For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
Self-conceit, the chief hindrance to forbearing sympathy toward our fellow-men, must be laid aside.
Something - possessed of some spiritual pre-eminence, and exempt from the frailty of other men.
When he is nothing - `being, after all, nothing' (Romans 12:3; 1 Corinthians 8:2).
Deceiveth himself, х frenapata (G5422)] - 'he mentally deceives himself.' To test his own work (his whole course, 1 Peter 1:17), and judge by it, not by his mental fancy, is the remedy (cf. James 1:26).