Seeing a fig tree by the roadside, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. He told it, "May fruit never come from you again!" And immediately the fig tree dried up.

When the disciples saw this, they were amazed. "How did the fig tree dry up so quickly?" they asked.

Jesus answered them, "I tell all of you with certainty, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you be able to do what has been done to the fig tree, but you will also say to this mountain, "Be removed and thrown into the sea,' and it will happen.

"Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches become tender and it produces leaves, you know that summer is near.

"Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree rotten and its fruit rotten, because a tree is known by its fruit.

In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a rotten tree produces bad fruit.

A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, and a rotten tree cannot produce good fruit.

The ax already lies against the roots of the trees. So every tree that isn't producing good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.