Literature: The literary expectation that the fruit of “all sorts” is good extends through verse 31, with the anticlimax in 32. As literature, this passage contains a nice tension in which the expectation of success is forcibly (and with somewhat dramatic sadness) reversed. The visually promising fruit is not as good as expected. The Lord declares that “it profiteth me nothing.” Botanically, such olives would be a fruit incapable of producing salable oil. Spiritually, despite the promise of the various forms of godliness, they are incapable of saving human souls. While there may be other uses for such fruit, in terms of the desired and ultimate goal, they “profit nothing.”