Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
Parallel translations
- WEB Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit.
- KJV Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
- NKJV Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
- NASB So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit.
- NLT A good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad 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
Good trees bear good fruit and bad trees bear bad fruit. The inner nature of a person determines the outward result.
Overview
Jesus presses the principle that fruit corresponds to the tree that bears it. A person's deeds flow inevitably from the condition of the heart, so outward conduct reveals inward reality. This underlines the necessity of genuine inward transformation, which the gospel alone provides, rather than mere external religion.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Matt 12:33–35Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad; for a tree is known by its fruit.
- Gal 5:22–24But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
- Eph 5:9for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth.
- Ps 1:3He is like a tree planted by streams of water, yielding its fruit in season, whose leaf does not wither, and who prospers in all he does.
- Ps 92:13–14Planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God.
- Col 1:10so that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord and may please Him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
- Jer 17:8He is like a tree planted by the waters that sends out its roots toward the stream. It does not fear when the heat comes, and its leaves are always green. It does not worry in a year of drought, nor does it cease to produce fruit.
- Luke 13:6–9Then Jesus told this parable: “A man had a fig tree that was planted in his vineyard. He went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any.
- Jas 3:17–18But the wisdom from above is first of all pure, then peace-loving, gentle, accommodating, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial, and sincere.
- Jer 11:19For I was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter; I did not know that they had plotted against me: “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”
- Phil 1:11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
- Isa 61:3to console the mourners in Zion—to give them a crown of beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and a garment of praise for a spirit of despair. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.
- Jude 1:12These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
- Isa 5:3–5“And now, O dwellers of Jerusalem and men of Judah, I exhort you to judge between Me and My vineyard.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 7:17 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.