“Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you.” (Matthew 7:6)
Debate serves a purpose. It clarifies truth and confronts error. In some cases, it is necessary to endure long discussions, not because the truth is unclear, but because the one who hears it refuses to accept it. Debate, in this context, is a form of confrontation rather than exploration.
When you know the truth, debate is for others. Action is for you. God’s word is given not only to be explained and defended, but to be obeyed. It makes no sense to defend the truth of Christ but never come to him, or to declare his promises but never receive them. Those who do so may appear to honor him, but they remain defeated, even condemned. A man who defends the kingdom but never enters it will perish just like the one who attacks it.
The same principle applies to healing and every other provision of the gospel. A person may speak rightly about what Christ has accomplished. He may declare that redemption provides healing for the body, and that it is received and ministered by faith. He may debate with those who oppose, and win. But if he never receives it for himself, if he never offers it to others, no one is healed. His efforts have not led to participation. In some cases, this failure results in continued sickness and weakness in his own life. In other cases, it allows the people around him to suffer needlessly while he rehearses explanations. The truth was not given for endless debate with the unbelieving.
There is a difference between contending for the truth and being detained by those who oppose it. A man may speak to those who argue, but he must not let them trap him in their position. They remain where they are because they reject what has been revealed. If he continues to linger among them, explaining what he understands, repeating what he has settled, he unknowingly takes on the same posture of inaction and disobedience. He is standing still among those who refuse to move. It is not enough to disagree with the Faithless. He must leave them. He must put his faith and knowledge into action.
Jesus warned his disciples not to give what is holy to those who would profane it, and not to cast their pearls before those who would treat them with contempt. The gospel is to be preached, but it is not to be endlessly trampled. There comes a time when persistence becomes complicity, when debate ceases to be a defense of truth and becomes a distraction from it. The one who knows what God has said must walk in it. If others resist, he may speak again. If they harden themselves, he must move forward. He is not bound to their refusal. If he does, then he too will become unfruitful, as if he is disobedient like the others.
The word of God demands faith and action. It is not delivered so that it may be debated forever. The person who receives it is no longer at the stage of evaluation. He must now live by it and experience it. If he continues to speak only to persuade others, while failing to act for himself, he becomes the kind of person James warned about, one who hears but does not do, one who sees but walks away unchanged. He thinks that he defends the faith and obeys the truth, but he deceives himself. This is not an argument against debate, but it is a warning against hiding behind it and replacing action with it. A man who sees the truth may engage in debate for the sake of others, but he must not delay his own obedience. The knowledge he holds must lead to participation.