But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it” (Luke 8:21).

In Luke 8:21, the Lord stresses the importance of hearing and doing the wordⁱ of God. Some take this verse as being addressed to unbelievers. They need to hear the message of eternal life and then do what God requires of them. What God requires is that the unbeliever believe in the promise of life given freely by Christ. It is a life that can never end (John 6:40)

While it is true that the unbeliever is called to believe in Jesus for eternal life, I don’t think that is what the Lord is talking about in Luke 8:21. He is talking to disciples. He wants believers to hear what He is saying, and then do it.

He had just explained to them the meaning of the “Parable of the Four Soils” and was encouraging them to hear, with “a noble and good heart,” what He was saying (8:11-15). If they did, they would have a great harvest of rewards in His coming kingdom

But it would take effort. It was not automatic. They would experience temptations from the world as well as opposition and difficulties to their message that Jesus was the Christ, that His kingdom was coming, and that He would richly reward faithful service to Him. In this context, that message is Jesus calls “the word of God.”

This view is supported by what happens next. The Lord gives them the opportunity to do what they just heard. He tells the disciples to get into a boat with Him and cross the Sea of Galilee. Every student of the Bible knows what happens: A storm arose on the sea, and the disciples thought they were going to die (v 24). The Lord then calmed the sea with just His word.

That storm represented the difficulties one might encounter as a believer who is serving the Lord. Jesus rebukes them for their lack of faith (v 25). Why didn’t they believe the word of God that He had just communicated to them in the “Parable of the Four Soils”? Their fearful reaction showed that they were not doing what they had just heard.

This shows that hearing the word of God is not just a physical thing. It means we must think about what we hear, realize what it means, then act upon it. The disciples did not do that. They had an opportunity to show the Lord that they had been listening, but they blew it. They did not have good and noble hearts. They were cowards.

But thankfully, that’s not the end of the story. The Lord was once again giving them the word of God. His word was powerful enough to calm the sea. His word saved them from what they were sure was a certain death. He showed them the power of His word. They should therefore believe what He said about difficulties and rewards.

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, He does the same for you. You have His Word. He wants you to hear it, think about it, and act upon it. You will have opportunities to put that Word into practice. Those opportunities will often place you in difficult situations. But His Word says that He is using those difficulties to give you great rewards in His eternal kingdom. Sometimes, you will blow it. When you do, ask the Lord for strength. With that strength, pick yourself up and hear that word again.

It is strong enough to calm any storm in which you find yourself.

ⁱ The Lord was referring to the spoken word of God. We capitalize Word of God when it refers to God’s written revelation.