3 "Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye , but do not notice the log that is in your own eye ? 4 " Or how can you say to your brother , 'Let me take the speck out of your eye ,' and behold , the log is in your own eye ? 5 "You hypocrite , first take the log out of your own eye , and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Matthew 7:3-5
Commentary on Matthew 7:1-6
(Read Matthew 7:1-6)
We must judge ourselves, and judge of our own acts, but not make our word a law to everybody. We must not judge rashly, nor pass judgment upon our brother without any ground. We must not make the worst of people. Here is a just reproof to those who quarrel with their brethren for small faults, while they allow themselves in greater ones. Some sins are as motes, while others are as beams; some as a gnat, others as a camel. Not that there is any sin little; if it be a mote, or splinter, it is in the eye; if a gnat, it is in the throat; both are painful and dangerous, and we cannot be easy or well till they are got out. That which charity teaches us to call but a splinter in our brother's eye, true repentance and godly sorrow will teach us to call a beam in our own. It is as strange that a man can be in a sinful, miserable condition, and not be aware of it, as that a man should have a beam in his eye, and not consider it; but the god of this world blinds their minds. Here is a good rule for reprovers; first reform thyself.