Charles Spurgeon Commentary Luke 12:11-12

"And when they bring you before the synagogues, and the rulers, and the authorities, be not anxious how or what ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: for the Holy Spirit shall teach you in that very hour what ye ought to say." — Luke 12:11-12 (ASV)

Take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what ye ought to say.

I have often been amazed and delighted with the remarkable answers given to bishops and priests by poor, humble men and women who were on trial for their lives. Perhaps you remember that Anne Askew was asked, in order to entangle her in her speech, "What would become of a mouse if it ate the bread of the holy sacrament?"

She said that was too deep a question for a poor woman like her to answer. She begged the learned bishop on the bench to tell her what would become of the mouse, to which he answered that it would be damned.

Now, what reply could be given to that but the one Anne Askew gave: "Alas, poor mouse!" I do not know that anything better could have been said.

On other occasions, there have been answers that were deeply theological. Some have been wisely evasive, some full of weight, and others full of grace and truth. This is because the Holy Ghost has helped his saints in times of persecution to answer well those who have accused them.

And when they bring you to the synagogues, and to magistrates, and powers, take no thought how or what thing you shall answer, or what you shall say: for the Holy Ghost shall teach you in the same hour what you should say.

He has often done this. If you will read, in Foxe's Book of Martyrs, the answers given even by unlearned, illiterate men and women, who were taken quite by surprise, and assailed by subtle questions, you will see that they often answered in a remarkably wise way. They could not have answered better if the questions had been before them for months. They frequently burned their cunning adversaries by their wisdom and sometimes by their wit, for the Holy Ghost taught them in the same hour what they should speak.