Judge not ...

There is only one direction to apply Matthew 7:1-5 and that is inward toward my own self.   If I am thinking "so and so" needs to stop judging and apply this to their life, I have missed the point of what Jesus is teaching.  So I try to have the my first response to noticing someone else's mess, is to stop and take time to examine my life, thoughts, and attitudes, for these very things and clean up my own life before I can expect to be helpful in cleaning up others lives. This passage also indicates that we often are blind to "log" in our own lives, while capable of seeing the "speck" in others.  So our in our examination of ourselves we must ask God to reveal our mess to us (me) and be willing to see it and by God's grace and power clean it up first.  

Love must be sincere, WITHOUT hypocrisy.  I can't lovingly correct until l have examined myself first.  

Loving correction can and should be given but we must FIRST fully and completely examine and clean up our own mess first.  Which is why I say that Matt. 7:1-5 is one directional - inward (to be applied inwardly only),

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:1-5 NIV)