Hypocrite! First take the beam of wood out of your eye, and then you will see clearly to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye.
Matthew 7:5 (CSB)
For two days now we have watched a man with a beam of wood in his eye trying to fix everyone else. Today Jesus gives him a name, and then tells him what to do.
The name is “hypocrite.” In Jesus’ day that word meant an actor, someone playing a part on a stage. The man is playing the role of the helper while he cannot even see.
The verse does not end there. Jesus does not say, leave your brother alone and never say anything. He gives two steps, in order. First, take the beam of wood out of your own eye. Then, He says, you will see clearly to help your brother with his splinter.
So the goal is not to go silent about everyone’s faults. The brother really does have a splinter. The goal is the order. We deal with our own sin first. Then, seeing clearly, we can go to our brother, and gently help.
We cannot get our own sin out on our own. It takes someone else. Jesus is the one who took it. He carried our sin to the cross, and He clears the eye we could never clear ourselves. And He shows us how to help others once we can see: not harshly, but gently, the way He came to us. “He will not break a bruised reed” (Matthew 12:20).