Mat 7:2-5 | JFB | STEP | 2. 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 , and with a slightly different application in --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.

‏ Matthew 7:2-5

2. 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 Mr 4:24, and with a slightly different application in Lu 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.

3. 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.

4. 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?

5. Thou hypocrite--"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--Our Lord uses a most hyperbolical, but not unfamiliar figure, to express the monstrous inconsistency of this conduct. The "hypocrisy" which, not without indignation, He charges it with, consists in the pretense of a zealous and compassionate charity, which cannot possibly be real in one who suffers worse faults to lie uncorrected in himself. He only is fit to be a reprover of others who jealously and severely judges himself. Such persons will not only be slow to undertake the office of censor on their neighbors, but, when constrained in faithfulness to deal with them, will make it evident that they do it with reluctance and not satisfaction, with moderation and not exaggeration, with love and not harshness.

Prostitution of Holy Things (Mt 7:6). The opposite extreme to that of censoriousness is here condemned--want of discrimination of character.