Let’s take a look at the verses:
Mt 7:1 “Judge not, that you be not judged.
2 “For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.
3 “And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye?
4 “Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye?
5 “Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
* The Person Addressed
Notice verse 5, these verses are addressed particularly and specifically to a “Hypocrite.”
A hypocrite is someone who playacts a role. He is someone who assumes a character that is not really true to his person in real life. In Greek, the word “hypocrite” was used with actors on stage who wore masks as they playact.
* The Point Announced
The point of these verses is that if we are hypocrites, then we have no right to judge others. We have no right to say that what others are doing is wrong when we ourselves are doing the very same things (even worse) that we find wrong in others. The Lord was talking about hypocritical judgment.
The whole situation is silly. The Lord Jesus deliberately used a silly illustration (a man with a plank in his eye offering to help a man with a speck in his eye) to emphasize the silliness of it all.
* The Principle Advanced
However (notice verse 5), the Lord Jesus does allow us to judge others on the condition that we have first cleaned up our own act. The verse is not a blanket, across-the-board prohibition of making a judgment. It says: “First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”
When we see that others are doing wrong, we (if we are not hypocrites) are in the position to rebuke or admonish the one who is doing wrong, not out of self-righteous condescension but out love and affection. We point out their erroneous ways to lovingly help.
