Pearls Before Swine: Have We Missed the Point? Reading Matthew 7:1–6 Without Abandoning Its Context. There is a peculiar tendency among Christians to quote Matthew 7:6 with remarkable confidence. Jesus warns us not to cast our pearls before swine, and almost instinctively, we begin identifying the swine. We imagine ourselves possessing something precious—truth, wisdom, spiritual understanding—and others as potentially unworthy recipients of it.