Luke 6:42

42 How can you say to your friend, 'Let me take the bit of sawdust out of your eye'? How can you say this while there is a piece of wood in your own eye? You pretender! First take the piece of wood out of your own eye. Then you will be able to see clearly to take the bit of sawdust out of your friend'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 Students are not better than their teachers. But everyone who is completely trained will be like his teacher.

41 "You look at the bit of sawdust in your friend's eye. But you pay no attention to the piece of wood in your own eye.

42 How can you say to your friend, 'Let me take the bit of sawdust out of your eye'? How can you say this while there is a piece of wood in your own eye? You pretender! First take the piece of wood out of your own eye. Then you will be able to see clearly to take the bit of sawdust out of your friend's eye.

43 "A good tree doesn't bear bad fruit. And a bad tree doesn't bear good fruit.

44 You can tell each tree by the kind of fruit it bears. People do not pick figs from thorns. And they don't pick grapes from bushes.