But why lookest thou on the mote that is in the eye of thy brother, but observest not the beam that is in thine eye?
The Lord has just warned against a judging spirit. Here He asks why a small fault in someone else catches our eye while the far bigger one at home does not.
The verse sets two actions side by side: the man sees the speck and does not notice the log. One writer shows how the two go together.
But He reminds us of what we easily forget. If others are a trial to us, are not we a trial to them? Unless we are walking in the light, are we not as slow to see our own faults as we are quick to notice — and even imagine — wrongs in our brothers? How sharply the Lord puts the case, so that we may loathe ourselves! … The Shepherd and Overseer of our souls strips off the mask that failure in self-judgment puts on. Suppose we do not see our own serious shortcomings and sins before God. Then we do not know our brothers with anything like the same certainty and clearness.
Another writer gives the reason in one line.
And why, then, do men see the little speck in their brother's eye? Because they do not see the great log in their own.
A speck is a splinter of sawdust; a log is a plank of timber. Commentators read the log as an evil in the critic himself that he has never dealt with.
The speck in the brother's eye is the wrong thing that someone thinks he sees in him. But the log in the eye is the evil in one's own heart. A person overlooks it on purpose, though it is easy to see. An experienced brother once said: "I do not know as much evil of anyone as I know of myself. That makes me careful in judging others."
Another writer points to what settles the size: not the offence, but whose eye it sits in.
As the Lord says, "You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye." No matter what it is, if it is in my eye it is a log. And no matter what it is in my brother's eye, it is a speck — until I have judged myself.
Writers trace the habit to a restless heart, and to motives that bend the verdict.
Where this readiness to judge appears, a still more serious evil lies behind it. Some evil in the spirit has gone unjudged for so long that it has become a habit. It makes the person restless and eager to prove others wrong too.
This may be mere fault-finding; or it may be temper, prejudice, or self-interest at work in us. In any case there is a log in the eye, and it blocks a true and righteous judgment.
The passage does not forbid believers to tell right from wrong. One writer marks off the kind of judging it rules out.
To judge things and people as a matter of duty is to be obedient and to serve. But some things are not put before us to judge. To volunteer an opinion on them, to pronounce on motives and what drives people, to claim knowledge of what is not open to us — this takes authority instead of submitting to it. It is in fact to assume what belongs only to the Judge of all, and so it intrudes on His office.
The Lord does not tell the critic to stop caring about his brother's eye. He tells him to change the order and start with himself.
The one who has not judged himself is completely unfit to deal with another. … Get the large thing removed first — the thing that stops you seeing clearly. Most likely you will then find the speck in your brother's eye is gone too. Very often people in a bad, sour state of soul are the ones who spot these specks. And if we really do see failure in another, what is the best use we can make of that discovery? To correct it in ourselves. Then we may help our brother.
The change is not only in eyesight but in touch.
Self-judgment by grace always tends to produce humility and love. A man who has been through that exercise over the log in his own eye will act more tenderly in taking the speck out of his brother's eye.
- Look — We are quick to spot faults in others and slow to spot our own. A sharp outward eye is the sign of a dull inward one.
- Log — Location decides size. Whatever is in my eye is a log; whatever is in my brother's is a speck — until I have judged myself.
- Blindness — Temper, prejudice or self-interest sit in the eye and block a true and righteous verdict.
- Limit — Judging what duty puts before us is service. Judging motives we cannot see takes a seat that belongs only to the Judge of all.
- Sight — Remove your own log first. Often the speck is gone; where it remains, you handle it tenderly.
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Allow [me], I will cast out the mote from thine eye; and behold, the beam is in thine eye?
The verse pictures a man walking up to his brother with an offer of help — while a plank juts from his own eye. Older translations call the two objects a "mote" and a "beam" — a speck of dust and a length of timber.
The whole force of the picture lies in size. Behind that mismatch, one writer finds a deeper problem in the man who is looking.
The Lord puts a particular case: "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?" (v. 3). That is, where this readiness to judge exists, there is another and still more serious evil. It is a habitually unjudged evil in the spirit. It makes the person restless and eager to prove others wrong too. "Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye?" (v. 4). The speck, of course, was small, but people made a great deal of it. They passed over the log, an enormous thing.
Why does the small fault catch the eye at all?
And why, then, do men see the little speck in their brother's eye? Because they do not see the great log in their own.
The offer sounds warm. The speaker even says "brother."
"To your brother." There is no spirit of love in it. One cannot sincerely say "brother" while doing it. In fact there is pleasure in seeing the fault, a spirit of comparison. … No one ought to find fault until he can say "Brother," in the spirit of love and because he loves him.
Real love would move toward the need. Something else is at work here.
Love would meet another's need. Self is blind and busy, forgets its own faults, but can be eager to correct others for its own glory. Our own unjudged fault always blocks us from giving real help to another.
An eye with a plank in it cannot do delicate work on another eye.
Suppose a person's own unjudged sin badly hinders his ability to judge. How could he then help another who may have been overtaken in a fault through spiritual carelessness? This is just impossible.
The Lord's order is not "never help." It is "help second."
The one who has not judged himself is completely unfit to deal with another. Whoever has judged himself before God knows that whatever another has done, he is capable of doing the same or worse. … Get the large thing removed first — it is the thing that stops you seeing clearly. Most likely you will then find the speck in your brother's eye is gone too. Very often the people who spot these specks are in a bad, sour state of soul. And if we really do see failure in another, what is the best use we can make of that discovery? To correct it in ourselves. Then we may help our brother.
Self-judgment does more than clear the sight; it changes the hands that do the work.
Self-judgment by grace always tends to promote humility and love. Think of the man who has been through such an exercise about the log in his own eye. He will act more tenderly in taking the speck out of his brother's eye.
Some turn this warning into a shield against all correction.
Yet it is worth being on guard against a very common misuse of our Lord's warning. Religious people often use it to fend off any criticism of their own position. They use it in the same way against any care about false doctrine or evil associations, and against the responsibility for the discipline Scripture calls for.
- Log first. Correction is not the problem. The order is: your own eye first, your brother's second.
- Log blinds. Unjudged sin does more than make you wrong. It destroys the eyesight this delicate work needs.
- Log shrinks him. You see the small fault because you do not see the large one. A sharp eye for others is a dull eye for yourself.
- Log removed, sight restored. With the plank gone, the speck is often gone too. And the hand that reaches out now is a tender one.
- Log, not silence. The verse bans fault-finding from an unjudged heart. It does not ban the discipline Scripture calls for.