For there is no good tree that bears bad fruit, nor, on the other hand, a bad tree that bears good fruit.
Parallel translations
- WEB For there is no good tree that produces rotten fruit; nor again a rotten tree that produces good fruit.
- KJV For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth 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.
- 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 you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?
- Matt 12:33“Either make the tree good, and its fruit good, or make the tree corrupt, and its fruit corrupt; for the tree is known by its fruit.
- Matt 7:16–20By their fruits you will know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles?
- Matt 3:10“Even now the ax lies at the root of the trees. Therefore every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit is cut down, and cast into the fire.
- Ps 92:12–14The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
- Isa 5:4What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
- Isa 61:3to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.