Bible Strands
Luke 6:43
No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Jesus addresses a listener in the Sermon on the Plain, immediately after warning against hypocritically judging a brother while ignoring one’s own faults. He introduces the agricultural metaphor to ground the preceding command to examine oneself first.
The words — καλὸν (kalon) denotes moral goodness, while σαπρὸν (sapron) describes decayed or rotten produce. These terms establish a fixed correlation between a tree’s inherent nature and its observable output.
The thread — The same botanical principle appears in Matthew 12:33 and Matthew 7:16, where Jesus uses tree and fruit to teach discernment. Jeremiah 2:21 echoes the motif by contrasting God’s planting of a choice vine with Israel’s turn to wildness.
Why it lands — The text requires honest self-assessment before attempting to correct others, since outward actions reveal inward character. It demands that the reader examine their own moral condition rather than project judgment onto a brother.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
For a good tree bringeth not forth corrupt fruit; neither doth a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 2:21 I had planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. How could you turn yourself before Me into a rotten, wild vine?
- Matthew 12:33 Make 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.
- Matthew 7:16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
- Matthew 3:10 The axe lies ready at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
- Psalms 92:12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
- Isaiah 5:4 What more could have been done for My vineyard than I have done for it? Why, when I expected sweet grapes, did it bring forth sour fruit?
- Isaiah 61:3 to 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.