How can you say, ‘Brother, let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while you yourself fail to see the beam in your own eye? You hypocrite! First take the beam out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
Parallel translations
- WEB Or how can you tell your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck of chaff that is in your eye,’ when you yourself don’t see the beam that is in your own eye? You hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck of chaff that is in your brother’s eye.
- KJV Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother’s eye.
- NKJV Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
- NASB How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.
- NLT How can you think of saying, ‘Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Jesus calls it hypocrisy to correct another's small fault while ignoring one's own greater fault. First deal with your own sin, then you can help your brother rightly.
Overview
Jesus does not forbid helping a brother but insists on self-examination first. Only the humble, repentant person can correct others with clear sight and genuine love rather than hypocrisy. This reflects the gospel pattern: those who have received mercy for their own sin are equipped to restore others gently (Galatians 6:1).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 20
- Rom 2:21–29you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal?
- Ps 51:9–13Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
- Matt 23:13–15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let in those who wish to enter.
- 1 Th 2:10–12You are witnesses, and so is God, of how holy, righteous, and blameless our conduct was among you who believed.
- Acts 9:9–20For three days he was without sight, and he did not eat or drink anything.
- Acts 13:10and said, “O child of the devil and enemy of all righteousness, you are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery! Will you never stop perverting the straight ways of the Lord?
- Acts 2:38Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- 2 Cor 5:18All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
- Phlm 1:10–11I appeal to you for my child Onesimus, whose father I became while I was in chains.
- 2 Tim 2:21So if anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work.
- Matt 26:75Then Peter remembered the word that Jesus had spoken: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly.
- Rev 3:17–18You say, ‘I am rich; I have grown wealthy and need nothing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked.
- Luke 22:32But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”
- Luke 13:15“You hypocrites!” the Lord replied. “Does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it to water?
- Acts 8:21You have no part or share in our ministry, because your heart is not right before God.
- Rom 2:1You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on another. For on whatever grounds you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
- Prov 18:17The first to state his case seems right until another comes and cross-examines him.
- 2 Pet 1:9But whoever lacks these traits is nearsighted to the point of blindness, having forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
- Matt 6:22–23The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light.
- Ps 50:16–21To the wicked, however, God says, “What right have you to recite My statutes and to bear My covenant on your lips?
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 6:42 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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