So Jesus says we are hypocrites, in other words guilty of our own judgments of others. But not just guilty, overwhelmingly guilty by declaring our negative observations as a log in our eye. Some versions call the "speck" in our brother's eye a splinter. And to me this makes more sense in that a splinter is certainly a tiny sliver of a log.
The applicability of this scripture is not the guilt our hypocrisy can create, but rather the truth that our judgments of another person are really just a reflection of a much larger problem within ourselves.
For example if I look at someone and see them as controlling, it is usually because either I am observing a mirrored trait of what I am, or because their behavior has magnified a related issue in my own heart.
Likewise when you hear someone's judgments in gossip or confrontation, they are usually an unconscious confession of who they are.
I'm quite sure modern psychology has some fancy terms for this phenomenon, but at the end of the day it is a spiritual truth that Jesus pointed out years ago. A truth that is potentially at work every time we encounter someone one. And certainly observable in group interactions.
The point is that we need to be aware of our judgments and the refection of ourselves they represent. They are so often an opportunity to whittle at the log in our own eye so that we may see clearly.
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