Luke 8:21

But He replied, “My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and carry it out.”

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Jesus responds to a report that His biological mother and brothers are standing outside wanting to see Him, addressing the crowd and His disciples at that moment.

The words — ἀποκριθεὶς (apokritheis) translates “answering” or “replying,” and μὴτηρ (mētēr) means “mother,” anchoring His direct response that redefines kinship.

The thread — Luke 11:27 records a woman blessing Jesus’ mother, James 1:22 commands readers to be doers rather than hearers only, and John 13:17 states that blessing follows doing the word.

Why it lands — The text states that spiritual kinship is established by hearing God’s word and carrying it out, requiring active obedience instead of relying on physical proximity or blood relation.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Greek words

King James Version

And he answered and said unto them, My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God, and do it.

Cross-references

Luke 11:27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and blessed are the breasts that nursed You!”
James 1:22 Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.
John 13:17 If you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you also know that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him.
3 John 1:11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does good is of God; the one who does evil has not seen God.
Hebrews 2:11 For both the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers.
John 15:14 You are My friends if you do what I command you.
2 Corinthians 6:18 And: “I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”
John 6:28 Then they inquired, “What must we do to perform the works of God?”
Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.