When It’s Time to Walk Away

When I was a brand-new Christian, I went out sharing my faith with a guy who was younger than me. We walked up to a really big biker who was all tatted up and wearing a vest with no shirt.

So when the guy who was with me started sharing the gospel with this biker, the biker looked at him and said, “Shut up, man! I’ll punch your face in!”

I said, “Okay, let’s go.”

But this guy was determined, and he kept preaching to the biker. Meanwhile, the biker was getting really irritated. Finally, he said to the biker, “Okay, we’ll leave, because we’re casting our pearls before pigs!”

We made it out of there alive. But I realized that some verses are in-house verses, like the one my fellow Christian boldly referred to that day: “Don’t waste what is holy on people who are unholy. Don’t throw your pearls to pigs! They will trample the pearls, then turn and attack you” (Matthew 7:6 NLT).

This is the type of verse we quote to explain something to another believer; it’s not one we quote to the nonbeliever we’re speaking with. It may be relevant, but there’s a time and a place for everything.

Sometimes when you’re sharing with people, they’ll turn on you. And throwing “your pearls to pigs” means giving something valuable to someone who doesn’t care.

Pigs like to live in slop and filth. That’s how pigs roll. It’s where they’re comfortable. So if you give some pearls to a pig, the pig isn’t going to appreciate those pearls. Now, if you give that pig some fresh garbage, you’ll have one happy pig.

In the same way, there are some people who simply don’t want to hear the gospel. And there may come a moment when you need to just walk away.