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Luke 21 · a question people ask

"Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer" (21:14). Does that mean you should never prepare what to say about your faith?

In the text

Here is when Jesus says it: "they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake." (21:12). "It will turn out as a testimony for you." (21:13). Then: "Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict." (21:14-15). He says it of being delivered up to synagogues and prisons and brought before kings and governors (21:12), and he gives his reason in 21:15. Luke tells of nothing more Jesus said about it. These notes quote his words as they stand and don't say what they mean for anyone today.

The verses

“But before all these things, they will lay their hands on you and will persecute you, delivering you up to synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake. It will turn out as a testimony for you. Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries will not be able to withstand or to contradict.”
Luke 21:12-15 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of Luke 21

Luke 21: Lift up your heads

The widow is called poor in two Greek words: Luke's own, penichros, in no other verse of the New Testament (21:2), and Jesus's, ptochos (21:3). And Jesus's answer ends in words from the parable of the farmer: in Greek, the cares of 21:34 are the cares that choke those among the thorns (8:14), and the endurance of 21:19 is the perseverance of those in the good ground (8:15).

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Last reviewed October 7, 2026. Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions