Additional Teaching Ideas

The following material supplements the suggested lesson outline. You may want to use one or more of these ideas as part of the lesson.

1. “By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matthew 7:20)

2. Video presentation

The second segment of “New Testament Customs,” a selection from New Testament Video Presentations (53914), explains the Jews’ use of phylacteries and fringes. If you show this segment, discuss how these items, once used to show obedience to God, became symbols of the Pharisees’ desires to “be seen of men” as they worshiped (Matthew 6:5).

3. Finding the beam in our own eye

Share the following story about how the Prophet Joseph Smith taught one sister to look for the beam in her own eye when dealing with a personal offense:

A woman went to the Prophet Joseph Smith upset about some things another member of the Church had said about her. The Prophet told her that if what the man had said was untrue, she should ignore the matter, because truth would survive but untruths would not. The woman felt the comments were untrue, but she was not satisfied with ignoring the matter. The Prophet then told his way of handling such comments:

“When an enemy had told a scandalous story about him, which had often been done, before he rendered judgment he paused and let his mind run back to the time and place and setting of the story to see if he had not by some unguarded word or act laid the block on which the story was built. If he found that he had done so, he said that in his heart he then forgave his enemy, and felt thankful that he had received warning of a weakness that he had not known he possessed.”

The Prophet told the sister that she should think carefully about whether she had unconsciously given the man any reason to say the things he did. After much thought, she decided she had, and she thanked the Prophet and left. (See Jesse W. Crosby, quoted in Hyrum L. Andrus and Helen Mae Andrus, comps., They Knew the Prophet [1974], 144.)

4. Youth activity

Write each of the following phrases from Matthew 6 and Matthew 7 on a separate card:


Let not thy left hand know (6:3)

What thy right hand doeth (6:3)

Thy Father which seeth in secret (6:6)

Shall reward thee openly (6:6)

Use not (6:7)

Vain repetitions (6:7)

Forgive men (6:14)

Their trespasses (6:14)

Lay up for yourselves (6:20)

Treasures in heaven (6:20)

Ye cannot serve (6:24)

God and mammon (6:24)

Seek ye first (6:33)

The kingdom of God (6:33)

Cast out the beam (7:5)

Out of thine own eye (7:5)

Ask (7:7)

And it shall be given you (7:7)

Seek (7:7)

And ye shall find (7:7)

Beware of (7:15)

False prophets (7:15)

By their fruits (7:20)

Ye shall know them (7:20)


Lay the cards facedown on the table or floor. Divide class members into two teams, and have the teams take turns choosing two cards. If the cards match, the team removes them from the table or floor and takes another turn. If the cards do not match, the team replaces them in their original positions, and the other team takes a turn. Continue until all the matches have been made.

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