Luke 6:42

42 How can you say to your brother, `Brother, let me take that splinter out of your eye,' when all the while you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? Vain pretender! take the beam out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.

Luke 6:42 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 6:42

Either how canst thou say to thy brother
Guilty of the lesser sin;

brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye;
that is, suffer me to reprove thee for thy sin: the word "brother" is omitted in the Cambridge copy of Beza's, and in the Persic version; nor is it in Matthew; but in the Syriac and Ethiopic versions it is read, "my brother"; pretending great affection and sincerity:

when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
that is, takest no notice of, and dost not refrain from a greater iniquity continued in:

thou hypocrite;
as such an one must be, that bears hard upon his brother, and severely censures him for a small crime, when he indulges in himself a far more abominable sin:

cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see
clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye:
the sense is, that a man should first reform himself, and then others.

Luke 6:42 In-Context

40 There is no disciple who is superior to his teacher; but every one whose instruction is complete will be like his teacher.

41 "And why look at the splinter in your brother's eye instead of giving careful attention to the beam in your own?

42 How can you say to your brother, `Brother, let me take that splinter out of your eye,' when all the while you yourself do not see the beam in your own eye? Vain pretender! take the beam out of your own eye first, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother's eye.

43 "There is no good tree that yields unsound fruit, nor again any unsound tree that yields good fruit.

44 Every tree is known by its own fruit. It is not from thorns that men gather figs, nor from the bramble that they can get a bunch of grapes.