Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother's eye: ti de blepeis (2SPAI) to karphos to en to ophthalmo tou adelphou sou (Luke 6:41,42; 18:11)

Speck (mote, KJV) (2595) (kárphos from kárpho = to dry or wither) refers to anything that is dry and light, such as straw, stubble, chaff, a little splinter of wood, a mote. It describes any tiny bit of dry material that might blow into the eye, such as a speck of dust, sawdust, wool, etc. Kárpho could refer to almost any tiny bit of substance. Figuratively kárphos refers to some slight moral defect seen in another. The self-righteous man is likely to see these, while being unconscious of greater evils in himself.

Disraeli rightly concluded that...

It is much easier to be critical than to be correct.

In his Essay on Criticism Alexander Pope wrote that ...

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

Jesus addresses a similar type of judgmental hypocrisy in Luke 18...

And He also told this parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and viewed others with contempt:

"Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, and the other a tax-gatherer. "The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, 'God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. 'I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.'

"But the tax-gatherer, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, 'God, be merciful to me, the sinner!'" I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted." (Luke 18:9-14)

As someone has well said fault-finders seldom find anything else.

but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?: ten de en to so ophthalmo dokon ou katanoeis? (2SPAI) (2 Samuel 12:5,6; 2Chronicles 28:9,10; Psalms 50:16)

Spurgeon writes...

There is something in yourself that is worthy of your consideration, something that you ought to consider, it big, blinding beam in your own eye. As for the mote that is in your brother’s eye, there is no need that you should even see it. Why beholdest thou it? Charity is ever a little blind to the faults of others, for it remembers so well its own.

Thomas Adams

Many are like barbers, that trim all men but themselves.

Notice (2657) (katanoeo from kata = down [kata can be used to intensify the meaning] + noéo = think) means literally to put the mind down on something and so to observe or consider carefully. The hypocrite continually (present tense) fails to look carefully in the mirror and make a self-examination.

Jesus is illustrating that it so easy to turn a microscope on another person's sin while we look at ours through the wrong end of a telescope! We use some strong term for someone else's sin but a euphemism for our own (Click here for some pithy examples!).

Log (1385) (dokos) refers to a piece of heavy timber such as a beam used in roof construction or to bar a door. Vine says dokos refers to the "beam supporting the roof of a building." The “beam” is thus a large, hewn timber used in the structure of a building and the point is that the man behind that timber cannot see and thus cannot determine the true nature of things because he is blinded.

Jesus is making the point that we are generally far more tolerant to our own sin than we are to the sin of others. Jesus doesn't say that it is wrong for us to help our brother with the speck in his eye. It is a good thing to help your brother with his speck, but not before dealing with the plank in your own eye.

For some reason, it is easier to jump to negative conclusions about people than it is to assume the best about them. When we do this, we ascribe to them bad intentions and evil purposes that may not be true. We also reveal something about ourselves, for the faults we see in others are actually are reflection of our own. In his little book Illustrations of Bible Truth, H. A. Ironside pointed out the folly of judging others. He related an incident in the life of a man called Bishop Potter writing...

“He was sailing for Europe on one of the great transatlantic ocean liners. When he went on board, he found that another passenger was to share the cabin with him. After going to see the accommodations, he came up to the purser’s desk and inquired if he could leave his gold watch and other valuables in the ship’s safe. He explained that ordinarily he never availed himself of that privilege, but he had been to his cabin and had met the man who was to occupy the other berth. Judging from his appearance, he was afraid that he might not be a very trustworthy person. The purser accepted the responsibility for the valuables and remarked, ’It’s all right, bishop, I’ll be very glad to take care of them for you. The other man has been up here and left his for the same reason!’“

Alexander Maclaren writes that...

This spirit is always accompanied by ignorance of one’s own faults, which makes him who indulges in it ludicrous. So our Lord would seem to intend by the figure of the mote and the beam. It takes a great deal of close peering to see a mote; but the censorious man sees only the mote, and sees it out of scale. No matter how bright the eye, though it be clear as a hawk’s, its beauty is of no moment to him. The mote magnified, and nothing but the mote, is his object; and he calls this one-sided exaggeration ‘criticism,’ and prides himself on the accuracy of his judgment. He makes just the opposite mistake in his estimate of his own faults, if he sees them at all. We look at our neighbor's errors with a microscope, and at our own through the wrong end of a telescope. We see neither in their real magnitude, and the former mistake is sure to lead to the latter. We have two sets of weights and measures: one for home use, the other for foreign. Every vice has two names; and we call it by its flattering and minimizing one when we commit it, and by its ugly one when our neighbour does it. Everybody can see the hump on his friend’s shoulders, but it takes some effort to see our own. David was angry enough at the man who stole his neighbor's ewe lamb, but quite unaware that he was guilty of a meaner, crueller theft. The mote can be seen; but the beam, big though it is, needs to be ‘considered.’ (2657 katanoeo) So it often escapes notice, and will surely do so, if we are yielding to the temptation of harsh judgment of others. Every one may be aware of faults of his own very much bigger than any that he can see in another, for each of us may fathom the depth of our own sinfulness in motive and unspoken, unacted thought, while we can see only the surface acts of others. (Sermon: Judging, Asking and Giving)

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Bread and Butter  - A small-town baker bought his butter from a local farmer. One day he weighed the butter and concluded that the farmer had been reducing the amount in the packages but charging the same. So the baker accused the farmer of fraud.

In court the judge asked the farmer,

"Do you have measuring weights?"

"No sir," replied the farmer.

"How then do you manage to weigh the butter that you sell?"

The farmer answered,

"When the baker began buying his butter from me, I thought I'd better get my bread from him. I have been using his 1-pound loaf as the weight for the butter I sell. If the weight of the butter is wrong, he has only himself to blame."

Making hasty, unjust judgments about others is sin. The Pharisees of Jesus' day seemed to be especially adept at this. They would try to elevate themselves by tearing down and slandering people's character. Not only is this a sign of pride and self-satisfaction, but it is certain that we will be judged in a similar manner. Jesus said, "With what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you" (Mt. 7:2).

What is the measure you use? --H G Bosch (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

Don't be too hard on the person who sins,
For the yardstick you lay on another
May someday be used as a measure for you;
Oh, be gracious and judge not, my brother! --HGB

The fault we see in another may be the reflection of our own.

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Can You Hear Me? - A man was having difficulty communicating with is wife and concluded that she was becoming hard of hearing. So he decided to conduct a test without her knowing about it.

One evening he sat in a chair on the far side of the room. Her back was to him and she could not see him. Very quietly he whispered, “Can you hear me?” There was no response.

Moving a little closer, he asked again, “Can you hear me now?” Still no reply.

Quietly he edged closer and whispered the same words, but still no answer.

Finally he moved right in behind her chair and said, “Can you hear me now?” To his surprise and chagrin she responded with irritation in her voice, “For the fourth time, yes!” What a warning to us about judging!

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Criticism leaves you with the flattering unction that you are a superior person. It is impossible to develop the characteristics of a saint and maintain a critical attitude. -- Oswald Chambers

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A malignant deity, called Criticism . . . At her right hand sat Ignorance, her father and husband, blind with age; at her left, Pride, her mother, dressing her up in scraps of paper she herself had torn. There was Opinion, her sister, light of foot, hoodwinked, and headstrong, yet giddy and perpetually turning. About her played her children, Noise and Impudence, Dullness and Vanity, Positiveness, Pedantry, and Ill-Manners. The goddess herself had claws like a cat, her head, and ears, and voice resembled those of an ass; her teeth fallen out before, her eyes turned inward, as if she also looked only upon herself; her diet was the overflowing of her own gall. --Jonathan Swift

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Speck Inspectors - Why do some people seem to be experts at finding a speck in the eye of someone else? (Mt 7:3). Is it because the fault stands out like Santa Claus at a Fourth of July picnic? No, they deliberately search for specks because they're looking for something to criticize.

The chief speck inspector is Satan. When the Lord called his attention to the good character of Job, the devil responded with a raised eyebrow. "Does Job fear God for nothing?" he smirked (Job 1:9). He insinuated that Job was good only because God made it pay to be good. Satan was so sharp-eyed he could see a speck that wasn't there.

Faultfinders are never reliable fact-finders. The enemies of our Lord even tried to find fault in the only One who ever lived a perfect life (Mt. 12:24; Lk. 7:34; Jn. 9:16). Because they looked for the worst, they were blind to the best.

Do we really understand the wickedness of faultfinding? It's a cruel habit that damages ourselves and those around us.

Jesus said we must first get the plank out of our own eye. That means we must recognize and confess our sins. As we learn to see people through eyes of love, we won't be so quick to point out specks in theirs. --H W Robinson (Our Daily Bread, Copyright RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved)

Let me not judge my fellowmen,
But understand them, Lord, and when
The casting of the stones begins,
Remind me of my many sins. --Vandegrift

Inspect your own life
before you look for specks in others.

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J R Miller  (Who Is He?) - Finding Fault with Others - Matthew 7:3

It is strange how oblivious we can be of our own faults and blemishes, and how clearly we can see those of other people. One old writer says: “Men are more apt to use spectacles than looking-glasses — spectacles to behold other men’s faults than looking-glasses to behold their own.” A man can see a little speck of dust in his neighbour’s eye while utterly unaware of the great beam in his own eye. He observes the most minute fault in his brother while unconscious of his own far greater fault.

We would say that a beam in a man’s eye would so blind him that he could not see the mote in another’s eye. As our Lord represents it, however, the man with the beam is the very one who sees the mote and thinks himself competent to pull it out. So it is in morals. No man is so sharp at seeing a fault in another as he who has the same or a similar fault of his own. A vain man is the first to detect the indications of vanity in another. A bad-tempered person is most apt to be censorious toward a neighbour who displays bad temper. One with a sharp uncontrolled tongue has the least patience with another whose speech is full of poisoned arrows. A selfish man discovers even motes of selfishness in others. Rude people are the very first to be hurt and offended by rudeness in a neighbour.

So it is always. If we are quick to perceive blemishes and faults in others, the probability is that we have far greater blemishes and faults in ourselves. This truth ought to make us exceedingly careful in our judgments and exceedingly modest in our expressions of censure, for we really are telling the world our own faults. It is wiser, as well as more in accordance with the spirit of Christ, for us to find lovely things in others, and to be silent regarding their faults.

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Or how can you say to your brother, `Let me take the speck out of your eye,' and behold, the log is in your own eye?: e pos ereis (2SFAI) to adelpho sou, aphes (2SAAM) ekbalo (1SAAS) to karpos ek tou ophthalmou sou, kai idou (2SAMM) e dokos en to ophthalmo sou?

Spurgeon writes...

A blind man cannot be a good oculist; he should see well who tries to mend other people’s eyes; but with a beam in one’s own eye, it must be poor work to attempt to take motes out of the eyes of others. This does not prevent our using reproof and rebuke when they are needed. Even under the Law, the command was given, “Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him,” as if it were a kind of hatred to avoid the duty of kindly and gentle rebuke. That is a very different thing from exposing the faults of others, and aggravating and exaggerating the faults of others, as, alas, so many do! Oh, how much misery might be saved in the world if the scandal-market were not so brisk! Perhaps tongues would not move so fast if eyes were used to a better purpose.

John Lightfoot writes that...

This is a very common proverb among the Jews: In the measure that a man measureth, others measure to him.

And this also was a known proverb among them: "It is written in the days when they judged the judges, that is, in the generation which judged their judges, When any [judge] said to another, Cast out the mote out of thine eye; he answered, Cast you out the beam out of your own eye," etc.

A Chinese proverb says do not remove a fly from your friend’s forehead with a hatchet!

Speck (mote, KJV) (2595) (kárphos from kárpho = to dry or wither) refers to anything that is dry and light, such as straw, stubble, chaff, a little splinter of wood, a mote. It describes any tiny bit of dry material that might blow into the eye, such as a speck of dust, sawdust, wool, etc. Kárpho could refer to almost any tiny bit of substance. Figuratively kárphos refers to some slight moral defect seen in another. The self-righteous man is likely to see these, while being unconscious of greater evils in himself.

This was a common proverb familiar among the Jews that referred to the one who with greater sins, reproved the lesser faults of others.

Jesus was referring to the hypocrisy of people who try to improve others while remaining blind to their own faults.

Let me take...out is evil parading as good.

Behold the log...in your own eye - Stated another way as someone has said when looking for faults, use a mirror, not a telescope.

Speaking of logs - When the family returned from Sunday morning service, father criticized the sermon, daughter thought the choir's singing atrocious, and mother found fault with the organist's playing. But the subject had to be dropped when the small boy of the family piped up: "But it was a good show for a nickel, don't you think, Dad?"

Log (1385) (dokos) refers to a piece of heavy timber such as a beam used in roof construction or to bar a door. Vine says dokos refers to the "beam supporting the roof of a building." The “beam” is thus a large, hewn timber used in the structure of a building and the point is that the man behind that timber cannot see and thus cannot determine the true nature of things because he is blinded.

The contrast between ‘speck’ and ‘log’ is a hyperbole or purposeful, extravagant exaggeration. Can you picture a fellow with a beam (a log, a tree trunk, a railroad tie or a timber) sticking out of his eye? And he is trying to help another fellow get a speck of dust out of his eye! What a ludicrous scene which is exactly the picture Jesus sought to portray.  The "log" judge would end up poking out the eye of the "speck" victim. The implication is that the judge often has in his or her own life a much larger edition of the same fault they are judging in others and the victim can end up being hurt badly when the "speck judge" tries to straighten them out before straighten himself or herself.

Jesus uses this absurd picture to rebuke officiousness (the volunteering one’s services where they are neither asked nor needed and thus are annoying) in correcting small faults of others, while cherishing greater ones of our own.

There is so much good in the worst of us,
And so much bad in the best of us,
That it hardly becomes any of us
To talk about the rest of us.

Pentecost writes that...

Our Lord said, when you put yourself in the position of a judge, you are like a blind surgeon trying to remove a splinter in someone else’s eye. It cannot be done. What our Lord was teaching is that man can look only on the external appearance; therefore, he cannot judge the motives of another’s mind and heart. When he judges by externals, he does not deal with the true nature of things. Therefore our Lord said, “Since you in your blindness do not have the ability to determine the true nature of things, do not judge.” (Pentecost, J. D. Design for living: Lessons in Holiness from the Sermon on the Mount. Kregel Publications)

Now this is really nothing new because historically, we have always seen the speck in the other person's eye. It all began when Adam blamed Eve for enticing him to take of the forbidden fruit rationalizing to God that...

"The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate."  (Genesis 3:12)

Eve blamed the serpent declaring...

"The serpent deceived me, and I ate." (Genesis 3:13)

Fallen men and women are still in the speck removal ministry. One of the hardest things we have to learn is that when we point a finger at others, we point four at ourselves!

The prophet Nathan's confrontation of King David is a classic example of the judge himself being condemned, Scripture recording that the prophet began by telling the king a tragic tale...

"Now a traveler came to the rich man, And he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd, To prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; Rather he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him." Then David's anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the LORD lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. And he must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion." (2 Samuel 12:4-7)

In response to David's judgment on the "rich man" Nathan declared...

"You are the man!"

David in judging the rich man's sin ("speck"), had condemned himself ("log")!

Did you read the true story about a Connecticut city, where 53 residents of a certain neighborhood signed a petition to stop reckless driving on their streets. The police set a watch. Guess what happened! A few nights later five violators were caught. All five had signed the petition!

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A Cure For Criticism - A church bulletin had a clever poem about criticism that began:

A little seed lay in the ground
And soon began to sprout;
"Now, which of all the flowers around,
Shall I," it mused, "come out?"

The seed could then be heard saying,

"I don't care to be a rose. It has thorns. I have no desire to be a lily. It's too colorless. And I certainly wouldn't want to be a violet. It's too small, and it grows too close to the ground."

The poem concludes with this verse about that faultfinding seed:

And so it criticized each flower,
That supercilious seed,
Until it woke one summer hour
And found itself a weed!

The apostle Paul indicated in Romans 12:3 (note) that we are not to think of ourselves too highly. Rather, we are "to think soberly." To the church in Philippi he wrote, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself" (see note Philippians 2:3). When we fail to follow these instructions and begin finding fault with others, we are actually passing judgment on ourselves (Mt. 7:1-2; see note Romans 2:1;