<p>6:42 <i>Or how can you say to your brother: Brother, let me cast out the splinter that is in your eye- when you yourself do not perceive the beam that is in your own eye? You hypocrite Cast out first the beam out of your own eye, and then shall you see clearly to cast out the splinter that is in your brother's eye</i>- The Lord foresaw the problems we would have within our community; from the schisms of the first century to the struggles of latter day believers. Consider the story He told of the carpenter with a beam in his own eye who is so keen to extract the splinter from the eye of his fellow worker (note how he almost forces himself upon his brother to do this). There is something grotesque, absurd, over the top in this story. In this story of the two carpenters there is something not only unreal, but almost cartoon-like. We read it and think 'The Lord's obviously exaggerating, nobody would really be so foolish'. But that's exactly how He knew we would think Our attempts to sort out our brother really are that absurd Christ is effectively saying: 'Now, I know you'll think I'm exaggerating- but I'm not' (Lk. 6:41,42). Often it seems the Lord intends us to think His parables through to their end, imagining the necessary details. A splinter will come out of the eye naturally, its presence will provoke tears which ultimately will wash it out. 'The grief of life will work on your brother to solve his problem, there are some spiritual weaknesses which time and the experience of life will heal; but I know you people will want to rush in and speed up the spiritual growth of your brother. But you can't do it'. Christ even foresaw how we will stress the fact that our fellow believer is our &quot;brother&quot; as we try to do this; as if we'll try to be so righteous in the very moment when in God's eyes we do something grotesquely foolish. Doubtless the Lord's carpenter years were the time when He formulated this story of the two carpenters. Significantly they both had wood in their eye- as if a brother will tend to seek to correct another brother who has in essence the same weaknesses, but the &lsquo;helping&rsquo; brother considers that the other brother&rsquo;s is so much greater than his. Perhaps the Lord intends us to take it further, and pick up the implication that these two carpenters couldn't help each other; but there's another one who can...</p><p>If we condemn ourselves in our self-examination, we will not be condemned (1 Cor. 11:31). We are to most importantly Gk. <i>proton</i> &ldquo;cast out&rdquo; the beam from our own eye (Lk. 6:42)- and the Lord uses the same word about the &lsquo;casting forth&rsquo; of the rejected at the last day. We are to judge our own weaknesses as worthy of condemnation. See on Lk. 18:10.</p>