Mark 4:8

4:8 But ¹  other seed fell on good soil and produced grain, sprouting and growing; some yielded thirty times as much, some sixty, and some a hundred times.”

Matthew 13:23

13:23 But as for the seed sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands. He bears fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown.” ² 

Luke 8:15

8:15 But as for the seed that landed on good soil, these are the ones who, after hearing ³  the word, cling to it ⁴  with an honest and good ⁵  heart, and bear fruit with steadfast endurance. ⁶ 

John 15:4-5

15:4 Remain ⁷  in me, and I will remain in you. ⁸  Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, ⁹  unless it remains ¹⁰  in ¹¹  the vine, so neither can you unless you remain ¹²  in me.

15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains ¹³  in me – and I in him – bears ¹⁴  much fruit, ¹⁵  because apart from me you can accomplish ¹⁶  nothing.

Romans 7:4

7:4 So, my brothers and sisters, ¹⁷  you also died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you could be joined to another, to the one who was raised from the dead, to bear fruit to God. ¹⁸ 

Galatians 5:22-23

5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit ¹⁹  is love, ²⁰  joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²¹  5:23 gentleness, and ²²  self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Philippians 1:11

1:11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Colossians 1:10

1:10 so that you may live ²³  worthily of the Lord and please him in all respects ²⁴  – bearing fruit in every good deed, growing in the knowledge of God,

Colossians 1:1

Salutation

1:1 From Paul, ²⁵  an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

Colossians 4:1-2

4:1 Masters, treat your slaves with justice and fairness, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

Exhortation to Pray for the Success of Paul’s Mission

4:2 Be devoted to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving.

Colossians 1:8

1:8 who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

[4:8]  ¹ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “but” to indicate the contrast present in the final stage of the parable.

[13:23]  ² tn The Greek is difficult to translate because it switches from a generic “he” to three people within this generic class (thus, something like: “Who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one instance a hundred times, in another, sixty times, in another, thirty times”).

[8:15]  ³ tn The aorist participle ἀκούσαντες (akousante") has been taken temporally, reflecting action antecedent (prior to) that of the main verb.

[8:15]  ⁴ sn There is a tenacity that is a part of spiritual fruitfulness.

[8:15]  ⁵ sn In an ancient context, the qualifier good described the ethical person who possessed integrity. Here it is integrity concerning God’s revelation through Jesus.

[8:15]  ⁶ sn Given the pressures noted in the previous soils, bearing fruit takes time (steadfast endurance), just as it does for the farmer. See Jas 1:2-4.

[15:4]  ⁷ tn Or “Reside.”

[15:4]  ⁸ tn Grk “and I in you.” The verb has been repeated for clarity and to conform to contemporary English style, which typically allows fewer ellipses (omitted or understood words) than Greek.

[15:4]  ⁹ sn The branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it remains connected to the vine, from which its life and sustenance flows. As far as the disciples were concerned, they would produce no fruit from themselves if they did not remain in their relationship to Jesus, because the eternal life which a disciple must possess in order to bear fruit originates with Jesus; he is the source of all life and productivity for the disciple.

[15:4]  ¹⁰ tn Or “resides.”

[15:4]  ¹¹ tn While it would be more natural to say “on the vine” (so NAB), the English preposition “in” has been retained here to emphasize the parallelism with the following clause “unless you remain in me.” To speak of remaining “in” a person is not natural English either, but is nevertheless a biblical concept (cf. “in Christ” in Eph 1:3, 4, 6, 7, 11).

[15:4]  ¹² tn Or “you reside.”

[15:5]  ¹³ tn Or “resides.”

[15:5]  ¹⁴ tn Or “yields.”

[15:5]  ¹⁵ tn Grk “in him, this one bears much fruit.” The pronoun “this one” has been omitted from the translation because it is redundant according to contemporary English style.

[15:5]  ¹⁶ tn Or “do.”

[7:4]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “brothers.” See note on the phrase “brothers and sisters” in 1:13.

[7:4]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “that we might bear fruit to God.”

[5:22]  ¹⁹ tn That is, the fruit the Spirit produces.

[5:22]  ²⁰ sn Another way to punctuate this is “love” followed by a colon (love: joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control). It is thus possible to read the eight characteristics following “love” as defining love.

[5:22]  ²¹ tn Or “reliability”; see BDAG 818 s.v. πίστις 1.a.

[5:23]  ²² tn “And” is supplied here as a matter of English style, which normally inserts “and” between the last two elements of a list or series.

[1:10]  ²³ tn The infinitive περιπατῆσαι (peripathsai, “to walk, to live, to live one’s life”) is best taken as an infinitive of purpose related to “praying” (προσευχόμενοι, proseucomenoi) and “asking” (αἰτούμενοι, aitoumenoi) in v. 9 and is thus translated as “that you may live.”

[1:10]  ²⁴ tn BDAG 129 s.v. ἀρεσκεία states that ἀρεσκείαν (areskeian) refers to a “desire to please εἰς πᾶσαν ἀ. to please (the Lord) in all respects Col 1:10.”

[1:1]  ²⁵ tn Grk “Paul.” The word “from” is not in the Greek text, but has been supplied to indicate the sender of the letter.