Of this passage one student of the scriptures wrote: “I was reading in 1 Nephi, the part when Nephi received his own vision of the tree of life… . Have you ever wondered how the wicked get into the building if it doesn’t touch ground? Well, they’re lifted up in the pride of their hearts,” and they have no foundation.
Elder Neal A. Maxwell commented on worldly people mocking the righteous: “The laughter of the world is merely loneliness pathetically trying to reassure itself.” 18 Inhabitants of the great and spacious building use some of Lucifer’s greatest tools—scorn, mockery, and peer pressure—to defeat the weak (those not thoroughly committed to God’s kingdom) who were partaking of the fruit but became ashamed because the world made fun of them. The adversary will use the ways of the world to draw away disciples after him. President Daniel H. Wells presciently stated, “There will come a time, … in the history of the Saints, when they will be tried with peace, prosperity, popularity and riches.” 19
See also commentary at Helaman 12:1–3.