Chrysostom, speaking of the swine trampling the pearl, gives the example (p160) of the secrecy of the mysteries of the Church: the secrecy (the unbaptised were not permitted to remain in the Church after the dismissal of the catechumens in the Liturgy) was so that those who were unprepared, and therefore in danger of not seeing the value of the ‘pearl’, would not be able to ‘trample’ it, or defile it by not giving it due reverence. This perhaps shows a connection for 7:6 with the passage that follows, 7:7-12. Chrysostom sees the ‘asking’, ‘seeking’ and ‘knocking’ as examples of our perseverance in approaching God (as, for example, in the story of the perseverant woman before the judge in Lk 18:1-8 – perhaps this could be Matthew’s parallel teaching, as he has no version of that parable). Whether or not it indicates perseverance, it certainly indicates that we have to make our own move for God to make his: that we must be prepared to ask.

The swine, on the other hand, are not prepared for the pearl, and therefore it would be a mistake to give it to them. Thus God also waits for the evidence that we are prepared, in that we are ‘asking’, ‘seeking’ or ‘knocking’ before he will cast his pearl before us. There is also an interesting contrast between the pearl being cast before the swine (7:6) and the hypothetical father who might give his son a stone (7:9). While it would be wrong to give holy things to the dogs, it would be equally wrong to give a serpent to a hungry child – a child who is seeking to eat will be given a fish by his father who loves him.