“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.”
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye. The sequence is explicit: first your own log, then your brother's speck. The prohibition on judgment is not a prohibition on all correction but a demand for the order of correction — self before other. The person who has done the work of self-examination and self-correction is then qualified to help another: you will see clearly. The clarity of vision that makes helpful correction possible is the gift of the prior self-examination. The hypocrite who skips step one cannot perform step two effectively regardless of their diagnostic skill.
Church Fathers on Matthew 7:5
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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