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.
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.
- BSB 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.
- 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 therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal?
- Ps 51:9–13Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all of my iniquities.
- Matt 23:13–15“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses, and as a pretense you make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.
- 1 Th 2:10–12You are witnesses with God, how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.
- Acts 9:9–20He was without sight for three days, and neither ate nor drank.
- Acts 13:10and said, “Full of all deceit and all cunning, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord?
- Acts 2:38Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
- 2 Cor 5:18But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation;
- Phlm 1:10–11I beg you for my child, whom I have become the father of in my chains, Onesimus,
- 2 Tim 2:21If anyone therefore purges himself from these, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified, and suitable for the master’s use, prepared for every good work.
- Matt 26:75Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said to him, “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” He went out and wept bitterly.
- Rev 3:17–18Because you say, ‘I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing;’ and don’t know that you are the wretched one, miserable, poor, blind, and naked;
- Luke 22:32but I prayed for you, that your faith wouldn’t fail. You, when once you have turned again, establish your brothers.”
- Luke 13:15Therefore the Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each one of you free his ox or his donkey from the stall on the Sabbath, and lead him away to water?
- Acts 8:21You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart isn’t right before God.
- Rom 2:1Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.
- Prov 18:17He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.
- 2 Pet 1:9For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins.
- Matt 6:22–23“The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is sound, your whole body will be full of light.
- Ps 50:16–21But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken 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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