Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
Parallel translations
- WEB Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit.
- BSB Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad 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 12:33–35Either 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.
- Gal 5:22–24But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
- Eph 5:9(For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
- Ps 1:3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
- Ps 92:13–14Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
- Col 1:10That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
- Jer 17:8For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
- Luke 13:6–9He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none.
- Jas 3:17–18But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
- Jer 11:19But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
- Phil 1:11Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
- 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.
- Jude 1:12These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
- Isa 5:3–5And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
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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.