gloating over a neighbour’s sin—that infernal striving to prove his real or imagined weakness.”
That condemnation is by no means an insignificant sin is also demonstrated by Saint John Chrysostom in the following manner:
“The Saviour here wishes to show His great anger towards those who condemn their neighbours. Indeed, every time He desires to reveal the gravity of someone’s sin, the magnitude of the punishment for it, and His wrath, Christ typically begins with a rebuke. Thus, for example, to the man who demanded a hundred denarii from his fellow servant, Christ speaks with indignation: You wicked servant, I forgave you all that debt (Matt. 18:32). In the same way here, He uses the word: hypocrite.”
We continue further with the commentary, reading verse 6:
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.
We may read the reflection of Saint John Chrysostom on this verse, in which he resolves another question that persists to this day—when to preach, and when to conceal the teaching. Here are his words:
“And in this place, as in many others, the Lord shows that the reason for rejecting the most perfect teaching is licentiousness. Therefore, He commands that the doors not be opened to such people, because when they hear (our teaching), they become even more insolent. When this teaching is revealed to those who are grateful and rational, they show reverence; immoral people esteem the teaching more when they do not know it. Thus, the Saviour says that since such people are incapable of comprehending this teaching, let it remain hidden from them, so that in the end they may at least revere it out of ignorance. A swine does not know what a pearl is. And since it does not know, let it not see it either, lest it trample upon that which it does not understand. Nothing but still greater harm will result if people of such disposition are permitted to hear. Such is the meaning of Christ’s words: lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. … And the pearl that is trampled is not trampled because it is deserving of such treatment, but because it has fallen among swine.”
For this very reason, Fr. Daniil Sysoev used to say that it is essential for each of us to acquire what he called a spiritual scanner, so that we may discern the spiritual state of the person with whom we are speaking, and on this basis decide whether or not to speak with them about God.
From Saint John Chrysostom’s reflection on licentiousness as the chief reason for rejecting Christ’s teaching, it becomes clear that even today the devil has raised a great battle against the Church. Although we do not now witness open persecution, this rampant debauchery and the propaganda of fornication represent a means by which Satan wages war against the human soul.
Blessed Augustine speaks of the differences in the character of people who are called swine and dogs. Here is how he writes about this:
“Although swine do not attack by biting as dogs do, yet they defile, trampling everything around them. Therefore it is said: nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces. Therefore, in my opinion, it is entirely just to call those who attack the truth dogs, and those who neglect it swine. … For both dogs and swine are unclean animals; therefore one must take care not to reveal anything to a person who is unable to bear it. … And there is no other reason why they do not accept what is manifest and important except for the hatred and contempt by which some are called dogs, and others swine.”
Saint Athanasius the Great adds these words:
“The lustful are rightly compared to swine… for just as a swine considers it a loss if someone pulls it out of the mire, so too the man enslaved to lust does not consider as a friend, but as an enemy, the one who seeks to draw him out of the mud of sensuality and counsels him to be chaste. Therefore, we shall not cast our pearls, the most pure mysteries, before people who are like swine.”
Venerable Isidore of Pelusium gives an instructive explanation of the meaning of trampling and tearing in this way:
“Trampling is represented by the quarrels and disputes of those who attempt to distort the truth of the dogmas and to offend the righteous life. Tearing is represented by the indifference of those who do not live uprightly and their negligence towards those who propose to them the word of God and offer good counsel. Therefore the Lord said: do not cast the word as something trivial and easily obtained, lest you offend the Lord Himself and bring upon yourself mockery from those who neither say nor do anything rightly.”
Saint Isidore further offers practical examples from church life for which this word of the Lord should serve us as a guide:
“Some say—and they are close to the truth—that the Lord here commands that the priesthood not be conferred upon the impure and the unworthy, lest they profane it and begin to attack those who ordained them. … If they say that the Lord here commands that the Divine Mysteries should not be given to laypeople who live in sin, do not contradict them. Beware of those who have not been instructed in the faith and are not worthy to hear the word of God. They often mock that which is beyond all praise.”
Venerable Seraphim of Sarov gives a beautiful counsel that benefits people. Here are the words of Saint Seraphim:
“When you find yourself among people in the world, you should not speak about spiritual matters, especially when you do not perceive in them a desire to listen… Therefore, by all means, you must conceal within yourself the treasury of gifts. Otherwise, you will lose them and not find them again.”
Hieromartyr Onuphrius Gagaluk seems almost to foresee our own times, when many people come into the church about whose relationship to God neither the priests nor devout Christians can ever be completely sure, nor how sincere they are in their faith. Listen to how Saint Onuphrius writes:
“How can a preacher of Christ fulfill this commandment of God, especially today, when into an Orthodox church along with believing people freely enter unbelievers—people who are hostile to God and who actively labour against the Orthodox Church? For preachers of the truth cannot help but speak of the truth everywhere they are, regardless of whether their words are received well or poorly… Yet, we cannot see into the hearts of those who come into the house of God, or in general into the hearts of our listeners when we preach outside the church, to discern how they relate to Christian truth… All this is true, and an Orthodox preacher should not remain silent in every situation. However, he must always be cautious and remember that there are people with seared consciences (1 Tim. 4:2), who may be found even in the Orthodox clergy, and who use the knowledge they have acquired from us only to the detriment of the Church, and who seize every opportunity to tear apart those who speak to them of holy things.”
Adapted for the contemporary reader based on the patristic commentaries by Stanoje Stanković
