So make up your mind not to worry beforehand how to defend yourselves.
Parallel translations
- WEB Settle it therefore in your hearts not to meditate beforehand how to answer,
- KJV Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer:
- NKJV Therefore settle it in your hearts not to meditate beforehand on what you will answer;
- NASB So make up your minds not to prepare beforehand to defend yourselves;
- NLT So don’t worry in advance about how to answer the charges against you,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Believers need not anxiously rehearse their defense in advance.
Overview
Jesus relieves His followers of the burden of worrying how to answer their accusers. They are to trust rather than to plan their words in fear. This rests on confidence in God's faithful provision in the hour of trial.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Mark 13:11But when they arrest you and hand you over, do not worry beforehand what to say. Instead, speak whatever you are given at that time, for it will not be you speaking, but the Holy Spirit.
- Luke 12:11–12When you are brought before synagogues, rulers, and authorities, do not worry about how to defend yourselves or what to say.
- Matt 10:19–20But when they hand you over, do not worry about how to respond or what to say. In that hour you will be given what to say.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Luke shows Jesus the Savior for all — outsiders, the poor, the nations — the one who, on the Emmaus road, opened all the Scriptures to show they were about himself.
How Luke 21:14 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.