Matthew 7:4

4 Or how will you say to your brother, 'Allow [me] to remove the speck from your eye,' and behold, the beam of wood [is] in your [own] eye?

Matthew 7:4 Meaning and Commentary

Matthew 7:4

Or how wilt thou say to thy brother?
&c.] This is not so much an interrogation, as an expression of admiration, at the front and impudence of such censorious remarkers, and rigid observators; who not content to point at the faults of others, take upon them to reprove them in a very magisterial way: and it is as if Christ had said, with what face canst thou say to thy friend or neighbour,

let me pull out the mote out of thine eye?
give me leave to rebuke thee sharply for thy sin, as it deserves,

and behold a beam is in thine own eye;
thou art guilty of a far greater iniquity: astonishing impudence! Art thou so blind, as not to see and observe thy viler wickedness? Or which, if conscious of, how canst thou prevail upon thyself to take upon thee to reprove and censure others? Dost thou think thy brother cannot see thy beam? And may he not justly retort thine iniquities upon thee, which exceed his? and then what success canst thou promise thyself? Such persons are very unfit to be reprovers of others.

Matthew 7:4 In-Context

2 For by what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and by what measure you measure out, it will be measured out to you.

3 And why do you see the speck [that is] in your brother's eye, but do not notice the beam of wood in your [own] eye?

4 Or how will you say to your brother, 'Allow [me] to remove the speck from your eye,' and behold, the beam of wood [is] in your [own] eye?

5 Hypocrite! First remove the beam of wood from your [own] eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye!

6 "Do not give what is holy to dogs, or throw your pearls in front of pigs, lest they trample them with their feet, and turn around [and] tear you to pieces.