And you will be hated (despised) by everyone because [you bear] My name and for its sake. But not a hair of your head shall perish. By your steadfastness and patient endurance, you shall win the true life of your souls. Luke 21:17-19 [AMP]
Do we live in a crazy time or what?!? Most of Luke 21 focuses on the days leading up to and the signs of Jesus’ return. There is a good portion that feels like now and some that doesn’t seem to have happened yet. At first glance, verse 18 implies that we will not be physically harmed but verses 16 defeats that interpretation.
You will be delivered up and betrayed even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and [some] of you they will put to death.
Luke 21:16 [AMP]
The point here is that whatever happens, the bodies of the faithful will be restored at the resurrection – hair and all. This does not rule out the possibility of God’s providential protection; after all, Paul guarantees the proverbial hair of the sailors’ heads in Acts 27:34. But Jesus’ words encourage me to take the long view afforded by God’s resurrection power. In the meantime, Jesus tells the disciples’ that their participation in the future resurrection was not to be taken for granted; it depended on their persisting in endurance. Assurance of salvation follows not just from faith in the here and now, but also perseverance in the future.