The Mote and the Beam (also called discourse on judgmentalism) is a New Testament saying in Matthew 7:1-5 as part of the Sermon on the Mount.[1] The discourse is fairly brief, and begins by condemning those who would judge others, arguing that they too would be judged. The Sermon on the Plain has a similar passage in Luke 6:37-42.[2]
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The New Testament text is as follows:
1 JUDGE not, that ye be not judged. 2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. 3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye? 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, 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.— Matthew 7:1-5
The first two verses use plural "ye" and "you", and the next three verses use the singular "thou", "thy" and "thine" to the individual. Luke 6:41 also uses "thou" after using "ye" in verse 37.
The moral lesson is to avoid hypocrisy and censoriousness. The analogy used is of a small object in another's eye as compared with a large beam of wood in one's own. The original Greek word translated as "mote" (κάρφος karphos) meant "any small dry body."[3] A proverb of this sort was familiar to the Jews and appears in numerous other cultures too.[4] For example, the poet Robert Burns famously wrote:[5]
Oh, wad some Power the giftie gie us,
To see ourselves as others see us!
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The Mote and the Beam
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| Preceded by The Birds of Heaven in the Sermon on the Mount |
New Testament Events |
Succeeded by Discourse on the Two Ways in the Sermon on the Mount |