Fathers

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What the Fathers say

Matthew 7:4

Western Saints

Augustine of Hippo

"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? 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;" i.e., first cast the hatred away from thee, and then, but not before, shalt thou be able to amend him whom thou lovest. …

Sermon On The Mount 2.19.64-65 ↗

Thomas Aquinas

How, therefore, i.e., with what sincerity can you say: Let me take the speck out of your eye. You ought to blush. Chrysostom: "With what effort does a man love another more than himself?" For you correct him with the idea of correcting, you should first correct yourself; but this you do for hatred or vainglory. But one asks whether a person in mortal sin can correct another. I say that either he was in sin at one time or was not: if he was never in sin, he should fear lest he fall; therefore, he ought to correct reluctantly. …

Commentary on Matthew ↗