Luke 21:16

But ye shall be delivered up even by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolk, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. And not a hair of your head shall perish. In your patience ye shall win your souls.

John Wesley's comment on these verses is correct and impressive; he said: "`Not a hair of your head shall perish' is a proverbial expression (meaning that ye shall not perish) - that is, without the special providence of God, and not before the time, nor without full reward."[17]

Summers declared flatly that " Luke 21:18-19 contain words of assurance which appear to be contradictory to what is contained in Luke 21:16!"[18] Some of the Twelve, Jesus said, would be "put to death"; yet here he says, "Not a hair of your head shall perish ... ye shall win your souls." Of course, the ancient Pharisees would have been sure this is a contradiction; but one is always surprised when a Christian falls into such error. Jesus' teaching here is that, even though the Twelve are put to death, nevertheless, neither their soul nor their body (from mention of hair) shall perish! Some of the Twelve were put to death, but have they perished? No. They sit upon twelve thrones judging twelve tribes of (spiritual) Israel (Matthew 19:28).

William Barclay had a beautiful understanding of this, thus:

Jesus spoke of a safety that overpasses the threats of earth. In the days of the 1914-1918 war, Rupert Brooke, out of his faith and his ideal, wrote these lines:

War knows no power, Safe shall be my going, Secretly armed against all death's endeavor: Safe though all safety's lost; safe where men fall; And if these poor limbs die, safest of all.

The man who walks with Christ may lose his life, but he can never lose his soul.[19]

In your patience, ye shall win your souls ... We should not leave this passage without regarding the admonition to patience. The apostles needed it; Jesus was here telling them that a whole generation would pass before even the first phase of this vast prophecy would begin to unfold, and that some of them would not live to see even the type enacted before men's eyes, to say nothing of the anti-type.

When this writer was engaged in efforts to construct the church of Christ complex on Madison Avenue, New York City, at a time when things were discouraging, Berry Brown, the great elder of the church of Wichita Falls, Texas, sought him after a lecture at Abilene Christian College and handed him a slip of paper on which were written these words in the old KJV version, "In your patience, possess ye your souls!" Here is a fountain of strength for every mortal who must endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.

[17] John Wesley, Notes on the New Testament (Naperville, Illinois: Alec. R. Allenson, Inc., 1950), p. 282.

[18] Ray Summers, Commentary on Luke (Waco, Texas: Word Books, Publisher, 1974), p. 257.

[19] William Barclay, op. cit., p. 270.