Matthew 7:2-5
2. For with what judgments ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete—whatever standard of judgment ye apply to others.
it shall be measured to you again—This proverbial maxim is used by our Lord in other connections—as in Mr 4:24, and with a slightly different application in Lu 6:38 —as a great principle in the divine administration. Unkind judgment of others will be judicially returned upon ourselves, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. But, as in many other cases under the divine administration, such harsh judgment gets self-punished even here. For people shrink from contact with those who systematically deal out harsh judgment upon others—naturally concluding that they themselves may be the next victims—and feel impelled in self-defense, when exposed to it, to roll back upon the assailant his own censures.3. And why beholdest thou the mote—"splinter," here very well rendered "mote," denoting any small fault.
that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?—denoting the much greater fault which we overlook in ourselves.4. 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?
5. Thou hypocrite—"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—Our Lord uses a most hyperbolical, but not unfamiliar figure, to express the monstrous inconsistency of this conduct. The "hypocrisy" which, not without indignation, He charges it with, consists in the pretense of a zealous and compassionate charity, which cannot possibly be real in one who suffers worse faults to lie uncorrected in himself. He only is fit to be a reprover of others who jealously and severely judges himself. Such persons will not only be slow to undertake the office of censor on their neighbors, but, when constrained in faithfulness to deal with them, will make it evident that they do it with reluctance and not satisfaction, with moderation and not exaggeration, with love and not harshness.Prostitution of Holy Things (Mt 7:6). The opposite extreme to that of censoriousness is here condemned—want of discrimination of character.
2 Timothy 2:25
25. instructing—Greek, "disciplining," instructing with correction, which those who deal in "uninstructive" or "undisciplined questions" need (see on 2Ti 2:23; 1Ti 1:20).
those that oppose themselves—Greek, "oppositely affected"; those of a different opinion. if . . . peradventure—Greek, "if at any time." repentance—which they need as antecedent to the full knowledge (so the Greek for 'acknowledgment') of the truth" (1Ti 2:4), their minds being corrupted (2Ti 3:8), and their lives immoral. The cause of the spiritual ignorance which prompts such "questions" is moral, having its seat in the will, not in the intellect (Joh 7:17). Therefore repentance is their first need. That, not man, but God alone can "give" (Ac 5:31). James 2:13
13. The converse of, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy" (Mt 5:7). Translate, "The judgment (which is coming on all of us) shall be without mercy to him who hath showed no mercy." It shall be such toward every one as every one shall have been [BENGEL]. "Mercy" here corresponds to "love," Jas 2:8.
mercy rejoiceth against judgment—Mercy, so far from fearing judgment in the case of its followers, actually glorifieth against it, knowing that it cannot condemn them. Not that their mercy is the ground of their acquittal, but the mercy of God in Christ towards them, producing mercy on their part towards their fellow men, makes them to triumph over judgment, which all in themselves otherwise deserve.