Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 7:5

"Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother`s eye." — Matthew 7:5 (ASV)

You hypocrite —The man deserves this name, because he acts the part of a teacher and reformer when he himself needs repentance and reform the most. The hypocrisy is all the greater because it does not know itself to be hypocritical.

Then you will see clearly —Here the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount rises far above the level of the maxims which, to a certain extent, it resembles. It gives a new motive to the work of self-scrutiny and self-reformation. While we are blind with self-deceit, we are but bunglers in the work of dealing with the faults of others. When we have wrestled with and overcome our own besetting sins, then, and not until then, will we be able, with the insight and tact which the work demands, to help others to overcome theirs.