“Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?”
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? The dialogue is the comic fulfillment of the absurdity: offering to help remove the speck in another's eye while carrying a log in one's own. The log impairs vision — the person who cannot see clearly because of their own moral failure cannot accurately perceive another's moral failure, let alone help to address it. The correction of others' faults is not prohibited (verse 5 implies it) but requires the prior work of self-examination and self-correction. Galatians 6:1 says those who are spiritual should restore the one caught in transgression gently, considering themselves, lest they too be tempted — the same self-awareness Jesus requires.
Church Fathers on Matthew 7:4
The Lord having admonished us concerning hasty and unjust judgment; and because that they are most given to rash judgment, who judge concerning things uncertain; and they most readily find fault, who love rather to speak evil and to condemn than to cure and to correct; a fault that spring either from pride or jealousy - therefore He subjoins, 'Why seest thou the mote in thy brother’s eye, and seest not the beam in thy own eye?'
He speaks of such as though themselves guilty of mortal sin, do not forgive a trivial fault in their brother.
Many do this, if they see a Monk having a superfluous garment, or a plentiful meal, they break out into bitter accusation, though themselves daily seize and devour, and suffer from excess of drinking.
Read all 12 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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