Matthew 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.