The Meaning of Luke 6:42 Explained

Luke 6:42

KJV: Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 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.

YLT: or how art thou able to say to thy brother, Brother, suffer, I may take out the mote that is in thine eye -- thyself the beam in thine own eye not beholding? Hypocrite, take first the beam out of thine own eye, and then thou shalt see clearly to take out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.

Darby: or how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, allow me, I will cast out the mote that is in thine eye, thyself not seeing the beam that is in thine eye? Hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine eye, and then thou shalt see clear to cast out the mote which is in the eye of thy brother.

ASV: Or how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me cast out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.

KJV Reverse Interlinear

Either  how  canst thou  say  to thy  brother,  Brother,  let me  pull out  the mote  that is in  thine  eye,  when thou  thyself  beholdest  not  the beam  that is in  thine  own eye?  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. 

What does Luke 6:42 Mean?

Context Summary

Luke 6:39-49 - The Test That Reveals Character
Yes, it is true! Some day we shall be perfected. The long discipline will be over, and we shall be able to close our lesson books and go home. We shall then be found to be like Christ, our Lord. The promise of Luke 6:40 is very beautiful, though it sometimes seems far away.
We need to look at home first, before we essay to judge or condemn others. It is blundering waste to deal with other people's eyes if you have a defect in yours. Colorblind men ought not to run trains. Speech betrayeth men; what they say, that they are. The man who is quickest to judge and discuss the faults of another does so because of his own experience of the same sin. How else could he know so much about it?
The rock is not the Church, nor doctrine, nor even the Bible, but Christ, Isaiah 28:16. [source]

Chapter Summary: Luke 6

1  Jesus reproves the Pharisees;
12  chooses apostles;
17  heals the diseased;
20  preaches to his disciples before the people: the beattitudes;
27  Love your Enemy
37  Do not Judge
43  A Tree and Its Fruit
46  The House on the Rock

Greek Commentary for Luke 6:42

Canst thou say [δυνασαι λεγειν]
Here Matthew 7:4 has wilt thou say (ερεις — ereis). [source]
Beholdest not [ου βλεπων]
Matthew 7:4 has “lo” Contrast to the studied politeness of “brother” (αδελπε — adelphe) above. Powerful picture of blind self-complacence and incompetence, the keyword to argument here. [source]
Thou hypocrite [υποκριτα]
Contrast to the studied politeness of “brother” (αδελπε — adelphe) above. Powerful picture of blind self-complacence and incompetence, the keyword to argument here. [source]
Brother []
“Expressing the pretence of fraternal duty. To this is opposed 'Thou hypocrite!'” (Bengel). [source]
Let me east out [ἄφες ἐκβάλω]
with a studied courtesy: allow me to east out. [source]
See clearly to cast out []
See on Matthew 7:5. [source]

Reverse Greek Commentary Search for Luke 6:42

Matthew 7:5 Shalt thou see clearly [διαβλεπσεις]
Only here and Luke 6:42 and Mark 8:25 in the New Testament. Look through, penetrate in contrast to βλεπεις — blepeis to gaze at, in Matthew 7:3. Get the log out of your eye and you will see clearly how to help the brother get the splinter out (εκβαλειν — ekbalein) of his eye. [source]
1 John 2:5 Is the love of God perfected [ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ τετελείωται]
Rev., rendering the perfect tense more closely, hath the love of God been perfected. The change in the form of this antithetic clause is striking. He who claims to know God, yet lives in disobedience, is a liar. We should expect as an offset to this: He that keepeth His commandments is of the truth; or, the truth is in him. Instead we have, “In him has the love of God been perfected.” In other words, the obedient child of God is characterized, not by any representative trait or quality of his own personality, but merely as the subject of the work of divine love: as the sphere in which that love accomplishes its perfect work. The phrase ἡ ἀγάπη τοῦ Θεοῦ the love of God, may mean either the love which God shows, or the love of which God is the object, or the love which is characteristic of God whether manifested by Himself or by His obedient child through His Spirit. John's usage is not decisive like Paul's, according to which the love of God habitually means the love which proceeds from and is manifested by God. The exact phrase, the love of God or the love of the Father, is found in 1 John 3:16; 1 John 4:9, in the undoubted sense of the love of God to men. The same sense is intended in 1 John 3:1, 1 John 3:9, 1 John 3:16, though differently expressed. The sense is doubtful in 1 John 2:5; 1 John 3:17; 1 John 4:12. Men's love to God is clearly meant in 1 John 2:15; 1 John 5:3. The phrase occurs only twice in the Gospels (Luke 6:42; John 5:42), and in both cases the sense is doubtful. Some, as Ebrard, combine the two, and explain the love of God as the mutual relation of love between God and men. It is not possible to settle the point decisively, but I incline to the view that the fundamental idea of the love of God as expounded by John is the love which God has made known and which answers to His nature. In favor of this is the general usage of ἀγάπη lovein the New Testament, with the subjective genitive. The object is more commonly expressed by εἰς towardsor to. See 1 Thessalonians 3:12; Colossians 1:4; 1 Peter 4:8. Still stronger is John's treatment of the subject in ch. 4. Here we have, 1 John 4:9, the manifestation of the love of God in us ( ἐν ἡμῖν ) By our life in Christ and our love to God we are a manifestation of God's love. Directly following this is a definition of the essential nature of love. “In this is love; i.e., herein consists love: not that we have loved God, but that He loved us ” (1 John 4:10). Our mutual love is a proof that God dwells in us. God dwelling in us, His love is perfected in us (1 John 4:12). The latter clause, it would seem, must be explained according to 1 John 4:10. Then (1 John 4:16), “We have known and believed the love that God hath in us ” (see on John 16:22, on the phrase have love ). “God is love;” that is His nature, and He imparts this nature to be the sphere in which His children dwell. “He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God.” Finally, our love is engendered by His love to us. “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
In harmony with this is John 15:9. “As the Father loved me, I also loved you. Continue ye in my love.” My love must be explained by I loved you. This is the same idea of divine love as the sphere or element of renewed being; and this idea is placed, as in the passage we are considering, in direct connection with the keeping of the divine commandments. “If ye keep my commandments ye shall abide in my love.”-DIVIDER-
This interpretation does not exclude man's love to God. On the contrary, it includes it. The love which God has, is revealed as the love of God in the love of His children towards Him, no less than in His manifestations of love to them. The idea of divine love is thus complex. Love, in its very essence, is reciprocal. Its perfect ideal requires two parties. It is not enough to tell us, as a bare, abstract truth, that God is love. The truth must be rounded and filled out for us by the appreciable exertion of divine love upon an object, and by the response of the object. The love of God is perfected or completed by the perfect establishment of the relation of love between God and man. When man loves perfectly, his love is the love of God shed abroad in his heart. His love owes both its origin and its nature to the love of God. -DIVIDER-
-DIVIDER-
The word verily ( ἀληθῶς ) is never used by John as a mere formula of affirmation, but has the meaning of a qualitative adverb, expressing not merely the actual existence of a thing, but its existence in a manner most absolutely corresponding to ἀλήθεια truthCompare John 1:48; John 8:31. Hath been perfected. John is presenting the ideal of life in God. “This is the love of God that we keep His commandments.” Therefore whosoever keepeth God's word, His message in its entirety, realizes the perfect relation of love. [source]

What do the individual words in Luke 6:42 mean?

How are you able to say to brother of you Brother let [that] I might cast out the splinter that [is] in the eye yourself the of you beam not seeing Hypocrite cast out first from the eye and then you will see clearly - of the brother to cast out
πῶς δύνασαι λέγειν τῷ ἀδελφῷ σου Ἀδελφέ ἄφες ἐκβάλω τὸ κάρφος τὸ ἐν τῷ ὀφθαλμῷ αὐτὸς τὴν σοῦ δοκὸν οὐ βλέπων ὑποκριτά ἔκβαλε πρῶτον ἐκ τοῦ ὀφθαλμοῦ καὶ τότε διαβλέψεις τὸ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ἐκβαλεῖν

πῶς  How 
Parse: Adverb
Root: πῶς  
Sense: how, in what way.
δύνασαι  are  you  able 
Parse: Verb, Present Indicative Middle or Passive, 2nd Person Singular
Root: δύναμαι  
Sense: to be able, have power whether by virtue of one’s own ability and resources, or of a state of mind, or through favourable circumstances, or by permission of law or custom.
λέγειν  to  say 
Parse: Verb, Present Infinitive Active
Root: λέγω 
Sense: to say, to speak.
ἀδελφῷ  brother 
Parse: Noun, Dative Masculine Singular
Root: ἀδελφός  
Sense: a brother, whether born of the same two parents or only of the same father or mother.
σου  of  you 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 2nd Person Singular
Root: σύ  
Sense: you.
Ἀδελφέ  Brother 
Parse: Noun, Vocative Masculine Singular
Root: ἀδελφός  
Sense: a brother, whether born of the same two parents or only of the same father or mother.
ἄφες  let  [that] 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Imperative Active, 2nd Person Singular
Root: ἀφίημι 
Sense: to send away.
ἐκβάλω  I  might  cast  out 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Subjunctive Active, 1st Person Singular
Root: ἐκβάλλω  
Sense: to cast out, drive out, to send out.
κάρφος  splinter 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Neuter Singular
Root: κάρφος  
Sense: a dry stalk or twig, a straw.
τὸ  that  [is] 
Parse: Article, Accusative Neuter Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
ὀφθαλμῷ  eye 
Parse: Noun, Dative Masculine Singular
Root: ὀφθαλμός  
Sense: the eye.
αὐτὸς  yourself 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Nominative Masculine 3rd Person Singular
Root: αὐτός  
Sense: himself, herself, themselves, itself.
σοῦ  of  you 
Parse: Personal / Possessive Pronoun, Genitive 2nd Person Singular
Root: σύ  
Sense: you.
δοκὸν  beam 
Parse: Noun, Accusative Feminine Singular
Root: δοκός  
Sense: a beam.
βλέπων  seeing 
Parse: Verb, Present Participle Active, Nominative Masculine Singular
Root: βλέπω  
Sense: to see, discern, of the bodily eye.
ὑποκριτά  Hypocrite 
Parse: Noun, Vocative Masculine Singular
Root: ὑποκριτής  
Sense: one who answers, an interpreter.
ἔκβαλε  cast  out 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Imperative Active, 2nd Person Singular
Root: ἐκβάλλω  
Sense: to cast out, drive out, to send out.
πρῶτον  first 
Parse: Adverb, Superlative
Root: πρῶτον 
Sense: first in time or place.
ὀφθαλμοῦ  eye 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root: ὀφθαλμός  
Sense: the eye.
διαβλέψεις  you  will  see  clearly 
Parse: Verb, Future Indicative Active, 2nd Person Singular
Root: διαβλέπω  
Sense: to look through, penetrate by vision.
τὸ  - 
Parse: Article, Accusative Neuter Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
τοῦ  of  the 
Parse: Article, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root:  
Sense: this, that, these, etc.
ἀδελφοῦ  brother 
Parse: Noun, Genitive Masculine Singular
Root: ἀδελφός  
Sense: a brother, whether born of the same two parents or only of the same father or mother.
ἐκβαλεῖν  to  cast  out 
Parse: Verb, Aorist Infinitive Active
Root: ἐκβάλλω  
Sense: to cast out, drive out, to send out.