The first question was about seeing; this one is about speaking. Jesus pictures someone who offers, even addressing him as "Brother," to fix another person's small fault while blind to his own large one. The question asks how such a person could possibly do it well. Gill draws the lesson that "a man should first reform himself, and then others." Barnes, at the parallel in Matthew 7:5, explains that correcting our own faults first makes us consistent and able to help others.

Jesus answers His own question in the same breath: "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" (Luke 6:42). He then explains where words and deeds come from: "a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit," and "of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh" (Luke 6:43, 45).

"Hypocrite" is the Greek hypokritēs. Thayer gives its older meanings as "an actor, stage-player," and in biblical Greek "a dissembler, pretender, hypocrite." The person in this verse is playing the part of someone who sees clearly.

"See clearly" is diablepō, to see clearly or see through. Jesus does not say the mote should be left alone; He says that once the beam is gone, the person will finally see well enough to help. Matthew's parallel reads, "Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?" (Matthew 7:4).

Jesus does not cancel love for a brother; He puts it in the right order. First the beam, then the mote. The words "first" and "then" in Luke 6:42 show that the goal is still to help the brother. Self-examination is the path to real help, not a reason to stop helping.

The verses that follow show why this matters. A tree is known by its fruit, and the mouth speaks from what fills the heart (Luke 6:43-45). Matthew Henry says, "Those are altogether unfit to help to reform others whose reforming charity does not begin at home."