What Exactly Are Sins?

[Randy Carson]

Jesus spoke of this here:

Matthew 231-3
1 Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; 3 so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. "

But notice that Jesus instructed his followers to obey the preaching of the religious leaders because their authority was legitimate - even if they themselves did not practice what they preached. In the same way, we would be wise to follow the TEACHING of the Church leaders even if we cannot follow their practical examples.

Can a bad tree bear good fruit?  If the church leaders are hypocrites how can they teach anything good?

The leaders are not all of the Church, and not all of the leaders are hypocrites.

IOW, the tree is much bigger than a few individual leaves.