I have to continue to look past seemingly mentally retarded judgemental Christians to the truth of our father in heaven. Christian, "Why do you see the splinter in your brother’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly enough to take the splinter out of your brother’s eye." or "You're the one with the problem so shut the fuck up until you fix yourself." - SirJohnMichael® Am I the hypocrite? I may be but please, christian, until you know the "word of God" the ONLY thing you have, keep your judgements to yourself.
I used to think it was fun to ask a christian what Paul's thorn in the flesh was in second Corinthians "so that I would not become arrogant, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to trouble me" because they would proceed to admit their own sin/guilt. Then I would point out the Bible NEVER explains what that thorn is. Then I'd explain that whatever they claimed that thorn was was their own problem/sin. I'd continue by asking to pray with them. LOL-sorry.
Only after correcting one’s own behavior will one see clearly enough to make adequate judgments and help anyone else correct his/her own behavior. This is a recognition of the human tendency to judge based on our own heart; that is, we tend to see ourselves in others. The postmodern recognition of essential subjectivity is closely related to this concept. Just like a man with a splinter in his eye, we see that splinter only much larger than it really is, as a beam everywhere we look. If we are arrogant, we tend to see arrogance in other people. If we are cruel, we tend to suspect cruelty in others. If we are lecherous an outstanding and underused word. Isn’t that a great word, "lecherous"? Even better is the noun, "lecher," as in "you filthy lecher!", we tend to suspect sexual motives, desires, or behaviors in others. It is extraordinarily hard for us to break out of ourselves enough to truly empathize, seeing from another’s viewpoint, and Yeshua makes the case that it is far harder, perhaps impossible to do so when we are not pure hearted ourselves. As long as we hold to our own faults, we will see them in everyone else. But, as Titus 1:15 says, "to the pure everything is pure."
So the passage is actually a condemnation of hypocrisy, not judgment. Yeshua’s counsel is to tend to our own behavior and attitudes before attempting to help anyone else. If we attempt to judge before doing so, our judgment will be flawed by our own “splinters.” But the passage is in no way forbidding judgment. On the contrary, it asserts that judgment, like charity, begins at home.
It is extraordinarily ironic that this passage therefore condemns those who most vigorously accuse others of "judging," since they are themselves condemning condemnation, the very hypocrisy the passage condemns! The very judgment they condemn is precisely what they themselves are doing, they see their own splinter in the eyes of those around them. This passage would say to them, "Don’t forbid others from judging while condemning their judgment or right to judge! You hypocrites! Far from forbidding judgment, you have made yourselves the chief justices!" The whole point is that Yeshua here rebukes those who judge others for doing what they themselves do, like negatively judging someone for being judgmental which I'll admit I'm guilty of... without bringing up psychological projection, projecting undesirable feelings or emotions onto someone else, rather than admitting to or dealing with the unwanted feelings. Or, that everything is a reflection of consciousness. I'll save that for the master class!!