Luke 12:25 (WEB)

Passage

Which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his height?

Nearby Context

Luke 12:23 Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.

Luke 12:24 Consider the ravens: they don’t sow, they don’t reap, they have no warehouse or barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than birds!

Luke 12:25 Which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his height?

Luke 12:26 If then you aren’t able to do even the least things, why are you anxious about the rest?

Luke 12:27 Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don’t toil, neither do they spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "anxious", "cubit", and "height". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "anxious" and "cubit", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 24's "Consider the ravens they don t sow..." into verse 26's "If then you aren t able to...", so "anxious" and "cubit" belong inside that flow. In Luke context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "anxious" and "cubit" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.