Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 7:5
Thou 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.
5. out of ] Greek = “from within,” of the deep-seated root of sin which the Pharisee may discern only when he has cast out the beam from his own eye.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Thou hypocrite, first cast out … – Christ directs us to the proper way of forming an opinion of ethers, and of reproving and correcting them. By first amending our own faults, or casting the beam out of our eye, we can consistently advance to correct the faults of others. There will then be no hypocrisy in our conduct. We shall also see clearly to do it. The beam, the thing that obscured our sight, will be removed, and we shall more clearly discern the small object that obscures the sight of our brother. The sentiment is, that the readiest way to judge of the imperfections of others is to be free from greater ones ourselves. This qualifies us for judging, makes us candid and consistent, and enables us to see things as they are, and to make proper allowances for frailty and imperfection.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 5. Thou hypocrite] A hypocrite, who professes to be what he is not, (viz. a true Christian,) is obliged, for the support of the character he has assumed, to imitate all the dispositions and actions of a Christian; consequently he must reprove sin, and endeavour to show an uncommon affection for the glory of God. Our Lord unmasks this vile pretender to saintship, and shows him that his hidden hypocrisy, covered with the garb of external sanctity, is more abominable in the sight of God than the openly professed and practised iniquity of the profligate.
In after times, the Jews made a very bad use of this saying: “I wonder,” said Rabbi Zarphon, “whether there be any in this age that will suffer reproof? If one say to another, Cast out the mote out of thine eye, he is immediately ready to answer, Cast out the beam that is in thine own eye.” This proverbial mode of speech the Gloss interprets thus: “Cast out? kisim, the mote, that is, the little sin, that is in thy hand: to which he answered, Cast out the great sin that is in thine. So they could not reprove, because all were sinners.” See Lightfoot.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
5. Thou hypocrite“Hypocrite.”
first cast out the beam outof thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out themote out of thy brother’s eyeOur Lord uses a mosthyperbolical, but not unfamiliar figure, to express the monstrousinconsistency of this conduct. The “hypocrisy” which, notwithout indignation, He charges it with, consists in the pretense ofa zealous and compassionate charity, which cannot possibly be real inone who suffers worse faults to lie uncorrected in himself. He onlyis fit to be a reprover of others who jealously and severely judgeshimself. Such persons will not only be slow to undertake the officeof censor on their neighbors, but, when constrained in faithfulnessto deal with them, will make it evident that they do it withreluctance and not satisfaction, with moderation andnot exaggeration, with love and not harshness.
Prostitution of Holy Things(Mt 7:6). The opposite extremeto that of censoriousness is here condemnedwant of discriminationof character.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye,…. Very rightly does our Lord call such a man an hypocrite, who is very free in remarking and reproving other men’s sins, and covering his own; and indeed, one end of his critical observations, rigid censures, and rash judgments is, that he might be thought to be holier than he is. Christ very manifestly points at the Scribes and Pharisees, who were men of such a complexion; and whom he often, without any breach of charity, calls hypocrites. The meaning of this proverbial expression is, that a man should first begin with himself, take notice of his own sins, reprove himself for them, and reform; and then it will be soon enough to observe other men’s.
And then shalt thou see clearly, to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye: then will he, and not before, be a proper person to reprove others; all objections and impediments to such a work will then be removed. Our Lord here speaks in the language of the Jewish nation, with whom such like expressions were common, and of long standing c
“In the generation that judged the judges, one said to another, , “cast out the mote out of thine eye”; to whom it was replied, , “cast out the beam from thine eye”: one said to another, “thy silver is become dross”: the other replies, “thy wine is mixed with water”.”
Again d,
“R. Taphon said, I wonder whether there is any in this generation, that will receive reproof; if one should say to him, “cast out the mote out of thine eye”, will he say to him, “cast out the beam out of thine eye?” Says R. Eleazer ben Azariah, I wonder whether there is any in this generation, that knows how to reprove.”
From whence it is clear, that these phrases were used in the same sense they are by Christ; and which is still more evident by the gloss upon them: for upon the word “mote”, it observes,
“That it is as if it had been said, , “a little sin”, which is in thine hand (i.e. which thou hast committed): the other could say to him, cast thou away
, “the great sin”, which is in thine hand; so that they could not reprove, because they were all sinners.”
Agreeable to these, are some other proverbs used by the Jews, such as
“a vice which is in thyself, do not speak of to thy neighbour,”
e or upbraid him with it: and f again,
“adorn thyself, and afterwards adorn others.”
Which is produced by a noted commentator g of their’s, to illustrate the text in Zep 2:1 on which he also makes this remark;
“inquire first into your own blemishes, and then inquire into the blemishes of others.”
The sense of each of them is, that a man should first reform himself, and then others; and that he that finds faults with others, ought to be without blame himself.
c T. Bab. Bava Bathra, fol. 15. 2. d T. Bab. Erachin, fol. 16. 2. e T. Bab. Bava Metzia, fol. 59. 2. f T. Bab. Sanhedrim, fol. 19. 1. g R. David Kimchi in Zeph. ii. 1. Vid. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 142. 4.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Shalt thou see clearly (). Only here and Lu 6:42 and Mr 8:25 in the New Testament. Look through, penetrate in contrast to , to gaze at, in verse 3. Get the log out of your eye and you will see clearly how to help the brother get the splinter out () of his eye.
Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
See clearly [] . The preposition dia, through, giving the sense of thoroughness. Compare the simple verb blepeiv (beholdest), ver. 3. With the beam in thine eye thou starest at thy brother ‘s little failing. Pull out the beam; then thou shalt see clearly, not only the fault itself, but how to help thy brother get rid of it.
To cast out [] . The Lord ‘s words assume that the object of scrutiny is not only nor mainly detection, but correction. Hence thou shalt see clearly, not the mote, but to cast out the mote.
Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament
1) “Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye;” (hypokrita ekbale proton ek tou ophthalmou sou ten dokon) “You hypocrite, pluck first (in order) the beam out of your own eye;” Get rid of your own huge character-defaming wrong, that major moral or ethical weakness in your own conduct in life, in the way your influence is reflected. An hypocrite is one who feigns to be what he is not; normally, picturing himself to be better than another morally, ethically, or religiously.
2) “And then shalt thou see clearly,” (kai tote diablepseis) “And then (at that point) you will see clearly;” You will be effective, influentially able, to assist an erring, weaker brother, rather than grinding him in powder with hyper-critical faultfinding remarks, to try to salve your own conscience from guilt of a greater sin than that of your brother with the mote, see?
3) “To cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” (ekbalein to karpos ek tou ophthalmou tou adelphou sou) “To pluck the chip (small splinter of wood) out of your brother’s eye.” The man or woman who poses as a helper of the children of others, or aged of others, while neglecting his own household’s needs, and their prior duties to them, becomes an hypocrite in his own household in these matters. Be cautious lest the hour of judgment find you listed among hypocrites of the church age, who are worse than infidels, Gal 6:1; Psa 51:10; Psa 51:13; 1Ti 5:8.
Moral criticism is necessary in exposing sin and calling for repentance. Our Lord himself did this. The judgment to be avoided is that which is egotistic and self-righteous in nature, Luk 13:3-5; Mat 23:1-36.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
(5) Thou 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 shalt thou 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 till then, shall we be able, with the insight and tact which the work demands, to help others to overcome theirs.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
You hypocrite, cast out first the plank out of your own eye,
And then you will see clearly to cast out the splinter from your brother’s eye.
So the first thing that someone who would help another should do is to undergo a strict examination of himself, otherwise he is simply a hypocrite. (For a sinner who is censorious about another sinner is nothing but a hypocrite). He must first remove the plank from his own eye so that he really can ‘see’ clearly. He must get totally right with God. He must rid himself of all censoriousness or sense of superiority. He must bring his own life into God’s light (1Jn 1:7). He must own up to all his own sins, and have them cleansed by the blood of Jesus. He must then make his approach recognising that, having just received again the most enormous forgiveness, he is coming as one sinner to another, and he must believe that genuinely. He must really believe it deep inside him. It must be in heart, not just in words. And the proof that he really believes it will be his gentleness and compassion and great desire only for the good of the other, in their immediate situation as well as in the light of eternity. He will be concerned that his brother or sister comes out of it as well positioned as if they had not sinned. (How many suicides would have been avoided in the past if only this had been truly observed). And it is only one who is approaching like this who will really be in a position to assist the other in removing whatever wrongdoing there is in their lives, thus ‘removing the splinter that is in their eye’ which is preventing them from seeing their wrongdoing as God sees it.
But we must note here that this removal of the other person’s splinter is finally also a main purpose of the exercise. Jesus is not forbidding all ‘judgment’ on all matters. He is not forbidding seeing a fault and helping to put it right. Indeed He is encouraging precisely that kind of loving behaviour. What He is forbidding is wrong judgments, biased judgments and judgments made in the wrong spirit, and approaching another in the wrong spirit. He is saying that we are in no position to ‘pass judgment’ on others, but that we certainly have a huge responsibility in the matter of assessing another’s needs and then humbly helping them, while recognising that their sin is not as great as our own. Thus it is our responsibility and privilege to assist others to remove splinters from their eyes, but only once we have made absolutely sure that we ourselves are in a condition to do so, and that we are doing it in a spirit of love that is obvious both to the other and to God. For in the end it is God’s desire that both the plank in our own eye, and the splinter in the eye of another, are dealt with.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Mat 7:5. Thou hypocrite As by the eye we judge of things relating to the body, so by the understanding we judge of things pertaining to the soul. You may therefore lay this down as fixed and certain, that the more grace and holiness you yourself possess, the better will you be able to judge of your brother’s faults; and the better qualified, both in point of skill and authority, to reclaim him through the grace of God. Your judgment of his character and actions will be so much the more charitable, and for that reason so much the more just. Your rebuke will be so much the more mild, prudent, and winning, and your authority to press the necessity of regeneration and reformation upon him so much the more weighty. It is hypocrisy to pretend a zeal for others, if we have not first had it for ourselves. True zeal is uniform, and, in dependence on divine grace, begins within to remove the beam from our own eye; which is its proper and peculiar work, and a necessary qualification for reforming others. Yet even when it is so qualified, it must still proceed with a prudent caution, as our Lord instructs us in the next verse.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
5 Thou 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.
Ver. 5. Thou hypocrite ] This is a dull generation, and must be rebuked sharply or cuttingly, that they may be sound in the faith. a And ministers, by our Saviour’s example here, must learn so to instruct as to sharpen and set an edge upon the word, so as it may gore the crusty consciences of their hearers with smarting pain, that they may hear and fear, and God may heal them, Mat 13:15 . Christ turns himself here to such, and bitterly inveighs against them, as elsewhere likewise he doth, Mat 17:17 ; Mat 3:7 ; Mat 22:18 ; Luk 13:15 but especially Mat 23:1-39 , of this Gospel, dragging them down to hell by a chain of eight woes, as so many links, and closing up all with that terrible thunderbolt, “Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnasion of hell?” Mat 23:33 ; and all to show us how such kind of persons should be handled. As for those that are so proud and passionate that none dare declare their way to their face, God will lay them in the slimy valleys, where are many already like them, and more shall come after them; where hence also they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath,Job 21:30-33Job 21:30-33 , and, will they nill they, hear Ite, maledicti, Go, ye cursed, &c.
Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam, &c. ] St James telleth us that the wisdom from above is first pure and then peaceable, without judging, without hypocrisy. And these two last are set together to teach us that the greatest censurers are commonly the greatest hypocrites, b and as any one is more wise he is more sparing of his censures. Hence also St Peter, after he had said, “Lay aside all malice, guile, hypocrisy, envy,” addeth, “and evil speakings;” to note, that censuring and all other evils of the tongue are gendered of any of the afore mentioned. For wicked men are apt to muse as they use; as the envious devil accused God to our first parents of envy; the covetous person thinks all the world to be made of covetousness. Caligula did not believe there was any chaste person upon earth. And Bonner said to Mr Hanks, the martyr, I dare say that Cranmer would recant if he might have his living again: so measuring him by himself. Those that have a blemish in their eye think the sky to be ever cloudy; and such as are troubled with the jaundice see all things yellow. So do those that are overgrown with malice and hypocrisy, think all like themselves. Contrarily, Mary Magdalene thought the gardener should have had as much good will to Christ as she had. Little did Jacob suspect that Rachel had stolen her father’s idols; or the disciples that Judas had harboured such a traitor in his heart, as treason against his Master. They rather suspected every man himself than Judas. And when our Saviour bade him, “What thou doest, do quickly,” they thought he had meant of making provision, or giving something to the poor, Joh 13:26 . Also when the woman poured the precious ointment upon our Saviour, and Judas censured the fact as a waste, though he did it because he was a thief, and cared not a pin for the poor, yet all the disciples approved of what he said, and are therefore made authors of his speech by one of the evangelists; so little did they perceive his craft or his covetousness,Mat 26:8Mat 26:8 . True goodness is not suspicious, censorious, quarrellous. It is for an Esau to complain of his father’s store, -Hast thou but one blessing? of his brother’s subtlety, -Was he not rightly called Jacob? The godly man casts the first stone at himself, and with Jacob cries out, I am not worthy, Lord, the least of thy lovingkindnesses. “Lo, I have sinned, and I have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let thine hand, I pray thee, be against me,” &c., 2Sa 24:17 said David, when he was come to himself; who before this, when he had defiled his conscience with the stain and sting of sin, both censured the fact of the cruel rich man (complained about by Nathan) with too much severity, even above the law; and shortly after tortured the miserable Ammonites without all mercy, putting them under saws, harrows, and axes of iron, and making them pass through the brickkiln, &c. This he did before his conscience was awakened out of that dead lethargy (whereinto Satan had cast him) by the trumpet of the law; before he was convinced of sin by the sanctifying Spirit, and purged thereby from those pollutions he had remorselessly wallowed in. But if God will but once more make him hear of joy and gladness, that his broken bones may rejoice; if he will but restore unto him the joy of his salvation, and establish him with his free spirit, then, instead of censuring, and setting against others, he will teach transgressors God’s ways, and sinners shall be converted unto him, Psa 51:8 ; Psa 51:12-13 . He will no longer insult, but in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure will give them (as he had done him) repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; and that they may awake out of the snare of the devil, who (as the Ammonites were by David) are taken captive by him at his pleasure, 2Ti 2:26 ; “Put them in mind,” saith Paul, “to speak evil of no man.” And why? “For we ourselves also” (even I, Paul, and thou, Titus) “were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived,” &c.,Tit 3:2-3Tit 3:2-3 , and have yet still a world of work within doors about the discovering and opposing, the mortifying and mourning over, our own unruly lusts and unchristian practices. A sincere heart is ever most censorious and severe against itself. But it is set here by our Saviour as a visible brand upon the face of the hypocrite, that as he is ever tampering and meddling with other men’s motes, so he never hath either leisure or pleasure to look into his own rotten heart and rebellions courses. Galileo used a telescope to discover mountains in the moon; so do these to find faults in those that are far better than themselves; they can pierce beyond the moon and spy the least mote in the sun, the smallest infirmity in the most glorious saint; yea, some errors and exorbitancies that never had any existence but in their imagination, detesting those sins in others that they flatter in themselves. Utimur perspicillis magis quam speculis, saith Seneca. Men are more apt to use spectacles than lookingglasses; spectacles to behold other men’s faults than lookingglasses to behold their own. But those that would approve themselves no hypocrites must do otherwise.
And then shalt thou see clearly, &c. ] There is in every godly man a holy bashfulness, an ingenuous modesty, that he would be foully ashamed to charge others with those crimes which he should allow in himself. Not so every profligate professor, frontless Pharisee, censorious hypocrite. These think, most likely, to bind up their own bleeding souls with a palliate cure, as they call it, by goring very bloodily into other men’s consciences, whereas they never yet purged their own. Thus dealt the priests and elders with our Saviour, the false apostles with Paul, Porphyry (and others of the same brand) with the primitive Christians, and the Papists with the Waldenses; whose freedom of speech in blaming and reproving the dissolute manners and actions of the clergy ( Effecit ut plures nefariae affingerentur iis opiniones a quibus omnino fuerant alieni, said Girardus) was the cause that they were reported to be Manichees, Catharists, what not? c And yet a certain Dominican was forced to confess that they were good in their lives, true in their speeches, full of brotherly love one towards another, but their faith, saith he, is incorrigible, and as bad as may be. d And why but because they maintained that the pope was Antichrist, that the court of Rome was intolerably corrupted, the clergy debauched, &c. Novum crimen Caie Caesar, &c. Fresh blood, Gaius Caesar. St Paul was become the Galatians’ enemy, because he told them the truth, and so were these, the pontificians. There was found a certain postiller, that meeting with this precious passage in St Augustine, “The whole life of unbelievers is sin; neither is there anything good without the chiefest good;” Crudelis est illa sententia, said he: this is a cruel sentence. e This was a sinful censure, say I, passed by a man that was never truly humbled with the sight and sense of his own wicked and wretched estate by nature and practice; a stranger to himself, and therefore so uncharitable to another. It is not evil to marry, saith one, but good to be wary. So, it is not amiss to reprove an offender, but let a man take heed he hear not, -“Physician, heal thyself. Hypocrite, first pull the beam out of thine own eye.” f The apostle, after he had given rules for reproving,Eph 5:11-13Eph 5:11-13 , subjoins, Eph 5:15 ; “See that ye walk circumspectly,” or exactly, that none may justly blame or blemish you with any foul fault. Infirmities are found in the best, and will be, till they come to be “the spirits of just men made perfect,” Heb 12:23 . And this is a means to make them warn the unruly with more feeling experience and compassion, Heb 2:17 . But say they be guilty of gross sins (as these Pharisees), though they should begin at home, and first cast out the beam of their own eye, yet if they speak according to God’s word, and the thing be so indeed, hear them hardly, Mat 23:2-3 , and mend by them. An angel may speak in an ass, and God by Balaam,Num 22:22-28Num 22:22-28 Deu 13:14 . The words do but pass through him (as when a man speaks through a trunk), they are not polluted by him, because not his.
a Hypocritis nihil stupidius. Tit 1:13 , . Metaph. a chirurgis, quos misericordes esse non oportet. Celsus.
b It was said of Antony, he hated a tyrant, not tyranny. It may as truly be said of the hypocrite, he hates sinners, not sins. These he nourisheth, those he censureth. Dike.
c Eiusdem furfuris iisdem quibus Manichaei et Cathari commaculati credebantur erroribus. Ussier.
d In moribus et vita sunt boni veraces in sermone, in caritate fraterna unanimes: sed fides eorum est incorrigibilis et pessima. Jacob Lielensten.
e Omnis vita infldelium peccatum est, et nihil bonum sine aummo bono. Aug. de Vera Innocen. 56.
f Nihil turpius est, dixit non nemo, Peripatetico claudo, Curare debet omni vitio quantum fieri potest, qui in alterum paratus est dicere.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
5. ] , , . Euthym [86]
[86] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116
., as in E. V., thou shalt see clearly, with purified eye. The close is remarkable. Before , was all to stare at thy brother’s faults, and as people do who stand and gaze at an object, attract others to gaze also: but now , the object is a very different one to help thy brother to be rid of his fault, by doing him the best and most difficult office of Christian friendship. The was vain and idle; the is for a blessed end, viz. (ch. Mat 18:15 ) .
Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament
Mat 7:5 . : because he acts as no one should but he who has first reformed himself. “What hast thou to do to declare my statutes?” Psa 50:16 . , thou will see clearly, vide Mar 8:24-25 , where three compounds of the verb occur, with , , and . Fritzsche takes the future as an imperative and renders: se componere ad aliquid, curare; i.e. , set thyself then to the task of, etc.
Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson
5. ] , , . Euthym[86]
[86] Euthymius Zigabenus, 1116
., as in E. V., thou shalt see clearly, with purified eye. The close is remarkable. Before, was all-to stare at thy brothers faults, and as people do who stand and gaze at an object, attract others to gaze also:-but now, the object is a very different one- -to help thy brother to be rid of his fault, by doing him the best and most difficult office of Christian friendship. The was vain and idle; the is for a blessed end, viz. (ch. Mat 18:15) .
Fuente: The Greek Testament
Mat 7:5. , thou shalt see beyond) now that the beam has been taken out of the way, and no longer interposes itself between you and your brothers eye, and that your own is relieved of the incumbrance. He who, having first corrected himself, seeks to correct another, is not a perverse judge.[302]
[302] For what man is there, who does not gladly allow a straw [thorn] to be extracted from his finger, not to say from his eye, by a skilfully applied hand? The principle is the same as in the gnat and the camel, chap, Mat 23:24.-V. g.
Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament
Thou hypocrite: Mat 22:18, Mat 23:14-28, Luk 12:56, Luk 13:15
first: Psa 51:9-13, Luk 4:23, Luk 6:42, Act 19:15
Reciprocal: Jos 7:13 – an accursed 1Sa 14:33 – transgressed Pro 17:7 – Excellent speech Pro 26:7 – so Mat 6:2 – as Mat 15:7 – hypocrites Mat 16:3 – O ye 1Pe 2:1 – hypocrisies
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
7:5
A hypocrite is one who pretends to be what he knows he is not. This man pretends to have unaffected eyes, yet he knows better if he is able to recognize what is an affection in the other’s eye. That is, he knows his own eye is not right if he can understand that a mote renders the other man’s eye detective.
Verse 6. Dog sometimes means a sodomite (Deu 23:18; Rev 22:15) or other impure man,
but it is here associated with literal swine and hence should be understood as meaning the brute creatures. Both animals were classed as impure and unclean under the law and hence are used to illustrate unworthy human beings. The lesson in the verse is that we should not bestow favors upon those who are not worthy. If a man spends money in unrighteous in-dulgencies, we should turn a deaf ear to him when be makes a cry of poverty and destitution.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Mat 7:5. Thou hypocrite. Not necessarily the Pharisees, but any who thus act. Such action is hypocrisy before God and before the conscience also.First, before meddling with others.
And then shalt thou see clearly. See differs from behold (Mat 7:3). The look must be purified before it can be used for this end; one must have got rid of great faults before he can see clearly enough to help his brother get rid of his faults. To get clearness of vision ourselves is the great end; caution is necessary in helping the brother.