King James Version Matthew 7:3-5
And why beholdest the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or 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.
Thou hypocrite first cast out the beam out of thine own eye;
and then thou shalt see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
Joseph Smith Translation aka "The Inspired Version"
And again, ye shall say unto them,
Why is it that thou beholdest the mote that is in thy brother's eye,
but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Or how wilt thou say to thy brother,
Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye;
and canst not behold a beam in thine own eye?
And Jesus said unto his disciples, beholdest thou the scribes,
and the Pharisees, and the priests, and the Levites?
They teach in their synagogues, but do not observe the law;
nor the commandments, and all have gone out of the way,
and are under sin.
Go thou and say unto them,
Why teach ye men the law and the commandments,
when ye yourselves are the children of corruption?
Say unto them, Ye hypocrites, first cast out the beam
out of thine own eyes; and then shalt thou see clearly
to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.
1. The truth here stated by the Eternal GOD, JESUS CHRIST, is that it is the leadership of a religion that is guilty of the greatest sins. The humble members who have no power have tiny specks of dust in their eyes. The proud priestly authorities have giant pieces of wood in their eyes making it impossible for them to judge correctly anyone else's flaws.
2. See Doctrine and Covenants section 121 for the LORD's warning to the leadership of this generation. That warning has habitually been broken or ignored by the leadership since the deaths of Hyrum and Joseph Smith. The absence of spiritual gifts in the LDS church since 1844 are proof positive that GOD has said "amen" to any pretended priesthood coming out of Salt Lake City.
3. Religious leaders blinded by the beams of greed, power, control, compulsion, hypocrisy, lust (via polygamy) and other sins cannot see clearly the minor sins committed by the rank and file members. This is how you end up with 15 superior beings who do not trust the 15 million followers, because they know at some level that they themselves cannot be trusted. So we get prohibitions against things we eat and drink, counsel to avoid R rated movies, limitations on earrings, 3 hour block schedules of busy work, and a constant focus of doing what you are told by people instead of a focus on what CHRIST said.
JESUS took the entire law of Moses and broke it down into 2 great commandments. Mormons can take ten commandments and magically turn them into 110. For the untrusted teenagers we throw in seminary every weekday morning (outside of the special land of Utah where the chosen children can sleep in). These kids obviously cannot be trusted to go more than 24 hours without an adult telling them what to do. Perhaps that is because the adults have more experience with actual sinning.
4. The typical follower of the LDS religion cannot accept CHRIST's good news at face value, believing HIS grace to be too good to be true. This causes the members to create a checklist of behaviors in an misguided attempt to save themselves or at least to occupy their time until they die and then get saved because they endured to the end by remaining active in a religion, but inactive spiritually.
5. CHRIST is clearly saying that leaders need to lead by example, like HE did. Until they have been redeemed from the fall via the 1st and 2nd comforters they need to focus on their own sins and be quiet. If I can't speak French, how can I teach someone else French? The LDS church has plenty of men who have never seen CHRIST, or an angel, or a vision, but these same leaders are ready to tell us how to get to the Kingdom of GOD..."follow the prophet."
They are like substitute bus drivers who do not have a map of where to go, but they still drive around and hope no one notices.
6. The phrase "children of corruption" is remarkably apt for the current cadre of men making a base salary of at least $120,000 a year, not to mention the money paid them for sitting on church-owned company boards, free housing, etc. The corruption comes from telling everyone that they are not paid.
7. I presently have plenty of lumber in my own vision to work on, and I have probably committed more sins than any Mormon in history except Brigham Young and Ted Bundy. We all need to repent, and high church office does not make you immune from sin.