Matthew 3:10

Plain English Version

So you look out. God is going to punish you. He is like a man lifting up an axe to cut the roots of a tree. You are like trees that haven’t got good fruit, so men chop them down and throw them into a fire. God will punish you like that. He will throw you into a fire.”

Cross References

Matthew 7:19

If a farmer has a tree that only makes rubbish fruit, he will cut down that tree and burn it in a fire.

Luke 23:31

You see, I didn’t do anything wrong and people are hurting me. But you mob do bad things, so people will hurt you a lot more.” (We have not yet translated 23:32-38. You can read those stories and messages in Mark 15:21-32. They are about how soldiers nailed Jesus and 2 criminals to crosses.)

John 15:2

And people are like the branches of that grape vine. There are some people that don’t live God’s way. They are like branches on the vine that don’t grow any fruit. They are no good, so the gardener cuts them off. But some people do live God’s way. They are like branches on the vine that do grow fruit. My father keeps on working on those people, to get them to live God’s way even better. He is like the gardener that cleans up the good branches and trims them back a little bit, so that they will grow more fruit.

John 15:6

Some people might not stay joined to me. They will be like branches that the gardener cuts off and throws away. They lie on the ground and dry up, and later on, he will pick them up and throw them into a fire, and it will burn them up.