For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Parallel translations
- WEB For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit.
- BSB No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
- NKJV “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
- NASB For there is no good tree that bears bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree that bears good fruit.
- NLT “A good tree can’t produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can’t produce good fruit.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
A tree's nature determines its fruit: good trees bear good fruit, rotten trees bad. Character inevitably reveals itself in conduct.
Overview
Jesus uses the familiar image of trees and fruit to teach that outward behavior flows from inward nature. One's deeds reveal the true state of the heart. This truth points to the need for inward transformation, for only a heart renewed by God in Christ can bear genuinely good fruit.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 7
- Jer 2:21Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?
- Matt 12:33Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.
- Matt 7:16–20Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
- Matt 3:10And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
- Ps 92:12–14The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
- Isa 5:4What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
- Isa 61:3To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 6:43 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.