Don't Judge Others - Commentary on Matthew 7

MATTHEW 7 COMME TARY
EDITED BY GLE PEASE
Judging Others
1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
BAR ES, "Judge not ... - This command refers to rash, censorious, and unjust
judgment. See Rom_2:1. Luke Luk_6:37 explains it in the sense of “condemning.” Christ
does not condemn judging as a magistrate, for that, when according to justice, is lawful
and necessary. Nor does he condemn our “forming an opinion” of the conduct of others,
for it is impossible “not” to form an opinion of conduct that we know to be evil. But what
he refers to is a habit of forming a judgment hastily, harshly, and without an allowance
for every palliating circumstance, and a habit of “expressing” such an opinion harshly
and unnecessarily when formed. It rather refers to private judgment than “judicial,” and
perhaps primarily to the customs of the scribes and Pharisees.
CLARKE, "Judge not, that ye be not judged - These exhortations are pointed
against rash, harsh, and uncharitable judgments, the thinking evil, where no evil seems,
and speaking of it accordingly. The Jews were highly criminal here, and yet had very
excellent maxims against it, as may be seen in Schoettgen. This is one of the most
important exhortations in the whole of this excellent sermon. By a secret and criminal
disposition of nature, man endeavors to elevate himself above others, and, to do it more
effectually, depresses them. His jealous and envious heart wishes that there may be no
good quality found but in himself, that he alone may be esteemed. Such is the state of
every unconverted man; and it is from this criminal disposition, that evil surmises, rash
judgments, precipitate decisions, and all other unjust procedures against our neighbor,
flow.
GILL, "Judge not, that ye be not judged. This is not to be understood of any sort of
judgment; not of judgment in the civil courts of judicature, by proper magistrates, which
ought to be made and pass, according to the nature of the case; nor of judgment in the
churches of Christ, where offenders are to be called to an account, examined, tried, and
dealt with according to the rules of the Gospel; nor of every private judgment, which one
man may make upon another, without any detriment to him; but of rash judgment,
interpreting men's words and deeds to the worst sense, and censuring them in a very
severe manner; even passing sentence on them, with respect to their eternal state and
condition. Good is the advice given by the famous Hillell (u), who lived a little before
Christ's time;
"Do not judge thy neighbour, (says he,) until thou comest into his place.''

It would be well, if persons subject to a censorious spirit, would put themselves in the
case and circumstances the persons are in they judge; and then consider, what judgment
they would choose others should pass on them. The argument Christ uses to dissuade
from this evil, which the Jews were very prone to, is, "that ye be not judged"; meaning,
either by men, for such censorious persons rarely have the good will of their fellow
creatures, but are commonly repaid in the same way; or else by God, which will be the
most awful and tremendous: for such persons take upon them the place of God, usurp
his prerogative, as if they knew the hearts and states of men; and therefore will have
judgment without mercy at the hands of God.
HE RY, "Our Saviour is here directing us how to conduct ourselves in reference to
the faults of others; and his expressions seem intended as a reproof to the scribes and
Pharisees, who were very rigid and severe, very magisterial and supercilious, in
condemning all about them, as those commonly are, that are proud and conceited in
justifying themselves. We have here,
I. A caution against judging Mat_7:1, Mat_7:2. There are those whose office it is to
judge - magistrates and ministers. Christ, though he made not himself a Judge, yet came
not to unmake them, for by him princes decree justice; but this is directed to private
persons, to his disciples, who shall hereafter sit on thrones judging, but not now. Now
observe,
1. The prohibition; Judge not. We must judge ourselves, and judge our own acts, but
we must not judge our brother, not magisterially assume such an authority over others,
as we allow not them over us: since our rule is, to be subject to one another. Be not many
masters, Jam_3:1. We must not sit in the judgment-seat, to make our word a law to
every body. We must not judge our brother, that is, we must not speak evil of him, so it
is explained, Jam_4:11. We must not despise him, nor set him at nought, Rom_14:10.
We must not judge rashly, nor pass such a judgment upon our brother as has no ground,
but is only the product of our own jealousy and ill nature. We must not make the worst
of people, nor infer such invidious things from their words and actions as they will not
bear. We must not judge uncharitably, unmercifully, nor with a spirit of revenge, and a
desire to do mischief. We must not judge of a man's state by a single act, nor of what he
is in himself by what he is to us, because in our own cause we are apt to be partial. We
must not judge the hearts of others, nor their intentions, for it is God's prerogative to try
the heart, and we must not step into his throne; nor must we judge of their eternal state,
nor call them hypocrites, reprobates, and castaways; that is stretching beyond our line;
what have we to do, thus to judge another man's servant? Counsel him, and help him,
but do not judge him.
2. The reason to enforce this prohibition. That ye be not judged. This intimates, (1.) That
if we presume to judge others, we may expect to be ourselves judged. He who usurps the
bench, shall be called to the bar; he shall be judged of men; commonly none are more
censured, than those who are most censorious; every one will have a stone to throw at
them; he who, like Ishmael, has his hand, his tongue, against every man, shall, like him,
have every man's hand and tongue against him (Gen_16:12); and no mercy shall be
shown to the reputation of those that show no mercy to the reputation of others. Yet that
is not the worst of it; they shall be judged of God; from him they shall receive the greater
condemnation, Jam_3:1. Both parties must appear before him (Rom_14:10), who, as he
will relieve the humble sufferer, will also resist the haughty scorner, and give him
enough of judging. (2.) That if we be modest and charitable in our censures of others,
and decline judging them, and judge ourselves rather, we shall not be judged of the

Lord. As God will forgive those that forgive their brethren; so he will not judge those
that will not judge their brethren; the merciful shall find mercy. It is an evidence of
humility, charity, and deference to God, and shall be owned and rewarded by him
accordingly. See Rom_14:10.
JAMISO , "Mat_7:1-12. Sermon on the Mount - concluded. Miscellaneous
supplementary counsels.
That these verses are entirely supplementary is the simplest and most natural view of
them. All attempts to make out any evident connection with the immediately preceding
context are, in our judgment, forced. But, though supplementary, these counsels are far
from being of subordinate importance. On the contrary, they involve some of the most
delicate and vital duties of the Christian life. In the vivid form in which they are here
presented, perhaps they could not have been introduced with the same effect under any
of the foregoing heads; but they spring out of the same great principles, and are but
other forms and manifestations of the same evangelical “righteousness.”
Mat_7:1-5. Censorious Judgment.
Judge not, that ye be not judged — To “judge” here does not exactly mean to
pronounce condemnatory judgment, nor does it refer to simple judging at all, whether
favorable or the reverse. The context makes it clear that the thing here condemned is
that disposition to look unfavorably on the character and actions of others, which leads
invariably to the pronouncing of rash, unjust, and unlovely judgments upon them. No
doubt it is the judgments so pronounced which are here spoken of; but what our Lord
aims at is the spirit out of which they spring. Provided we eschew this unlovely spirit, we
are not only warranted to sit in judgment upon a brother’s character and actions, but in
the exercise of a necessary discrimination are often constrained to do so for our own
guidance. It is the violation of the law of love involved in the exercise of a censorious
disposition which alone is here condemned. And the argument against it - “that ye be not
judged” - confirms this: “that your own character and actions be not pronounced upon
with the like severity”; that is, at the great day.
CALVI , ".Judege not These words of Christ do not contain an absolute
prohibition from judging, but are intended to cure a disease, which appears to be
natural to us all. We see how all flatter themselves, and every man passes a severe
censure on others. This vice is attended by some strange enjoyment: for there is
hardly any person who is not tickled with the desire of inquiring into other people’s
faults. All acknowledge, I DEED, that it is an intolerable evil, that those who
overlook their own vices are so inveterate against their brethren. The Heathens, too,
in ancient times, condemned it in many proverbs. Yet it has existed in all ages, and
exists, too, in the present day. ay, it is accompanied by another and a worse
plague: for the greater part of men think that, when they condemn others, they
acquire a greater liberty of sinning.
This depraved eagerness for biting, censuring, and slandering, is restrained by
Christ, when he says, Judege not. It is not necessary that believers should become
BLI D, and perceive nothing, but only that they should refrain from an undue
eagerness to judge: for otherwise the proper bounds of rigor will be exceeded by
every man who desires to pass sentence on his brethren. There is a similar

expression in the Apostle James, Be not many masters, (James 3:1.) for he does not
discourage or WITHDRAWbelievers from discharging the office of teachers, but
forbids them to desire the honor from motives of ambition. To judge, therefore,
means here, to be influenced by curiosity in inquiring into the actions of others. This
disease, in the first place, draws CO TI UALLY along with it the injustice of
condemning any trivial fault, as if it had been a very heinous crime; and next breaks
out into the insolent presumption of looking disdainfully at every action, and
passing an unfavourable judgment on it, even when it might be viewed in a good
light.
We now see, that the design of Christ was to guard us against indulging excessive
eagerness, or peevishness, or malignity, or even curiosity, in judging our neighbors.
He who judges according to the word and law of the Lord, and forms his judgment
by the rule of CHARITY, always BEGI Swith subjecting himself to examination,
and preserves a proper medium and order in his judgments. Hence it is evident, that
this passage is altogether misapplied by those persons who would desire to make
that moderation, which Christ RECOMME DS, a pretence for setting aside all
distinction between good and evil. We are not only permitted, but are even bound,
to condemn all sins; unless we choose to rebel against God himself, — nay, to repeal
his laws, to reverse his decisions, and to overturn his judgment-seat. It is his will
that we should proclaim the sentence which he pronounces on the actions of men:
only we must preserve such modesty towards each other, as to make it manifest that
he is the only Lawgiver and Judge, (Isaiah 33:22.)
That you may not be judged He denounces a punishment against those severe
judges, who take so much delight in sifting the faults of others. They will not be
treated by others with greater kindness, but will experience, in their turn, the same
severity which they had exercised towards others. As nothing is dearer or more
valuable to us than our reputation, so nothing is more bitter than to be condemned,
or to be exposed to the reproaches and infamy of men. And yet it is by our own fault
that we draw upon ourselves that very thing which our nature so strongly detests,
for which of us is there, who does not examine too severely the actions of others;
who does not manifest undue rage against slight offenses; or who does not peevishly
censure what was in itself indifferent? And what is this but deliberately to provoke
God, as our avenger, to treat us in the same manner. ow, though it is a just
judgment of God, that those who have judged others should be punished in their
turn, yet the Lord executes this punishment by the instrumentality of men.
Chrysostom and others limit this statement to the present life: but that is a forced
interpretation. Isaiah threatens (Isaiah 33:1) that those who have spoiled others
shall be spoiled. In like manner, our Lord means, that there will be no want of
executioners to punish the injustice and slander of men with equal bitterness or
severity. And if men shall fail to receive punishment in this world, those who have
shown undue eagerness in condemning their brethren will not escape the judgment
of God.
COKE, "Matthew 7:1-2. Judege not, &c.— Our Saviour, having condemned
worldly-mindedness in the general, PROCEEDS to forbid allrash and unfavourable

judgments, whether of the characters of others in general, or of their actions in
particular. See Luke 6:37. Though he does not level his discourse against the
Pharisees in this chapter as in the two foregoing, he seems evidently to glance upon
them in this and other expressions which he uses in it. That they were very culpable
on this head appears from Luke 9:14; Luke 16:14-15 and John 7:47; John 7:49.;
compare Isaiah 65:5. I DEED their unjust censures of Christ are the strongest
instances of it that can be conceived. God proposes and recommends his mercy to
our imitation: he commands us in this, in mercy, to be perfect as himself; but,
judgment is his reserved prerogative, and they shall feel the weight of it who rashly
invade its office. To judge is an act of sovereignty; it is an exercise of such authority
as is indeed very considerable, if we were really possessed of it. Pride, among its
other usurpations, arrogates to itself this province; it raises us above our brethren in
an imaginary tribunal, whence we affect to distribute praise or blame in the
sentence that we pass on them, and which is commonly to their disadvantage,
because the firstborn of pride is malice: he who loves himself more than he ought
must love others less than he ought; and the same principlewhich makes us
overvalue ourselves makes us undervalue our neighbours; for, as our notions of
excellence are by comparison, we cannot ascribe it so immoderately to ourselves, but
upon a supposed defect of it in others. Their abasement seems to set us higher, and
we erect trophies to ourselves upon their ruins; and this is the reason why we err so
much oftener to the prejudice than to the advantage of our neighbour. Mere
ignorance has an equal chance either way: what is thrown in the dark, and at
random, might as probably hit above as below the mark; the reason why we are so
often under it, is the malice of our hearts, which makes us delight to find faults in
others, as excuses for our own faults, or as foils to our virtues. The expression, with
what measure ye mete, &c. is proverbial, and was much in use among the Jews. The
words are certainly most awful. God and man will favour the candid and
benevolent: but they must expect judgment without mercy, who shew no mercy. See
Heylin, Chemnitz, and Beausobre and Lenfant.
COFFMA , "This portion of the Master's great sermon is composed of
miscellaneous exhortations and is not easily conformable to any formal outline.
Judge not that ye be not judged. (Matthew 7:1)
The word "judge" in this place is TRA SLATED from a Greek word, [@krino],
also found in such passages as John 12:48; Acts 17:31; and 2 Timothy 4:1,
indicating that the type of judging forbidden in this place is that of presuming to
determine salvation, or the lack of it, in others. ot even Christ did this while on
earth. "I came not to judge the world but to save the world" (John 12:47). The
exercise of such judgment is all the more sinful in that it is premature. "Judge
nothing before the time" (1 Corinthians 4:5). The widespread failure of otherwise
devoted people to observe this injunction is tragically regrettable; and yet some
insist on their right to judge others and defend it on the basis of Jesus' words, "By
their fruits ye shall know them" (Matthew 7:20). Discerning and judging, however,
are two different things. The Greek term for ACCOU TI G, or thinking, with
reference to another is [@hegeomai]. Making a private, personal, and tentative

appraisal of others is not forbidden; but "judging" is prohibited. One must deplore
the conduct of self-appointed "fruit inspectors" whose flagrant violations of this
commandment have worked untold damage in the church.
BE SO , "Matthew 7:1-2. Judge not — Our Lord now PROCEEDS to warn us
against the chief hinderances of holiness. And how wisely does he begin with
judging! Wherein all young converts are so apt to spend that zeal which is given
them for better purposes. He must be understood as forbidding all rash and
unfavourable judgments, whether of the characters of others in general, or of their
actions in particular, glancing, probably, in these as also in some other expressions
in this chapter, on the character of the Pharisees, who were very culpable on this
head, as appears from divers passages in the gospels, such as Luke 18:9-14; Luke
16:14-15; John 7:47-49, (compare also Isaiah 65:5,) and their unjust censures of
Christ. Our Lord’s words imply, Judge not those about you in a rigorous and severe
manner; nor pass unnecessary or uncharitable censures upon them, as many of
YOUR countrymen are in the habit of doing: nay, judge not any man, without full,
clear, and certain knowledge of the blameableness of his conduct, nor without
absolute necessity, and a spirit of tender love. That ye be not judged — Yourselves
with the like severity. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged — Of
God and man. “If you judge charitably, making proper allowances for the frailties
of your brethren, and are ready to pity and pardon their faults, God and man will
deal with you in the same kind manner; but if you always put the worst construction
on every thing that it will bear, and are not touched with the feeling of your
brother’s infirmities, and show no mercy in the opinions you form of his character
and actions, no mercy will be shown to you from any quarter; God will treat you as
you deserve, in the just judgment he shall pass upon your actions, and the world will
be sure to retaliate the injury.” — Macknight. And with what measure ye mete, it
shall be measured to you again — Awful words! So we may, as it were, choose for
ourselves, whether God shall be severe or merciful to us. God and man will favour
the candid and benevolent: but they must expect judgment without mercy, who have
showed no mercy.
ELLICOTT, "(1) The plan and sequence of the discourse is, as has been said, less
apparent in this last portion. Whether this be the result of omission or of insertion,
thus much at least seems clear, that while Matthew 5 is mainly a protest against the
teaching of the scribes, and Matthew 6 mainly a protest against their corruption of
the three great elements of the religious life—almsgiving, prayer, and fasting—and
the worldliness out of which that corruption grew, this DEALS chiefly with the
temptations incident to the more advanced stages of that life when lower forms of
evil have been overcome—with the temper that judges others, the self-deceit of
unconscious hypocrisy, the danger of unreality.
Judge not, that ye be not judged.—The words point to a tendency inherent in
human nature, and are therefore U IVERSALLY APPLICABLE; but they had, we
must remember, a special bearing on the Jews. They, as really in the van of the
religious progress of mankind, took on themselves to judge other nations. All true
teachers of Israel, even though they represented different aspects of the truth, felt

the danger, and warned their countrymen against it. St. Paul (Romans 2:3; 1
Corinthians 4:5) and St. James (James 4:11) alike, in this matter, echo the teaching
of their Master. And the temptation still CO TI UES. In proportion as any nation,
any church, any society, any individual man rises above the common forms of evil
that surround them, they are disposed to sit in judgment on those who are still in the
evil.
The question, how far we can obey the precept, is not without its difficulties. Must
we not, even as a matter of duty, be judging others every day of our lives? The
juryman giving his verdict, the master who discharges a dishonest servant, the
bishop who puts in force the discipline of the Church—are these acting against our
Lord’s commands? And if not, where are we to draw the line? The answer to these
questions is OT FOU D in the distinctions of a formal casuistry. We have rather
to remember that our Lord here, as elsewhere, gives principles rather than rules,
and embodies the principle in a rule which, because it cannot be kept in the letter,
forces us back upon the spirit. What is forbidden is the censorious judging temper,
eager to find faults and condemn men for them, suspicious of motives, detecting, let
us say, for example, in controversy, and denouncing, the faintest shade of heresy. o
mere rules can guide us as to the limits of our judgments. What we need is to have
“our senses exercised to discern between good and evil,” to cultivate the
sensitiveness of conscience and the clearness of self-knowledge. Briefly, we may
say:—(1.) Judge no man unless it be a duty to do so. (2.) As far as may be, judge the
offence, and not the offender. (3.) Confine your judgment to the earthly side of
faults, and leave their relation to God, to Him who sees the heart. (4.) ever judge at
all without remembering your own sinfulness, and the ignorance and infirmities
which may extenuate the sinfulness of others.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "Judge not.
Against censoriousness
I. The prohibition. It refers to the conduct of private individuals, not to men in a public
capacity; nor to hinder private persons from forming any opinion upon the misconduct
of others. It forbids the indulgence of a censorious temper.
II. The methods by which he reproves and condemns it.
1. He refers to the common principle of retribution.
2. As another corrective we are reminded of our own imperfections.
(1) Men of this description have no right to sit in judgment on others, who are
themselves guilty of the same crimes.
(2) They have no moral qualification for its discharge.
3. Our Saviour directs us to reform our own conduct before we undertake to sit in
judgment on that of others.
III. The caution which we must observe in its discharge-“Give not that which is holy
unto the dogs,” etc. (J. E. Good.)

Judgments and retributive judgments
I. Judgments.
1. We are warned against judgments that are prejudiced. Not to judge others by a
sort of hasty inspiration, by their manner, or by their class or locality.
2. We are warned against judgments that are uncalled for. Sometimes our duty; but
often not required of us to judge our neighbour’s character.
3. We are warned against judgments that are one-sided. Must hear both sides.
4. We are warned against unmerciful judgments. Danger arises from attributing
motives. We must beware lest we ignore the possibilities of good even in a bad man.
Be as merciful as you can be to the sinner.
5. We are warned against blind judgment-“Why beholdest thou,” etc. Evil men more
suspicious of others.
II. Retributive judgments-who will inflict them (Luk_6:37-38).
1. The first solution is that they are the judgments of men. This not practically true.
2. Consider the interpretation which attributes the retributive judgments to angels.
It is not our Lord’s wont to attribute judgment, forgiveness, etc., to angels.
3. God will inflict them. He judges men according to the state of mind in which they
live. (J. E. Rust, M. A.)
The evil of judging rashly
I. The duty-“Judge not.”
1. From the context it is evident that the Saviour here speaks only of those judgments
that we form concerning our neighbour. Favourable judgments are not forbidden;
unfavourable judgments allowed, when our station or clear evidence require. Judges,
parents, teachers, must condemn and publicly censure. Our Lord condemns-
1. The inward disposition of the mind which inclines persons to judge the actions of
their neighbours with
(1) precipitance,
(2) malignity,
(3) rigour.
2. He condemns the habit of communicating to others the rash and severe
judgments we have formed, when no necessity requires it. We multiply the injury in
proportion to the number of persons to whom we communicate our unfavourable
opinions.
II. The motive. If we thus judge our brethren, there is more than one tribunal at which
we shall be condemned.
1. We shall find for ourselves in society judges without pity.
2. The rigour at the last judgment. God will punish those who have encroached upon
His rights, and who have trampled down the rules of justice and charity. (H. Kollock,
D. D.)

Reasons against a censorious spirit
1. Such judgment provokes retaliation.
2. Such judgment is not becoming in us. Such a sinner has no right to sit in the
judgment seat.
3. Such judgment shows incapacity for true judgment. (Sermons by Monday Climb.)
Against rash censuring and judging
There are divers sorts of judging which it is requisite to distinguish from the judging
prohibited:-
1. That exercising public judgment, or administering justice, is not here prohibited.
2. The trial and censure, although out of court, which any kind of superiors do
exercise on their inferiors, committed to their care, such as masters and servants.
3. Neither is friendly reproof proceeding out of charitable design, on clear ground, in
fit season, within reasonable compass, concerned in this prohibition.
4. All observing and reflecting on our neighbours’ actions, all framing an opinion
about them, and expressing our minds concerning them, are not forbidden.
5. We are not hence obliged to think so well of all men as without competent
knowledge always to rely on their pretences, or to entrust our interests in their
hands.
6. We are not obliged, in contradiction to plain sense, to judge all men well.
We observe:
1. No judge should intrude himself into the office, or assume a judicial power,
without competent authority, either by delegation from superior powers, or by
voluntary reference to the parties concerned.
2. A judge should be free from all prejudices and all partial affections.
3. A judge should never proceed in judgment without careful examination of the
cause, so as well to understand it.
4. A judge should never pronounce final sentence, but after certain proof and on full
conviction.
5. Hence there are divers causes wholly exempt from our judgment, such as the
secret thoughts of men.
6. Hence we should not judge the state of our neighbour in regard to God.
7. A judge should not proceed against any man without warning, and affording him
opportunity to defend himself.
8. Moreover a judge is obliged to conform all his determinations to the settled rules
of judgment.
9. He must be a person of good knowledge and ability.

10. It is proper for a judge not to make himself an accuser.
11. He should himself be innocent.
12. He should proceed with great moderation.
Again:
1. Censuring is an impious practice in regard to God.
2. In respect to our neighbour it is an unjust practice.
3. It is an uncharitable practice.
4. It is a foolish and vain practice.
5. It will produce many inconveniences and mischiefs.
(1) We provoke others to requite us in the same kind.
(2) We pass censure on ourselves, as we are seldom clear.
(3) We aggravate our own faults and deprive them of excuse.
(4) We forget to what a dreadful judgment we stand obnoxious to.
(5) It causes us to leave our own faults uncorrected.
(6) The best men are the most candid and gentle.
(7) It signifies bad conscience; a vulturous nature smelleth out carrion. (Dr.
Barrow.)
Social self-echoes.
A
little boy once went home to his mother and said, “Mother, sister and I went out into the
garden, and we were calling about, and there was some boy mocking us.” “How do you
mean, Johnny?” said his mother. “Why,” said the child, “I was calling out, ‘He!’ and this
boy said, ‘He!’ So I said to him, ‘Who are you?’ and he answered, ‘Who are you?’ I said,
‘What is your name?’ he said, ‘What is your name?’ And I said to him, ‘Why don’t you
show yourself?’ he said, ‘ Show yourself?’ And I jumped over the ditch, and I went into
the woods, and I could not find him, and I came back, and said, ‘If you don’t come out I
will punch your head!’ and he said, ‘I will punch your head!’ “So his mother said, “Ah,
Johnny I if you had said, ‘I love you,’ he would have said, ‘I love You.’ If you had said,
‘Your voice is sweet,’ he would have said, ‘Your voice is sweet.’ Whatever you said to him,
he would have said back to you.” And the mother also said, “Now, Johnny, when you
grow and get to be a man, whatever you say to others they will, by and by, say back to
you.” And his mother took him to that old text in the Scripture, “With what measure ye
mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
Censoriousness a compound of the worst passions
Censoriousness is a compound of many of the worst passions; latent pride, which
discovers the mote in our brother’s eye, but hides the beam in our own; malignant envy,
which, wounded at the noble talents and superior prosperity of others, transforms them
into the objects and food of its malice-if possible, obscuring the splendour it is too base
to emulate; disguised hatred, which diffuses, in its perpetual mutterings, the irritable

venom of the heart; servile duplicity, which fulsomely praises to the face and blackens
behind the back; shameless levity, which sacrifices the peace and reputation of the
absent, merely to give barbarous stings to a jocular conversation; altogether forming an
aggregate the most desolating on earth, and nearest in character to the malice of hell. (E.
L. Magoon.)
Men self-reflected in their judgment of others
Pedley, who was a well-known natural simpleton, was wont to say, “God help the fool.”
None are more ready to pity the folly of others than those who have a small share of wit
themselves. “There is no love among Christians,” cries the man who is destitute of true
charity. “Zeal has vanished,” exclaims the idle talker. “O for more consistency,” groans
out the hypocrite. “We want more vital godliness,” protests the false pretender. As in the
old legend, the wolf preached against sheep-stealing, so very many hunt down those sins
in others, which they gladly shelter in themselves. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Judgment should combine moderation
Avoid forming refined and romantic notions of human perfection in anything. For these
are much apter to heighten our expectations from others, and our demands upon them,
than to increase our watchfulness over ourselves; and so every failure provokes us more
highly than it would have done else.
EBC, "As against making too much of it - the danger of censoriousness (Mat_7:1-5).
Here, again, the language is very strong, and the warning given is solemn and earnest - a
sure sign that the danger is real and great. Again, too, considerations are urged, one after
another, why we should beware. First, there is so much evil in ourselves, that we should
be most careful how we condemn it in others, for "with what judgment ye judge ye shall
be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
Moreover, severity is a sign not of purity but of the reverse: "Why beholdest thou the
mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"
Our severity should be applied to ourselves, our charity to others; especially if we would
have any success in the correcting of our neighbour’s faults: "How wilt thou say to thy
brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?"
(R.V.) Otherwise we are hypocrites, and we must thoroughly reform ourselves before we
have any idea even how to begin to improve others: "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." Of what exceeding value is this teaching just where it stands! The Saviour
has been summoning His people not only to pure morality and true godliness, but to
lofty spirituality of mind and heart; and knowing what was in man - knowing that
dangers lurked on his path at every turn, and that even the highest spirituality has its
special danger, its besetting sin - He points it out, paints it in all its blackness, spares not
the sin of the saint any more than the sin of the sinner, calls the man that gathers his
skirts about him with the word or the thought "I am holier than thou" by the same ugly
name with which He brands the poor fools who disfigure their faces that they may be
seen of men to fast. Yet, severe as it is, is it not needed? does not our best judgment
approve and applaud? and are we not glad and grateful that our Lord has warned us so
earnestly and impressively against a danger it might never have occurred to us to fear?

HAWKER, "As against making too much of it - the danger of censoriousness (Mat_7:1-
5). Here, again, the language is very strong, and the warning given is solemn and earnest
- a sure sign that the danger is real and great. Again, too, considerations are urged, one
after another, why we should beware. First, there is so much evil in ourselves, that we
should be most careful how we condemn it in others, for "with what judgment ye judge
ye shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again."
Moreover, severity is a sign not of purity but of the reverse: "Why beholdest thou the
mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"
Our severity should be applied to ourselves, our charity to others; especially if we would
have any success in the correcting of our neighbour’s faults: "How wilt thou say to thy
brother, Let me cast out the mote out of thine eye; and lo, the beam is in thine own eye?"
(R.V.) Otherwise we are hypocrites, and we must thoroughly reform ourselves before we
have any idea even how to begin to improve others: "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." Of what exceeding value is this teaching just where it stands! The Saviour
has been summoning His people not only to pure morality and true godliness, but to
lofty spirituality of mind and heart; and knowing what was in man - knowing that
dangers lurked on his path at every turn, and that even the highest spirituality has its
special danger, its besetting sin - He points it out, paints it in all its blackness, spares not
the sin of the saint any more than the sin of the sinner, calls the man that gathers his
skirts about him with the word or the thought "I am holier than thou" by the same ugly
name with which He brands the poor fools who disfigure their faces that they may be
seen of men to fast. Yet, severe as it is, is it not needed? does not our best judgment
approve and applaud? and are we not glad and grateful that our Lord has warned us so
earnestly and impressively against a danger it might never have occurred to us to fear?
SBC, "Matthew 7:1-6
The law kept by sympathy. "Judge not, that ye be not judged." This word of Christ’s
implies—
I. That we are not to be eager to spy out our neighbour’s faults, for that is not worthy,
not Christian, not fulfilling the law of God. The more vigilant we are over him, the more
careless we are of ourselves. The less we spare his faults, the more tender we grow of our
own. The men who are most censorious are just the very men who are themselves the
least faultless, the most indulgent to their own cherished sins.
II. That neither are we to speak hastily of the sins of our neighbour. A readiness to spy
out faults is one thing; it is another thing to be eager to speak of them and point them
out to others. The two things are generally combined. And this is indeed the mischief of
that kind of character, that it seldom, if ever, refrains from proclaiming the faults which
it is so prone to discover, reckless of the pain or the injury which it may thus inflict; were
it otherwise, the evil resulting from such a habit would be mainly limited to the man
himself who indulged in it.
III. This implies also that we are to watch against that uncharitable spirit which is ever
ready to ascribe the worst meanings and the worst motives to our neighbour’s conduct.
If there is any moral duty which, more than another, stands out as the very badge and
symbol of Christianity, it is charity.
IV. In all such matters we must be regulated by the great law of moral sympathy,
"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Judge not
your neighbour in a way in which you would not like him to judge you. Do not spy out

his faults in a fashion which you would consider unkind and ungenerous if done to
yourself; do not talk of his errors as you would feel it unfair to have your own discussed
and babbled about; do not ascribe base motives and wicked meanings to him, which you
would hold to be unjust if ascribed to you. So do ye to others whatsoever ye would that
they should do to you.
W. C. Smith, The Sermon on the Mount, p. 276.
MEYER, " JUDGING SELF; ASKING GOD; SERVING OTHERS
Mat_7:1-12
There is abundant need for a right and sound judgment, illumined by the Spirit of truth;
but there is a world of difference between it and the censorious and critical opinions
which we are apt to form and utter about others. Human nature is fond of climbing up
into the judgment seat and proclaiming its decisions, without hearing both sides or
calling witnesses. Beware of basing your judgment on idle stories and gossip. In any
case, do not utter it, if it be adverse, unless you have first prayed about it and sought to
turn the sinner from the error of his ways. Let God search you, before you search
another. See Psa_139:23-24; 1Co_4:1-5; Heb_4:12.
We ask for a gift; we seek for what we have lost; we knock for entrance. Only a door
stands between us and Christ! He will not give us stones or serpents, even if we clamor
for them; but He will never fail to give good things-and above all His Holy Spirit-only we
must ask for them.
The Roman Emperor Severus was so charmed with the Golden Rule that he had it
inscribed on the walls of his palace. Let us inscribe it on our hearts and act on it in the
power of the Holy Spirit, who sheds God’s love abroad in the hearts of those who believe.
PETT, "Clearly the first question here is as to what Jesus means by ‘judging’. The term
has a wide meaning moving from ‘assessing’ on the one hand to ‘total condemnation’ on
the other. Some would see Matthew 7:1 as standing on its own, but in that case it simply
becomes a truism. It would be to go against all the teaching of Scripture concerning the
need for judges, and the need for individual judgment. It is only in context that it
actually gains any significant meaning. We will therefore consider what Jesus definitely
does not mean.
1). He does not mean that they should not ‘judge’ what other people teach, for not only
does He expect them to pass judgment on His own teaching, but He will also SHORTLY
warn them about false prophets who are to be avoided (Matthew 7:15-23; compare
Matthew 16:6; Galatians 1:6-9; 2 Timothy 2:17-18; 2 John 1:7-11). Recognising a false
prophet requires ‘judgment’, and the New Testament regularly lays down the bases on
which such prophets should be judged (see for example Matthew 5:20; Romans 16:17-
18; Galatians 1:6-9; 1 Timothy 6:3-4; 2 Timothy 2:17-18; 2 Timothy 3:13-17; 2 Timothy
4:3-4; 1 John 4:1-6; 2 John 1:7-9). Even Christian prophets have to be judged (1
Corinthians 14:29). On the other hand in the case of lesser things we must recognise the
right of each to his own view (Romans 14:1-8; 1 Corinthians 8:7-13). So they are in all

cases to judge righteous judgment (John 7:24).
2). He does not mean that they should not act to DEAL with gross sin which is clearly
contrary to Scripture or the teaching of Jesus Christ and His Apostles (compare
Matthew 18:17; Romans 16:17; 1 Corinthians 5:11; 1 Timothy 6:3; 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 2
Thessalonians 3:14; Titus 3:10-11). Jesus AGREED with what the Law taught (Matthew
23:2-3), and would have expected them to judge accordingly, even though tempered
with compassion (John 8:10). And He constantly makes clear that God will deal severely
with gross sin (Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:25-26; Matthew 5:29-30; Matthew 6:15;
Matthew 7:13; Matthew 7:19-20; Matthew 7:23; Matthew 7:25).
3). He does not mean just ‘live and let live’. One of the reasons for appointing the
Apostles was so that they could determine authoritatively the behaviour of the
‘congregation’ by ‘binding and loosing’ (Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:15-20), although
they were not to try to APPLYthem to outsiders (1 Corinthians 5:12-13). And while Jesus
ate with tax collectors and sinners, just as He ate with Pharisees, and with any who
sought the truth, it was precisely because they were seeking the truth and He was there
as a DOCTOR among them (Matthew 9:11-12). He did not involve Himself in riotous
living, or even condone it. ‘Gluttonous man’ and ‘winebibber’ were the accusations of His
enemies, not the real facts of the case (Matthew 11:19).
What kind of judging then does Jesus have in mind? It is clear from the context that it is
the ‘judging’ of a brother that is mainly in question (Matthew 7:3; Matthew 7:5), while
taking a more cautious attitude towards outsiders (Matthew 7:6) and that the principle
is that any judgments are to bear in mind the need for having a right attitude (Matthew
7:2). Censorious and condemnatory judgment of a brother, whether by the group, or by
an individual, is forbidden.
Thus when they come to pass a judgment they should ensure three things. Firstly that
they themselves are in a fit state to be able to judge fairly, secondly that their judgment is
fair and reasonable (after full enquiry) and thirdly the repercussions on themselves
because of their own attitude if they fail to judge fairly. (The same idea of repercussion
comes also in Matthew 7:6, where it is from a different source). Jesus then declares that
those who judge harshly, will themselves be judged harshly, both by God and men (this
is mainly an example of the ‘divine passive, a reference to God by using the passive
tense). They will be judged by their own standards (compare Matthew 6:14-15; Matthew
18:23-35, the latter specifically related to the Kingly Rule of Heaven). They will receive
measure for measure from God, if not from men. (Many grain contracts insisted that the
same measure should be used for measuring the amounts of grain, and the amounts paid
for the grain, and that may be in mind here). Thus they would be better off not standing
in judgment on others, for the merciful will obtain mercy (Matthew 5:7), and the
judgmental and unforgiving (Matthew 6:14-15) will themselves be judged.
That ‘in order that you might not be judged’ includes the judgment of God is clear from
the whole Sermon (and indeed from the whole of Matthew) where God’s judgment is
CONTINUALLY in view. It is assumed in the beatitudes, specific in Matthew 5:19-22;
Matthew 5:25; Matthew 5:29-30; Matthew 6:15; and especially seen in what follows in
Matthew 7:13-27. But that it also includes the judgment of men is suggested by Matthew

7:6.
Clearly this statement is to a certain extent a general principle of the Kingly Rule of
Heaven and does not just apply between brethren. It illustrates how those under God’s
Kingly Rule should behave towards all. It is how all judgment of others is to be
approached. That is why He concludes with a warning to be aware of how they pass on
their judgments on outsiders (however well intentioned), for they might have violent
repercussions (Matthew 7:6). For they will find that outsiders are not as compassionate
and accepting as their brother and sister disciples. But unquestionably central to His
thought here is ‘judging’ a brother or sister. For one final purpose in mind is to be the
ASSISTANCE of that brother and sister in putting right their own lives.
Central also to Jesus thinking here is how unfit we are to be judges. How quickly we
make rash judgments without discovering the true facts. We forget God’s instructions to
His people which were to be followed before they acted, ‘if you shall hear tell --- then you
shall enquire, and make search, and ask diligently’ and only then were they to act
(Deuteronomy 13:13-14). But our tendency is to act first, often on the basis of
information supplied by unreliable people (although they might not seem so at the
time), and then to discover only too late (if at all) that we have made the wrong
judgment.
Nor do we often know sufficient about other people’s problems and psychological
difficulties to be able to judge them fairly. The American Indians had a saying, ‘never
judge a man until you have walked a mile in his moccasins (shoes)’, and the great Rabbi
Hillel declared, ‘Do not judge a man until you yourself have come into his circumstances
or situation’. Putting it in the words of Jesus, ‘do not judge according to appearances,
but judge righteous judgment’ (John 7:24).
Furthermore we are all victims of prejudice. We do not judge righteous judgment
because so often we see things only from our own point of view. We overlook the fact
that others see things differently, and often have a perfect right to do so. We can rightly
expect our brothers and sisters to do God’s will, but we do have to make sure that what
we are RECOMMENDING is not in fact just our own ideas about what is God’s will.
We are reminded here of the words of a poem which is so apposite to what we are
considering that we feel it worth citing,
Judge not. The workings of his heart, and of his mind, you cannot see.
What seems to your dull eyes a stain, in God’s pure eyes may only be,

A scar won on some battlefield, where you would only faint and yield.
That look, that air, that frets your sight, might be a token that below,
The soul is closed in deadly fight, with some infernal, fiery foe,
Whose look would scorch your smiling grace, and send you shuddering on your face.
And the final reason why we cannot act in judgment on others is because we are not
usually in a fit state to do so. In Jesus’ words here, we have a plank in our eye. For the
more we know ourselves the more we recognise that we are ‘the chief of sinners’ (1
Timothy 1:15). How then can the chief of sinners pass judgment on another? What he
must rather do is feel totally humbled and then use his experience of being such a sinner
to help the other with no sense of superiority at all.
This general principle will now be APPLIED by Jesus to dealings among themselves. It is
to be noted that it is not a reasonable, rightly-motivated and humble ‘judgment’ that is
frowned on, but a censorious, hypocritical and unloving one. The right kind of judgment,
or to put it more accurately, the right kind of helpful and loving assessment of another’s
need for ASSISTANCE (see 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 in ORDER to consider what our attitude
and thoughts should be in the matter), is to be encouraged, but Jesus stresses that it is
only to be after the one who seeks to offer that assistance has first indulged in a rigid
self-examination of himself before God. For those who would offer assistance must first
examine their own lives so as to ensure that any sins within them have been forgiven and
cleansed, that anything that prevents them from seeing things in God’s light, and in the
way that God wants them to look at them, have been removed from their eyes, and that
their hearts are right towards all men. Jesus is saying that if we have not wept over our
own sins before God we are in no state to help another.
Then they must examine what their own motives genuinely are. For as sinners
themselves they are in no POSITION to ‘pass judgment’. Rather they must ensure that
their approach to another is in compassion and humility, in full recognition of their own
shortcomings, ‘considering themselves lest they also be tempted’ (Galatians 6:1). They
must see that they are coming as sinners to fellow-sinners, as those who fail often to one
who has failed but once, not as judges to a miscreant, but as loving friends, who
themselves have often fallen, to one who has slipped and fallen. And only then are they
in a position to approach a ‘brother’ or ‘sister’ in order to offer assistance.
2 For in the same way you judge others, you will
be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be

measured to you.
BAR ES, "With what judgment ... - This was a proverb among the Jews. It
expressed a truth; and Christ did not hesitate to adopt it as conveying his own
sentiments. It refers no less to the way in which people will judge of us, than to the rule
by which God will judge us. See 2Sa_22:27; Mar_4:24; Jam_2:13.
Mete - Measure. You shall be judged by the same rule which you apply to others.
CLARKE, "For with what judgment - He who is severe on others will naturally
excite their severity against himself. The censures and calumnies which we have suffered
are probably the just reward of those which we have dealt out to others.
GILL, "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged,.... Both by God
and men; to which agree those proverbial sentences used by the Jews;
"He that judgeth his neighbour according to the balance of righteousness, or innocence,
they judge him according to righteousness.''
(w) And a little after,
"As ye have judged me according to the balance of righteousness, God will judge you
according to the balance of righteousness.''
Hence that advice of Joshua ben Perachiah (x), who, by the Jewish writers, is said to be
the master of Christ;
"Judge every man according to the balance of righteousness.''
Which their commentators explain thus (y); when you see a man as it were in
"equilibrio", inclining to neither part, it is not clear from what he does, that he is either
good or evil, righteous or unrighteous; yet when you see him do a thing which may be
interpreted either to a good or a bad sense, it ought always to be interpreted to the best.
And with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. This was
an usual proverb among the Jews; it is sometimes delivered out thus, ‫מדה‬ ‫כנגד‬ ‫,מדה‬
"measure against measure" (z); but oftener thus, and nearer the form of it here, ‫במדה‬
‫לו‬ ‫מודדין‬ ‫בה‬ ‫מודד‬ ‫,שאדם‬ "with what measure a man measures, they measure to him": one
might fill up almost a page, in referring to places, where it is used in this form: besides
those in the (a) margin, take the following, and the rather, because it gives instances of
this retaliation (b):
""With what measure a man measures, they measure to him"; so the woman suspected
of adultery, she adorned herself to commit sin, and God dishonoured her; she exposed
herself to iniquity, God therefore stripped her naked; the same part of her body in which

her sin begun, her punishment did. Samson walked after his eyes, and therefore the
Philistines plucked out his eyes. Absalom was lifted up in his mind, with his hair, and
therefore he was hanged by it; and because he lay with his father's ten concubines, they
therefore pierced him with ten lances; and because he stole away three hearts, the heart
of his father, the heart of the sanhedrim, and the heart of Israel, therefore he was thrust
with three darts: and so it is with respect to good things; Miriam waited for Moses one
hour, therefore the Israelites waited for her seven days in the wilderness; Joseph, who
was greater than his brethren, buried his father; and Moses, who was the greatest among
the Israelites took care of the bones of Joseph, and God himself buried Moses.''
HE RY, "The judging of those that judge others is according to the law of
retaliation; With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, Mat_7:2. The righteous
God, in his judgments, often observes a rule of proportion, as in the case of Adonibezek,
Jdg_1:7. See also Rev_13:10; Rev_18:6. Thus will he be both justified and magnified in
his judgments, and all flesh will be silenced before him. With what measure ye mete, it
shall be measured to you again; perhaps in this world, so that men may read their sin in
their punishment. Let this deter us from all severity in dealing with our brother. What
shall we do when God rises up? Job_31:14. What would become of us, if God should be
as exact and severe in judging us, as we are in judging our brethren; if he should weigh
us in the same balance? We may justly expect it, if we be extreme to mark what our
brethren do amiss. In this, as in other things, the violent dealings of men return upon
their own heads.
II. Some cautions about reproving. Because we must not judge others, which is a great
sin, it does not therefore follow that we must not reprove others, which is a great duty,
and may be a means of saving a soul from death; however, it will be a means of saving
our souls from sharing in their guilt. Now observe here,
JAMISO , "For with what judgments ye judge, ye shall be judged: and
with what measure ye mete — whatever standard of judgment ye apply to others.
it shall be measured to you again — This proverbial maxim is used by our Lord in
other connections - as in Mar_4:24, and with a slightly different application in Luk_
6:38 - as a great principle in the divine administration. Unkind judgment of others will
be judicially returned upon ourselves, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men
by Jesus Christ. But, as in many other cases under the divine administration, such harsh
judgment gets self-punished even here. For people shrink from contact with those who
systematically deal out harsh judgment upon others - naturally concluding that they
themselves may be the next victims - and feel impelled in self-defense, when exposed to
it, to roll back upon the assailant his own censures.
SBC, "The New Testament is full of a natural and necessary reciprocity between man
and the things by which he is surrounded. Every gift has its return, every act has its
consequence, every call has its answer in this great, live, alert world, where man stands
central, and all things have their eyes on him, and their ears open to his voice.
I. Even with man’s relations to the material earth this law is true. "They treated nature as
they would." So all men—all races—treat nature according to their wills, whether their
wills be the deep utterance of their characters, or only the light and fickle impulses of
self-indulgence. And what they are to nature, nature is to them—to one man the siren,
who fascinates him to drunkenness and death; to another the wise friend, who teaches

him all lessons of self-restraint and sobriety, and patient hope and work.
II. But after all, our relations to the world of nature are little more than illustrations of
our relations to the world of men. Let us see how true the law which we are looking at is
there. I think there grows in us a strong conviction with our growing years that for a man
to get bad out of the world of fellowmen is not necessarily a disgrace to the world of
fellowmen, but is certainly a disgrace to him. There are men in the world today who are
being made worse by living with the best and purest. Souls are darker for the sunshine,
souls are colder for the warmth, with which they live in daily company. And why?
Because heaven does not make holiness, but holiness makes heaven; because if you do
not give yourself in sympathy to goodness, goodness cannot give itself in influence to
you; because with what measure ye mete it shall be measured unto you. Each man gets
out of the world of men the rebound, the increase and development of what he brings
there.
III. And now in that great giving in, that supreme self-consecration, does our law still
hold? Indeed it does. Nowhere does it so completely hold. For there are different
measures in which men give themselves to Christ, and Christ despises none of them, but
in different measures He again is compelled to give Himself back to them. With what
measure each gives himself to the Saviour, the Saviour gives Himself in His salvation
back to each. As when in some foreign land, in some strange shrine of Romish or Pagan
worship, all glorious with art, all blazing with the light of precious stones, there bend
around the altar the true devotees who believe with all their souls; while at the door,
with heads uncovered and with faces solemnized by the presence of a ceremony in which
they do not believe and in which they take no part, lingers a group of travellers full of joy
at the wondrous beauty of the place; and as when the music ceases and the lights go out
they go away, each carrying what it was in him to receive—the devotee his spiritual
peace, the artistic tourist his spiritual joy; so men bestow themselves on Christ, and by
the selves that they bestow on Him the giving of Himself to them must of necessity be
measured.
Phillips Brooks, Sermons in English Churches, p. 265.
COFFMA , "The thought of these parallel expressions is identical, the repetition
being for the sake of emphasis. A censorious, presumptuous preoccupation with
other people's destiny encourages a reciprocal judgment from them, resulting in all
kinds of bitterness, recriminations, and vindictive hatreds.
PETT, "Verses 1-6
How They Are To Judge Among Themselves and View Outsiders (7:1-6).
Jesus now comes to the question of judgment made about others, and especially how
it should be conducted under the Kingly Rule of Heaven. The question of judgment
among God’s people was always a central issue when new beginnings were in mind.
It would therefore have been surprising if it was OT FOU D somewhere in this
Sermon. The giving of God’s Law at Sinai and the establishing of His overlordship
was preceded by the setting up of a system of justice under the guidance of Jethro
(Exodus 18:13-26; Deuteronomy 1:12-18). And later God made further provision
( umbers 11:16-17). Furthermore God also gave additional guidance concerning

judgment in Deuteronomy 16:18-20 when they were on the verge of E TERI G the
land in order to establish the Kingly Rule of God (1 Samuel 8:7). In the establishing
of the Kingly Rule of God the approach to judgment within the congregation of
Israel was obviously crucial, especially in view of the standards that has been laid
down. They left OPE the possibility of arrogance and strict condemnation by the
censorious.
Here then He introduces the principles that are to underlie judgment between His
disciples under the new Kingly Rule of God, and also a final warning on how they
are to approach the outside world on such matters (Matthew 7:6). Thus while they
are to go to a great deal of trouble to help each other in a spirit of love, so as to
remove ‘splinters’ from each others’ eyes, splinters which might prevent the light
shining through (Matthew 6:22-23), they must only do so after the greatest soul-
searching and putting right of all that is wrong in their own lives first, while when it
comes to approaching outsiders they are to demonstrate much more tact lest all that
they do is provoke a violent reaction. We need not doubt that He later expanded on
all this in more detail. (See also John 7:24)
He will, for example, give further guidance on this important question of judgment
in the congregation of the righteous in Matthew 16:19 and Matthew 18:15-20, where
He will be laying down the principles on which the new ‘congregation’ which He is
forming is to be established. We must also compare here Luke 6:37-42, where
similar material to that found here can be discovered, but there it is in a different
context and clearly from a different source of tradition, as the differences between
the two ACCOU TS make clear. This should not surprise us. The importance of the
subject would necessitate the continual repetition of these principles by Jesus as He
moved from place to place. ote also 1 Corinthians 5:1-5 where Paul lays down how
the Corinthians are to go about judging a miscreant, and see 2 Thessalonians 3:6.
Paul’s idas would be based on the tradition of Jesus.
The major concern in ‘judgment’ among the brethren is to be on not being
judgmental, while at the same time being concerned enough to want to help one
another, but this only once they have searchingly examined themselves in order to
deal with the failures in their own lives. This would APPLY both in official
judgments by their leaders once He was no longer with them, and in private
judgments among themselves. ote Jesus’ certainty that each one who is involved
will have a plank in their eye which must first be dealt with. He knew them for what
they were (just as He knows us for what we are). evertheless having assiduously
removed that plank they were then to be concerned enough about their brother or
sister to go about the task of removing the splinter from their eye. They were not
just to pass by their need. Having first ensured their own fitness for the task by
acknowledging and removing the planks in their own eyes, they were to seek to bear
one another’s burdens, approaching each other in a spirit of meekness with no sense
of superiority, and recognising that one day all would have to bear their own ‘great
burdens’ (Galatians 6:1-5).
But a caveat had to be entered, because such teaching could be dangerous if they

applied it to outsiders. Thus Jesus pauses for a moment to take that matter into
ACCOU T. When dealing with ‘outsiders’ (those who are not yet believers - see
Mark 4:11; 1 Corinthians 5:12; Colossians 4:5; 1 Thessalonians 4:12; 1 Timothy
3:7) they must deal with such matters with the greatest delicacy. They must
remember that outsiders have different standards and see things very differently.
What to God’s people is holy and precious, and will be welcomed, is often
immaterial to outsiders and may even be provocative. They must recognise that they
cannot therefore approach them in the same way or judge them on the same basis as
those on the ‘inside’ (compare 1 Corinthians 5:12-13), for those who are fellow-
disciples have different aims and a different spiritual outlook, and a different
spiritual willingness to face up to sin, as compared with those who are outside. The
‘insiders’ are fellow-workers (or sheep), but the outsiders are ‘dogs’ and ‘swine.
These latter terms are not intended to be directly insulting, but are vivid pictures
indicating the nature of the outsiders. Dogs ran rampant and were not controllable.
They scavenged in the streets or round the city walls and often went around in
packs, seemingly uncontrolled. They were thus used by Jews as an illustration of the
fact that Gentiles lived without the controlling influence of the Law of God. They
were like the ‘dogs’ who hung around the outside of cities without being under the
control of those who were within. Furthermore to Jews ‘swine’ were ‘unclean’
animals. They were to be avoided by all good Jews. They were thus a suitable
illustration of those who were not acceptable within the congregation because they
were ‘unclean’. This could include Jews who were not what they should be, that is,
in this case, Jews who have specifically turned away from the message of Jesus so
that they had to be treated like Gentiles by having the dust of the feet shaken off
against them (Matthew 10:14) demonstrating that they were ‘unclean’. Such people
had to be dealt with on a totally different basis from fellow-disciples, otherwise they
would simply retaliate, or trample underfoot precious things because they did not
recognise their worth (e.g. Acts 13:45; Acts 18:6). For what was respected and ‘holy’
and revered among the brethren could be sen by outsiders as infernal insolence,
blasphemy, or total foolishness, and could result in quick retaliation (Matthew 7:6).
This passage reveals many marks of connection with what has gone before. The lack
of a CO ECTI G word has occurred previously in Matthew 6:19; Matthew 6:24
in ORDER to indicate a change of subject. The idea of God’s being responsive to
their actions is found in Matthew 5:7; Matthew 5:9; Matthew 5:19; Matthew 5:21-
22; Matthew 5:29-30; Matthew 6:12; Matthew 6:14-15. Compare also in this regard
the promises of REWARDS. The move from plural to singular has been previously
noted (Matthew 6:1-6; Matthew 6:16-23) and occurs again here. The idea of
impaired sight is found also in Matthew 6:22-23. The description ‘brother’ is found
also Matthew 5:22; Matthew 5:47. The word ‘hypocrite’ is found in Matthew 6:2;
Matthew 5:16. And the whole subject matter from Matthew 7:1-5 would be very
necessary in view of the heavy demands that He has made on His disciples.
For the danger of aiming at high standards is that it can easily result in false pride,
arrogance, and a sense of superiority, which could become like a plank in their eye,
especially once some began to consider that they were doing better than others, and
the need for all to help each other would also be very necessary in view of the

steepness of the requirements. But the two could be incompatible. It was common
sense therefore that Jesus should want to encourage His community towards
humility, generosity of spirit, so that they could then render communal
ASSISTA CE towards each other, while remembering at the same time that the
outside world would see things very differently. ot to have dealt with this subject
would therefore have been a glaring omission.
Analysis.
a AB Do not judge, so that you are not judged, for with what judgment you judge,
you will be judged, and with what measure you measure, it will be measured to you
(Matthew 7:1-2).
b C Why do you behold the splinter that is in your brother’s eye, but do not
consider the plank that is in your own eye? (Matthew 7:3).
c C How will you say to your brother, Let me cast out the splinter from your eye,
and lo, the plank is in your own eye? (Matthew 7:4).
b E You hypocrite, cast out first the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see
clearly to cast out the splinter from your brother’s eye (Matthew 7:5).
a Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor cast your pearls before the swine, lest the
result is that they trample them under their feet, and turn and rend you (Matthew
7:6).
ote that in ‘a’ those who foolishly make unwise judgments about others will find
that those judgments turn on them and rend them, for they themselves will be
judged in the same spirit with which they judge, and in the parallel those who
foolishly make unwise judgments in DEALI G with spiritual matters with outsiders
will discover the same. In ‘b’ and parallel we see clearly reversed situations, the one
putting right the other. Centrally in ‘c’ they are to make wise judgments about their
own position so that they will be able to help others sensibly
3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in
YOUR brother’s eye and pay no attention to the
plank in your own eye?
BAR ES, "And why beholdest thou the mote ... - A mote signifies any “light
substance,” as dry chaff, or fine spires of grass or grain. It probably most usually
signified the small “spiculae” or “beards” on a head of barley or wheat. It is thus placed
in opposition to the word “beam.”
Beam - The word used here signifies a large piece of squared timber. The one is an
exceedingly small object, the other a large one. The meaning is, that “we are much more

quick and acute to judge of small offences in others, than of much larger offences in
ourselves.” Even a very “small” object in the eye of another we discern much more
quickly than a much larger one in our own; a small fault in our neighbor we see much
more readily than a large one in ourselves. This was also a proverb in frequent use
among the Jews, and the same sentiment was common among the Greeks, and deserves
to be expressed in every language.
CLARKE, "And why beholdest thou the mote - Καρφος might be translated the
splinter: for splinter bears some analogy to beam, but mote does not. I should prefer this
word (which has been adopted by some learned men) on the authority of Hesychius,
who is a host in such matters; Καρφος, κεραια ξυλου λεπτη, Karphos is a thin piece of
wood, a splinter. It often happens that the faults which we consider as of the first
enormity in others are, to our own iniquities, as a chip is, when compared to a large
beam. On one side, self-love blinds us to ourselves; and, on the other, envy and malice
give us piercing eyes in respect of others. When we shall have as much zeal to correct
ourselves, as we have inclination to reprove and correct others, we shall know our own
defects better than now we know those of our neighbor. There is a caution very similar to
this of our Lord given by a heathen: -
Cum tua praevideas oculis mala lippus inunctis:
Cur in amicorum vitiis tam cernis acutum,
Quam aut aquila, aut serpens Epidaurius?
Hor. Sat. lib. 1. sat. 3. l. 25-27
“When you can so readily overlook your own wickedness, why are you
more clear-sighted than the eagle or serpent of Epidaurus, in spying out
the failings of your friends?”
But the saying was very common among the Jews, as may be seen in Lightfoot.
GILL, "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye?.... By
"mote" is meant, any little bit of straw, or small splinter of wood, that flies into the eye,
and does it damage, hinders its sight, and gives it pain; and designs little sins,
comparatively speaking, such as youthful follies, human frailties, and infirmities,
inadvertencies and imprudencies; which may be said to be light faults, in comparison of
others: and though not to be vindicated, nor continued in, yet not to be severely looked
upon and chastised. To scrutinize diligently into, aggravate, dwell upon, and sharply
reprove the lighter faults of others, is a conduct, which is here inveighed against, and
condemned by Christ; and more especially, when it may be said with the greatest truth
and justice to such,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye: by the "beam" is meant,
greater sins, grosser abominations, and such as were more peculiar to the Pharisees; as
pride, arrogance, a vain opinion of themselves, confidence in their own righteousness,
hypocrisy, covetousness, and iniquity; things they did not advert to in themselves, when
they loudly exclaimed against lesser evils in others. Such men must be of all persons
inexcusable, who condemn that in others, which either they themselves do, or what is

abundantly worse.
HE RY, "II. Some cautions about reproving. Because we must not judge others,
which is a great sin, it does not therefore follow that we must not reprove others, which
is a great duty, and may be a means of saving a soul from death; however, it will be a
means of saving our souls from sharing in their guilt. Now observe here,
1. It is not every one who is fit to reprove. Those who are themselves guilty of the same
faults of which they accuse others, or of worse, bring shame upon themselves, and are
not likely to do good to those whom they reprove, Mat_7:3-5. Here is,
(1.) A just reproof to the censorious, who quarrel with their brother for small faults,
while they allow themselves in great ones; who are quick-sighted to spy a mote in his
eye, but are not sensible of a beam in their own; nay, and will be very officious to pull
out the mote out of his eye, when they are as unfit to do it as if they were themselves
quite blind. Note, [1.] There are degrees in sin: some sins are comparatively but as
motes, others as beams; some as a gnat, others as a camel: not that there is any sin
little, for there is no little God to sin against; if it be a mote (or splinter, for so it might
better be read), it is in the eye; if a gnat, it is in the throat; both painful and perilous, and
we cannot be easy or well till they are got out. [2.] Our own sins ought to appear greater
to us than the same sins in others: that which charity teaches us to call but a splinter in
our brother's eye, true repentance and godly sorrow will teach us to call a beam in our
own; for the sins of others must be extenuated, but our own aggravated. [3.] There are
many that have beams in their own eyes, and yet do not consider it. They are under the
guilt and dominion of very great sins, and yet are not aware of it, but justify themselves,
as if they needed no repentance nor reformation; it is as strange that a man can be in
such a sinful, miserable condition, and not be aware of it, as that a man should have a
beam in him eye, and not consider it; but the god of this world so artfully blinds their
minds, that notwithstanding, with great assurance, they say, We see. [4.] It is common
for those who are most sinful themselves, and least sensible of it, to be most forward and
free in judging and censuring others: the Pharisees, who were most haughty in justifying
themselves, were most scornful in condemning others. They were severe upon Christ's
disciples for eating with unwashen hands, which was scarcely a mote, while they
encouraged men in a contempt of their parents, which was a beam. Pride and
uncharitableness are commonly beams in the eyes of those that pretend to be critical
and nice in their censures of others. Nay, many are guilty of that secret, which they have
the face to punish in others when it is discovered. Cogita tecum, fortasse vitium de quo
quereris, si te diligenter excusseris, in sinu invenies; inique publico irasceris crimini tuo
- Reflect that perhaps the fault of which you complain, might, on a strict examination,
be discovered in yourself; and that it would be unjust publicly to express indignation
against your own crime. Seneca, de Beneficiis. But, [5.] Men's being so severe upon the
faults of others, while they are indulgent of their own, is a mark of hypocrisy. Thou
hypocrite, Mat_7:5. Whatever such a one may pretend, it is certain that he is no enemy
to sin (if he were, he would be an enemy to his own sin), and therefore he is not worthy
of praise; nay, it appears that he is an enemy to his brother, and therefore worthy of
blame. This spiritual charity must begin at home; “For how canst thou say, how canst
thou for shame say, to thy brother, Let me help to reform thee, when thou takest no care
to reform thyself? Thy own heart will upbraid thee with the absurdity of it; thou wilt do
it with an ill grace, and thou wilt expect every one to tell thee, that vice corrects sin:
physician, heal thyself;” I prae, sequar - Go you before, I will follow. See Rom_2:21.
[6.] The consideration of what is amiss in ourselves, though it ought not to keep us from
administering friendly reproof, ought to keep us from magisterial censuring, and to

make us very candid and charitable in judging others. “Therefore restore with the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself (Gal_6:1); what thou has been, what thou art, and what
thou wouldst be, if God should leave thee to thyself.”
JAMISO , "And why beholdest thou the mote — “splinter,” here very well
rendered “mote,” denoting any small fault.
that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine
own eye? — denoting the much greater fault which we overlook in ourselves.
CALVI , "Matthew 7:3.And why seest thou the straw? He expressly touches upon
a fault, which is usually found in hypocrites. While they are too quick-sighted in
discerning the faults of others, and employ not only severe, but intentionally
exaggerated, language in describing them, they throw their own sins behind their
back, or are so ingenious in finding apologies for them, that they wish to be held
excusable even in very gross offenses. Christ therefore reproves both evils: the
excessive sagacity, which arises from a defect of charity, when we sift too closely the
faults of brethren, and the indulgence by which we defend and cherish our own sins.
COKE, "Matthew 7:3. And why beholdest thou— Τι βλεπεις . "Why dost thou
observe, or take notice of?" For the original word βλεπεις here signifies not only to
be acquainted with other people's faults, but to pry into them, with a design to
censure and reprove them. Eye here, as in ch. Matthew 5:29 and Matthew 6:22
signifies the intention, which is the usual subject of rash censures; because actions
are self-evident, and not so liable to misconstruction, as the intention wherewith
they are performed. This latter is not apparent, and therefore leaves ROOM for that
rash judgment which our Lord had just before prohibited. The word which we
render mote signifies a splinter or shiver of wood; in Latin festuca, whence the
English fescue (see Johnson's Dictionary). This, and the beam as its opposite, were
proverbially used by the Jews to denote small infirmities and gross faults; each of
which proportionably obstruct the moral discernment. See Stockius on the word
δοκος, Heylin, and Horace, Sat, 3: lib. 1: Matthew 7:26.
COFFMA , "One who judges others is compared to a person presuming to cast a
splinter out of his brother's eye while a plank is in his own eye! This is a vivid
picture of a person who ignores his own grievous sins while trying to CORRECT the
relatively minor shortcomings of another. The mote and the beam represent the
disparity between that which is tiny, insignificant, almost invisible, and that which is
obvious, flagrant, and obtrusive. The mote hunter is the nitpicker, the specialist in
fine, disputed points, who focuses on the most minute deviations while ignoring far
more basic and important considerations.
BE SO , "Verses 3-5
Matthew 7:3-5. And why beholdest thou the mote, &c. — In particular, why do you
OPE YOUR eyes to any fault of your brother, while you yourself are guilty of a
much greater? — The word καρφος, here rendered mote, according to Hesychius,
may signify a little splinter of wood. This, and the beam, its opposite, were
proverbially used by the Jews to denote, the one, small infirmities, the other, gross,

palpable faults. And how wilt thou say, &c. — With what face can you undertake to
reprove others for smaller faults, while you are guilty of much greater yourself, and
are neither sensible of them, nor have the integrity to amend them? Thou hypocrite,
first cast out the beam, &c. — It is mere hypocrisy to pretend zeal for the
amendment of others, while we have none for our own. CORRECT, therefore, the
ERRORS of thy judgment, and the enormities of thy life. And then — When that
which obstructed thy sight is removed, thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out
of thy brother’s eye — And mayest attempt it with more decency, and a greater
probability of success. We may lay it down as a fixed and certain truth that the
more we advance in genuine piety and virtue ourselves, we shall be the better able to
form a correct judgment of the conduct of others, and the better qualified, both in
point of skill and authority, to reprove and reform any thing that we may see amiss
in their dispositions or behaviour. Our judgment of their character and actions will
be the more charitable, and for that reason so much the more just: our rebukes will
be the more mild, prudent, and winning; and our authority to press a reformation
upon them so much the more weighty. “How happy would the world be, if all who
teach the Christian religion would conscientiously observe the precept given them
here by their Master.”
PETT, "Jesus had a full understanding of the weaknesses of men. Elsewhere He
says quite blatantly to His disciples, “If you then, being evil ---” (Matthew 7:11;
Luke 11:13). There He assumes evil, even in His own disciples, for He knew to its
full depths the heart of man. Here therefore He makes clear that He is well aware
that even good Christian men walk around with planks, or more accurately ‘large
beams’, such as hold up the roof of a building, in their eyes. In other words that they
are regularly guilty of wrong behaviour and attitudes, and of seeing things wrongly,
and especially in cases such as these of judging from prejudice or some other false
motive, and doing so hypocritically. It is a sad truth that there is often nothing more
plain to us than the faults of others, especially if we do not like them or they are
rivals, while remarkably we find our own many faults very difficult to spot, because
our eye is not ‘single’. We see the sins of others as being as dark as can be. But we
think on the other hand, that our own failures are mere peccadilloes, and fully
understandable. We ‘condone the sins we are inclined to, by damning those we have
no mind to’. Ours we see as only the slightest of sins, almost no sins at all (even
though they crucified Christ), while we often see the sins of others as being of
deepest dye . Jesus’ point, however, is that until things are the other way round and
we recognise the grossness of our own sins, and that the sin of our brother or sister
is therefore the one that is the more understandable, we are in no fit state to help
them. And the reason that we do not see it like that is because of the plank that is in
our eye which prevents us from seeing properly. Spiritually we have defective
vision. Our eye is failing to be the lamp of our body (Matthew 6:22). Thus our first
move must be to get rid of that plank.
BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATOR, "The mote that is in thy brother’s eye.
Three lessons stand out conspicuously in the text.

1. Close inspection of ourselves, lest any evil lurk there unobserved which we abhor
in others; lest we be like the farmer whose field is overrun with weeds, who delights
in pointing out the defective condition of a neighbour’s farm.
2. Avoidance of passing rash judgments on others.
3. Readiness to assist others in overcoming their faults. (Baring Gould, M. A.)
The beam and the mote
I. That sin may exist in man to an enormous extent, and yet he be unconscious of it-“the
beam.” Several things tend to produce this unconsciousness.
1. Habit.
2. Association.
3. Satanic agency.
II. That however unconscious of our own sins, we may be alive to the sins of others.
1. Sin does not destroy the faculty for discerning moral distinctions.
2. The importance of Christians being circumspect in their conduct.
III. That self-improvement is a necessity qualification for the improvement of others.
(Dr. David Thomas.)
Self-knowledge needful in a minister
At Wragby, in Yorkshire, in the vestry of the church is a very curious old painted
window, representing in coloured glass the subject of my text; a man with a huge piece of
wood before his eyes is trying diligently to extract a mere speck from the eye of another
man. And this picture is most appropriately placed in the vestry, as it reminds the priest,
whose ministry it is to declare to the people their faults and sins, that he should closely
examine himself, lest, after he has preached to others, he himself should be a cast-away.
(Baring Gould, M. A.)
Social intercourse should be free from scandal
I have got a piece of plate, probably two hundred years old, for the table at meal time. On
the silver is embossed a representation of the mote and the beam; a man with a spiked
log sticking into his eye is trying hard to pick a tiny grain out of the eye of another.
Perhaps you may think it most inappropriate to have such a group and subject on a piece
of plate before one’s eyes commonly. But I do not think so. It is when families meet, or
guests assemble round the board, that the characters of neighbours are most freely
talked over. (Baring Gould, M. A.)
A knowledge of self gives skill in dealing with others
It is only when we have wrestled with and overcome our own besetting sins, that we have
the insight and tact to direct others how to overcome theirs. Massillon, the great French

preacher, was once asked where he obtained his profound knowledge of the world and of
the human passions, and his skill in solving religious difficulties. “From my own heart,”
he replied. In his endeavours after personal holiness he had met and vanquished, one by
one, those bosom sins which trouble men. Their false excuses, their specious pretences,
their conflicts with temptation, their weak submission to vices which they have vowed to
forsake, their remorse, their fears-he knew them all from experience, and he described
them as one who knew. Hence the convicting pungency of his preaching, by which the
careless courtiers of Versailles were impressed, and to which Louis XIV. himself bore
witness. At the close of a sermon the king said to him, “I have heard several great
orators, and been very much pleased with them; but every time I have heard you I have
been very much displeased with myself.” The ability to minister to others is acquired
through faithful self-treatment.
Consistency required in the reprover
Before thou reprehend another, take heed that thou art not culpable in what thou goest
about to reprehend. He that cleanses a blot with blurred fingers will make a greater blot.
E yen the candle-snuffers of the sanctuary were of pure gold. (Quarles.)
Nowadays men take upon themselves to reprove others for committing such things as
themselves do practise without amendment. Therefore these are like some tailors, who
are busy in decking and tricking up others, but go both bare and beggarly themselves.
(Henry Smith.)
If my carriage be unblamable, my counsel and reproof will be the more acceptable.
Wholesome meat often is distasteful, coming out of nasty hands. A bad liver cannot be a
good counsellor or bold reprover; such a man must speak softly for fear of awaking his
own guilty conscience. If the bell be cracked, the sound must needs be jarring.
(Swinnock.)
The vicious reproving vice, is the raven chiding blackness. (Eliza Cook.)
It is easier to judge others than to improve ourselves
Easy and ordinary is it for men to be others’ physicians, rather than their own. They can
weed others’ gardens, whiles their own is overrun with nettles. But charity begins at
home; and he that loves not his own soul, I will hardly trust him with mine. The usurer
blames his son’s pride, sees not his own extortion; and whiles the hypocrite is helping
the dissolute out of the mire, he sticks in deeper himself. No marvel if, when we fix both
our eyes on others’ wants, we lack a third to see our own. If two blind men rush one
upon another in the way, either complains of other’s blindness, neither of his own. Thus,
like mannerly guests, when a good morsel is carved us, we lay it liberally on another’s
trencher, and fast ourselves. How much better were it for us to feed on our own portion!
(Adams.)

4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take
the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there
is a plank in your own eye?
CLARKE, "Or how wilt thou say - That man is utterly unfit to show the way of life
to others who is himself walking in the way of death.
GILL, "Or how wilt thou say to thy brother?.... 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.
JAMISO , "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?
COKE, "Matthew 7:4. Let me pull out the mote, &c.— Hold still, and I will take the
mote out of thine eye. This seems to be the exact meaning of the words Αφες εκβαλω
in the original, which, TRA SLATEDthus literally, elegantly intimates, how ready
men are to shrink from reproof. The simile here used implies, that it is as absurd for
a bad man to set up for a reprover of others, as it would be for one who is almost
BLI D himself to pretend to perform operations on other men's eyes. How wilt thou
say, means, "How wilt thou have the confidence to say?" See Doddridge, and

Beausobre and Lenfant.
COFFMA , "The deftness and accuracy of our Lord's comparisons have never
been even approached by other TEACHERS. A mote, although trifling and
insignificant, can nevertheless be a serious and painful handicap when located in the
eye. Thus, Jesus cannot be charged with making even the slightest sin or fault a
matter of indifference. That is not the point under consideration. What he is
emphasizing here is the evil inconsistency of Big Guilt correcting Little Guilt. It may
be doubted that Christ ever employed humor in his teachings, but there is certainly
a suggestion of it here. The ridiculous picture of a man with a plank in his own eye
casting a splinter out of his neighbor's eye must have brought a chuckle from those
who heard the Master's words.
PETT, "So He asks them to consider the folly of the person who with a great plank
sticking out of his eye goes up to his brother and offers to remove the splinter from
his eye. The picture is intended to be ludicrous. The plank will make the one he
approaches stare at him in bemusement. For not only will the plank make the
person unable to do the job, but it will hardly encourage confidence in the patient. If
such a person cannot remove the plank from his eye, how on earth can he hope to
remove a mere splinter? The person is thus rendered unsuitable on all counts. But
Jesus is saying that that is really no more ludicrous than one man criticising another
harshly. For the truth is that we need to recognise that we are all sinners together,
and must therefore be mutually supportive and helpful, and if we cannot cope with
dealing with our own sins how can we possibly ASSIST another with regard to their
sins?
The plank represents all the sins that prevent men from seeing clearly in spiritual
matters, (which in the end means all sin, but here more specifically hypocrisy and
censoriousness), because they have as a result ceased to see SI GLY (Matthew
6:22), and are spiritually squinting. Thus the point is that if we are to help another
our own lives must be attuned. The gifted musician who has been lazy, and has not
practised sufficiently, may sound well and good to the layman, but to other gifted
musicians, (and, if he will face up to it, also to himself), his failure will be obvious.
He will not be perfectly attuned. So is it too in our spiritual lives. If we fail to pray
regularly and to study God’s word, and to walk rightly with Him in all things,
walking in His light and ‘keeping short ACCOU TS with God’ (1 John 1:7), it may
not be immediately obvious to others, but it is something of which God and the
angels will be keenly aware, and it will eventually become obvious to all men. And it
renders us spiritually useless.
This is a POSITIO that we all find ourselves in time and again in our spiritual
lives, and until it is put right we are in no position even to ‘judge’ others helpfully.
For censoriousness and a sense of superiority and condemnation renders us
immediately disqualified. There is no greater sin than harsh judgment of others,
when we ourselves are forgiven sinners. To judge harshly is the greatest evidence of
our own lack of fitness to help others. It is demonstrating our failure to recognise

how deeply we have been forgiven (compare Matthew 6:14-15; Matthew 18:23-35).
Rather the one who would help another must do so humbly, conscious of the depths
of their own failure, and therefore esteeming the other better than themselves
(Philippians 2:3). (They must remember that they have just got rid of a plank from
their own eye, while their brother only has a splinter). Then only will they be in a
position to help the other. For our approach in such cases must always be in
SYMPATHY and love and understanding, not with a view to passing the judgment
that only God can dare to pass.
Thus Jesus’ point is that until the person in question has had the plank removed
from their own eye, by true repentance of all wrongdoing and of all failures to do
the right, and by humbling themselves before God, and coming back to full
fellowship with Him in the light (1 John 1:7), and are thus walking in humility and
love (1 Corinthians 13:4-8) and having been reconciled to all who have anything
against them (Matthew 5:23), they are in no POSITIO to remove splinters from
anyone’s eyes. To seek so to help others is to be seen as no light matter, and requires
a true heart and great delicacy, something only possible to the one who is right with
God on all matters, and goes about the matter fully conscious of his own sinfulness
and unworthiness. For any other approach is but to bring condemnation on
ourselves (Matthew 7:1-2).
Strictly the illustrations are of the beams that hold up the roofs of houses, a
compared with a splinter of wood or a speck of sawdust. In those days those were
familiar to all because of the ways in which their houses were CO STRUCTED. We
have used here the ideas of planks because for many of us these are more familiar
than beams. (In the same way as the prophets spoke of heavenly things using earthly
pictures which would be familiar. Communication must always be through what is
understandable at the time).
5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your
own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove
the speck from your brother’s eye.
BAR ES, "Thou hypocrite, first cast out ... - Christ directs us to the proper way
of forming an opinion of ethers, and of reproving and correcting them. By first amending
our own faults, or casting the beam out of our eye, we can “consistently” advance to
correct the faults of others. There will then be no hypocrisy in our conduct. We shall also
“see clearly” to do it. The beam, the thing that obscured our sight, will be removed, and
we shall more clearly discern the “small” object that obscures the sight of our brother.
The sentiment is, that the readiest way to judge of the imperfections of others is to be
free from greater ones ourselves. This qualifies us for judging, makes us candid and

consistent, and enables us to see things as they are, and to make proper allowances for
frailty and imperfection.
CLARKE, "Thou hypocrite - A hypocrite, who professes to be what he is not, (viz.
a true Christian), is obliged, for the support of the character he has assumed, to imitate
all the dispositions and actions of a Christian; consequently he must reprove sin, and
endeavor to show an uncommon affection for the glory of God. Our Lord unmasks this
vile pretender to saintship, and shows him that his hidden hypocrisy, covered with the
garb of external sanctity, is more abominable in the sight of God than the openly
professed and practised iniquity of the profligate.
In after times, the Jews made a very bad use of this saying: “I wonder,” said Rabbi
Zarphon, “whether there be any in this age that will suffer reproof? If one say to another,
Cast out the mote out of thine eye, he is immediately ready to answer, Cast out the beam
that is in thine own eye.”
This proverbial mode of speech the Gloss interprets thus: “Cast out? ‫קסים‬ kisim, the
mote, that is, the little sin, that is in thy hand: to which he answered, Cast out the great
sin that is in thine. So they could not reprove, because all were sinners.” See Lightfoot.
GILL, "Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye,.... Very
rightly does our Lord call such a man an hypocrite, who is very free in remarking and
reproving other men's sins, and covering his own; and indeed, one end of his critical
observations, rigid censures, and rash judgments is, that he might be thought to be
holier than he is. Christ very manifestly points at the Scribes and Pharisees, who were
men of such a complexion; and whom he often, without any breach of charity, calls
hypocrites. The meaning of this proverbial expression is, that a man should first begin
with himself, take notice of his own sins, reprove himself for them, and reform; and then
it will be soon enough to observe other men's.
And then shalt thou see clearly, to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye:
then will he, and not before, be a proper person to reprove others; all objections and
impediments to such a work will then be removed. Our Lord here speaks in the language
of the Jewish nation, with whom such like expressions were common, and of long
standing (c).
"In the generation that judged the judges, one said to another, ‫עיניך‬ ‫מבין‬ ‫קיסם‬ ‫,טול‬ "cast out
the mote out of thine eye"; to whom it was replied, ‫עיניך‬ ‫מבין‬ ‫קורה‬ ‫,טול‬ "cast out the beam
from thine eye": one said to another, "thy silver is become dross": the other replies, "thy
wine is mixed with water".''
Again (d),
"R. Taphon said, I wonder whether there is any in this generation, that will receive
reproof; if one should say to him, "cast out the mote out of thine eye", will he say to him,
"cast out the beam out of thine eye?" Says R. Eleazer ben Azariah, I wonder whether
there is any in this generation, that knows how to reprove.''
From whence it is clear, that these phrases were used in the same sense they are by

Don't Judge Others - Commentary on Matthew 7

Don't Judge Others - Commentary on Matthew 7

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Don't Judge Others - Commentary on Matthew 7