John 10:1 - Meaning and Application

It is not certain whether this teaching happened at the feast of dedication in winter, mentioned in John 10:22, or whether it was a continuation of Jesus’ earlier conversation with the Pharisees at the end of the last chapter. The Pharisees defended their opposition to Christ with this idea: they were the shepherds of God’s church, and since Jesus had no commission from them, they claimed he was an intruder and a liar. In answer, Christ describes the false shepherds and the true ones, leaving them to draw the conclusion about themselves.

Here begins the parable, or comparison, in John 10:1-5. It comes from the common way sheep were managed in that country. When divine truth is explained through comparisons, the examples should come from familiar things, so the things of God are made clearer, not hidden. Jesus begins very solemnly: “Truly, truly, I say to you.” This strong statement shows the certainty and importance of what he is about to say. We also find “amen” repeated in the church’s praises and prayers (Psalm 41:13; Psalm 72:19; Psalm 89:52). If we want our own “amen” to be accepted in heaven, we should first receive Christ’s repeated “amen” here on earth.

In the parable, first we see the mark of a thief and robber, one who comes to harm the flock and injure the owner, John 10:1. He does not enter by the door, because he has no lawful right to come in. Instead, he climbs in some other way, by a window or through a break in the wall. Wicked people work hard to do evil. They make plans, spend effort, and take risks for their sinful goals. That should shame us when we are lazy or timid in God’s service.

Next we see the character of the rightful owner, the one who truly owns the sheep and cares for them. He enters by the door, as one with authority, John 10:2. He comes to do good, to bind up what is broken and strengthen what is sick (Ezekiel 34:16). Sheep need human care, and in return they are useful to people (1 Corinthians 9:7). They clothe and feed those who care for them and feed them.

Then we see the shepherd’s open entrance. The porter opens to him, John 10:3. In those days, sheepfolds were often inside the outer gates of houses for safety. So no one could come in the right way unless the porter opened the gate or the owner gave him the keys.

We also see the shepherd’s care and provision for his sheep. The sheep hear his voice when he speaks to them in a familiar way, as people do with their dogs or horses. More than that, he calls his own sheep by name. This shows how closely he knows them and how carefully he keeps account of them. He leads them out of the fold to green pasture. When he sends them out to graze, he does not drive them. Instead, as was the custom then, he goes before them to guard them from danger. They are used to following him, and they are safe in his care, John 10:4-5.

Then we see the sheep’s response to the shepherd. They know his voice, so they can tell his meaning and distinguish it from a stranger’s voice. As the ox knows its owner (Isaiah 1:3), so the sheep know their shepherd. A stranger they will not follow. They suspect evil in him and flee from him, because they do not know his voice. This is the parable, and Ezekiel 34:31 gives the key: “You are my flock, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God.”

From this parable we may learn several things. First, good people are rightly compared to sheep. As creatures dependent on their Maker, people are called the sheep of his pasture. Good people, as new creatures, share the useful traits of sheep. They are harmless, gentle, quiet, patient under pressure, useful, tractable, and sociable. They are also often used in sacrifices.

Second, the church of God in the world is like a sheepfold. Into it the children of God, who had been scattered abroad, are gathered together (John 11:52). There they are united into one body. It is a good fold (Ezekiel 34:14; Micah 2:12), and it is well protected, because God himself is a wall of fire around it (Zechariah 2:5).

Third, this sheepfold is very exposed to thieves and robbers. Some are crafty deceivers who corrupt and mislead. Others are cruel persecutors who destroy and devour. They are like the grievous wolves Paul warned about (Acts 20:29), or like thieves who would steal Christ’s sheep to offer them to demons, or steal their food so they perish from hunger. They are also like wolves in sheep’s clothing (Matthew 7:15).

Fourth, the great Shepherd of the sheep takes wonderful care of the flock and everyone in it. God is the great Shepherd (Psalm 23:1). He knows his own, calls them by name, marks them for himself, leads them to rich pasture, makes them feed and rest there, speaks comfort to them, guards them by his providence, guides them by his Spirit and word, and goes before them to lead them in his steps.

Fifth, the under-shepherds, those entrusted to feed God’s flock, must be careful and faithful in that trust. Civil rulers should defend them and protect their earthly interests. Ministers should serve their spiritual good by faithfully opening and applying God’s word, and by rightly giving gospel ordinances. They should take oversight of the flock. They must enter by the door of lawful ordination, and to such the porter will open. The Spirit of Christ will give them an open door in the church and inward assurance in their own hearts. They should know the members of their flock by name and watch over them. They must lead them into the pasture of public worship, guide among them, speak for them to God and for God to them, and in their lives be examples to believers.

Sixth, those who truly are Christ’s sheep will carefully listen to their Shepherd and be wary of strangers. They follow their Shepherd because they know his voice. They have both a discerning ear and an obedient heart. They flee from a stranger and are afraid to follow him because they do not know his voice. It is dangerous to follow those in whom we do not hear the voice of Christ, or who try to pull us away from faith in him toward their own ideas about him. Those who have felt the power of divine truth in their souls, and have tasted its sweetness, gain a remarkable ability to detect Satan’s tricks and tell good from evil.

The Jews did not understand the point of this teaching (John 10:6). Jesus spoke in a vivid, wise, and helpful picture, but they did not grasp whom he meant by the thieves and robbers, or whom he meant by the good shepherd. It is both a sin and a shame when people hear Christ’s word and do not understand it. Often they do not understand because they do not want to, or because they choose to twist its meaning.

They had no real taste for the things Christ was talking about, and so they could not understand the comparisons he used. The Pharisees, the Jewish teachers who trusted in their own goodness, thought they knew a great deal. They could not bear to have their knowledge questioned, yet they did not even have enough sense to understand what Jesus was saying. Very often the people who claim the most knowledge are the most ignorant about the things of God.

Christ then explained this parable and opened every part of it clearly. Whatever difficulties we may find in the words of the Lord Jesus, he is ready to explain himself if we are willing to learn. One part of Scripture explains another, and the Holy Spirit is the interpreter of the words of Jesus.

In the parable, Christ had shown the difference between the shepherd and the robber by saying that the shepherd enters by the door. But in the explanation, he says that he is both the door through which the shepherd enters and the shepherd who enters by the door. In human speech, it may sound awkward to make the same person both the door and the shepherd. But in divine truth, there is no problem in saying that Christ has authority from himself, because he has life in himself. He also enters by his own blood, as the door, into the holy place.

Christ is the door. He said this to those who pretended to seek righteousness, but, like the men of Sodom, were worn out trying to find a door where none could be found. He said it to the Jews, who wanted to be seen as God’s only sheep, and to the Pharisees, who wanted to be seen as the only shepherds. “I am the door of the sheepfold,” he says, the door of the church.

In a general sense, he is like a shut door that keeps out thieves and robbers, and all who should not be admitted. Closing the door secures the house, and what greater safety does God’s church have than the Lord Jesus standing between it and all its enemies with his wisdom, power, and goodness? He is also like an open door for going in and out. Through Christ, as the door, we first enter the flock of God (John 14:6). Through him we go in and out in a faithful life, helped by him and accepted in him, walking in his name (Zechariah 10:12). Through him God comes to his church, visits it, and shares himself with it. And through him, as the door, the sheep are finally admitted into the heavenly kingdom (Matthew 25:34).

More specifically, Christ is the door for the shepherds. So anyone who does not come in through him should not be counted as a true pastor, but, according to the rule already given (John 10:1), as a thief and robber, even if he claims to be a shepherd. The sheep did not listen to them. This points to all who held the place of shepherds in Israel, whether rulers or ministers, and carried out their work without any concern for the Messiah, or with only selfish hopes about him.

Their character is plain: they are thieves and robbers (John 10:8). This does not mean everyone who lived before Christ, since many were faithful shepherds. It means those who came before him without his sending them, and tried to go ahead of his authority (Jeremiah 23:21), or who lifted themselves above him, like the man of lawlessness who exalts himself (2 Thessalonians 2:4). The scribes, Pharisees, and chief priests, in fact all who tried to block Christ’s work and keep people’s minds from him, are thieves and robbers. They stole hearts that did not belong to them and cheated the true owner of his own property.

They condemned our Savior as a thief and robber because he did not come in through them as the door or take a license from them. But he shows that they should have received their authority from him, been admitted by him, and come after him. Since they did none of that, but moved ahead of him, they were thieves and robbers. They would not come in as his disciples, so they stood condemned as usurpers, and their supposed authority had no real force. Any rival to Christ robs his church, even if he claims to be a shepherd, or even a shepherd over other shepherds.

Yet the sheep were kept safe from them. The true-hearted, those with real devotion to God and holiness, could not approve of the elders’ traditions or enjoy their empty religious show. Christ’s disciples, even without special instructions from their Master, did not feel bound to wash their hands before eating or to avoid plucking grain on the Sabbath. Nothing opposes true Christianity more than Pharisee-like religion, and nothing is less pleasing to a truly devout soul than hypocritical worship.

Christ is also the door of the sheep (John 10:9). “By me,” that is, through me as the door, “if anyone enters into the sheepfold, he will be saved.” He will be safe not only from thieves and robbers, but also blessed. He will go in and out and find pasture. Here are clear directions for entering the fold, we must come through Jesus Christ as the door. By faith in him, as the great mediator, one who brings God and man together, we enter into covenant and fellowship with God. No one enters God’s church except by coming into Christ’s church, and no one is counted among the people of God unless they are willing to submit to the grace and rule of the Redeemer. Since the gate of innocence is now shut to us, and the way back is blocked (Genesis 3:24), we must enter by the door of faith (Acts 14:27).

There are also precious promises for those who follow this way. First, they will be saved at last, which is the privilege of their home. These sheep will be saved from being seized and held by divine justice for their wrongs, because satisfaction for the damage has been made by their great Shepherd. They will also be saved from becoming prey to the roaring lion, and they will be happy forever. Second, for the present they will go in and out and find pasture, which is the privilege of their journey. By Christ’s grace they will live their lives in the world, as if they were in his fold and at home, with free entry and exit. True believers are at home in Christ. When they go out, they are not shut out as strangers. When they come in, they are not shut in as trespassers.

They go out into the field in the morning and come into the fold at night. In both places, the Shepherd leads and keeps them, and they find food in both, grass in the field and fodder in the fold. In public and in private, they have God’s word to talk over, and through it their spiritual life is fed and supported. Their holy desires are satisfied, and they are filled with the goodness of God’s house.

Christ is the Shepherd, as John 10:11 and the verses after it teach. The Old Testament had already spoken of him as a shepherd (Isaiah 40:11; Ezekiel 34:23; Ezekiel 37:24; Zechariah 13:7). In the New Testament, he is called the great Shepherd (Hebrews 13:20), the chief Shepherd (1 Peter 5:4), and the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls (1 Peter 2:25). God, our great owner, whose sheep we are by creation, has appointed his Son Jesus to be our Shepherd, and Jesus often claims that relation.

He cares for the church, and for every believer, the way a good shepherd cares for his flock. He also deserves from the church, and from every believer, the same attention and obedience that shepherds in those countries expected from their sheep. Christ is a shepherd, not like the thief, and not like those who did not come in by the door. The thief comes with no good purpose, only to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10). Those who steal people’s hearts and affections from Christ and his pasture end up killing and destroying them spiritually, because the false teachings they slip in are deadly. Those who keep Scripture in a language people cannot understand, or who cut down the sacraments and change their proper meaning, or who replace Christ’s commands with their own inventions, also kill and destroy. Ignorance and idolatry ruin souls.

When such people cannot steal the sheep away, and cannot lead, drive, or carry them off from Christ’s flock, they try to kill and destroy them physically through persecution and massacre. A person who will not allow himself to be robbed is often in danger of being slain. Christ, by contrast, comes to give life to the sheep. In direct opposition to the thief, whose purpose is to kill and destroy, Jesus says that he came so that people may have life. He came to bring life to the whole flock, the church, which had seemed more like a valley of dry bones than a pasture full of sheep. He came to defend God’s truth, purify God’s ordinances, correct wrongs, and revive failing zeal. He came to seek the lost and bind up the broken (Ezekiel 34:16), and for the church this is like life from the dead.

He came to give life to each believer as well. Life means all good things together, and it stands against the death threatened in Genesis 2:17. It is life as a criminal has when pardoned, as a sick person has when healed, and as a dead person has when raised. It means that we may be justified, made right with God, sanctified, set apart and made holy, and at last glorified. He came so that they might have life more abundantly. That can mean life fuller than what was lost through sin, fuller than what the law of Moses promised, and fuller than we could expect or even ask for. It can also mean simply that they might have abundance, life with something more, something better. In Christ, we not only live, we live comfortably, richly, and with joy. That abundant life is eternal life, life without death or fear of death, life and much more.

Christ also came to give his life for the sheep, and in doing so to give life to them (John 10:11). It is the mark of every good shepherd to risk his own life for the sheep. Jacob did that when he endured great hardship to care for the flock (Genesis 31:40). David did it when he killed the lion and the bear. Paul was such a shepherd of souls too, willing to spend himself gladly for others and not counting his life dear compared with their salvation. But Christ had a greater role. He gave his life to purchase his flock (Acts 20:28), to make payment for their sin, and to shed his blood to wash and cleanse them.

Christ is also a good Shepherd, not like a hired worker. There were many who were not thieves, and did not aim to kill and destroy the sheep, yet they acted like shepherds while neglecting their duty. Because of that neglect, the flock suffered greatly. The prophets called them foolish shepherds and idle shepherds (Zechariah 11:15, Zechariah 11:17). Against them, Christ calls himself the good Shepherd (John 10:11), and again the Shepherd, the good Shepherd, the one God had promised. Jesus Christ is the best Shepherd there is to care for souls. No one is so wise, so faithful, so tender. No one feeds, leads, protects, and heals souls like he does.

He proves this by contrasting himself with hired workers (John 10:12-14). The unfaithful shepherd is careless. A hireling is employed as a servant and paid for his work, but the sheep are not his own. He has no real gain or loss tied to them. When he sees the wolf coming, or some other danger, he leaves the sheep to the wolf, because he truly does not care about them. This plainly points back to the idol shepherd in Zechariah 11:17. Evil shepherds, whether magistrates or ministers, are described here by both their wrong principles and their wrong actions.

Their bad principles lie at the root of their bad actions. What makes those who care for souls betray their trust in hard times, and ignore it in peaceful times? What makes them false, shallow, and self-seeking? It is this, they are hirelings, and they do not care for the sheep. That means the world’s wealth is their chief good. They took up the shepherd’s office as a way to make a living and grow rich, not as a way to serve Christ and do good. Their driving force is love of money and love of their own comfort.

That does not mean that people who serve at the altar and live, even comfortably, from the altar are hirelings. The worker is worthy of his food, and a disgraceful salary will soon lead to a disgraceful ministry. But hirelings are those who love the pay more than the work and set their hearts on wages, as the hireling is said to do (Deuteronomy 24:15). See also 1 Samuel 2:29; Isaiah 56:11; Micah 3:5, Micah 3:11. The work of their office is the least of their concern.

They care little for the sheep and are unconcerned about other people’s souls. Their aim is to rule over their brothers, not to serve as their keepers or helpers. They look out for their own interests, and they do not, like Timothy, naturally care about the condition of souls. What else should we expect except that they will run when the wolf appears?

He does not care for the sheep, because the sheep are not his own. In one sense, even the best under-shepherds can say the sheep are not their own. They do not have authority over them as property, for Christ says, “Feed my sheep and my lambs.” Yet in affection and love, the sheep should be their own. Paul treated as his own those whom he called his dearly loved and longed-for brothers and sisters. Those who do not truly take the church’s interests to heart, and make them their own concern, will not stay faithful to the church for long.

See also the bad actions that come from these bad principles, in John 10:12. The hired worker abandons his post in a shameful way. When he sees the wolf coming, even though that is when the sheep need him most, he leaves them and runs away. People who care more about their own safety than their duty are easy targets for Satan’s temptations.

The results are terrible. The hired worker thinks the sheep can fend for themselves, but they cannot. The wolf catches them and scatters the flock, and great harm is done. The treacherous shepherd will be held responsible for all of it. The blood of dying souls is required from careless watchmen.

In contrast, look at the grace and tenderness of the good Shepherd, as Ezekiel had foretold (Ezekiel 34:21, 22). “I am the good Shepherd.” This is a comfort to the church and to all her friends. However much the church may be damaged or endangered by the failure and treachery of its under-officers, the Lord Jesus is, and always has been, the good Shepherd.

Here are two great ways his goodness is shown. First, he knows his flock, including all who belong to it in any way, and there are two groups he knows. He knows all who are already part of his flock (John 10:14-15), as in John 10:3-4: “I know my sheep, and mine know me.” There is a mutual knowing between Christ and true believers. They know each other well, and in Scripture, knowledge includes love and approval.

Christ knows his sheep. He can tell, with a discerning eye, who truly belongs to him and who does not. He knows the sheep in all their weakness, and he sees through the goats even when they hide under a respectable appearance. He looks kindly on those who are truly his own. He notices their condition, cares about their troubles, has a tender heart toward them, and constantly remembers them in the intercession he continues to make in heaven. He visits them by his Spirit and has fellowship with them. To know them means that he approves and accepts them, as in (Psalm 1:6; Psalm 37:18; Exodus 33:17).

He is known by them. He looks on them with favor, and they look to him with faith. Christ’s knowing his sheep comes before their knowing him, because he loved us first (1 John 4:19). Our happiness is found not so much in our knowing him as in his knowing us (Galatians 4:9). Even so, it is the mark of Christ’s sheep that they know him. They know him from all false claims and intruders. They know his mind, hear his voice, and know from experience the power of his death. Christ speaks here almost as if he takes pride in being known by his sheep and counts their respect as an honor.

On this point, Christ also mentions the mutual knowledge between himself and the Father: “As the Father knows me, so I know the Father” (John 10:15). This can be taken in two ways. First, it shows the deep and settled relationship between Christ and believers. The covenant of grace, which binds them to Christ, rests on the covenant of redemption between the Father and the Son, and that agreement is surely firm. The Father and the Son understood each other perfectly in that matter, so there was no mistake and no uncertainty. The Lord Jesus knows whom he has chosen and is certain of them (John 13:18), and they know whom they have trusted and are certain of him (2 Timothy 1:12). The ground of both is the perfect understanding between the Father and the Son when they made their peaceful plan together.

Second, it is a fitting comparison that shows how close Christ and believers are. The meaning can be joined to the earlier words like this: “I know my sheep, and mine know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father” (compare John 17:21). As the Father knew the Son, loved him, and stood by him in his sufferings when he was led like a sheep to the slaughter, so Christ knows his sheep and keeps a watchful, tender eye on them. He will be with them when they are left alone, just as his Father was with him. And as the Son knew the Father, loved him, obeyed him, always did what pleased him, and trusted him as his God even when he seemed to be forsaken, so believers know Christ with trusting obedience.

Second, he knows those who will later become part of this flock (John 10:16): “Other sheep I have,” sheep that belong to me and have an interest in me, “which are not of this fold,” meaning the Jewish church. “Them also I must bring.” Notice Christ’s care for the poor Gentiles. He had already said that he had a special concern for the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and his personal ministry was indeed limited to them. But here he says, “I have other sheep.” Those who would later believe in Christ and come to obey him from among the Gentiles are called sheep here. Christ is said to have them already, even though at that time they were not yet called, and many had not even been born, because God had chosen them and given them to Christ in eternal love. By the Father’s gift and by his own purchase, Christ has a rightful claim to many souls he does not yet fully possess. In that sense, he already had many people in Corinth when that city was still living in sin (Acts 18:10). “Those other sheep I have,” Christ says. “I have them on my heart, I have them in view, and I am as sure to have them as if I already possessed them.”

Christ says this for two reasons. First, to remove the scorn that was placed on him because he had so few followers and such a small flock. If he is a good shepherd, some might still call him a poor one. But Christ says, “I have more sheep than you can see.” Second, to humble the pride and empty boasting of the Jews, who thought the Messiah must gather all his sheep from among them. Christ answers, “No, I have others, and I will place them with the lambs of my flock, even if you refuse to place them with the dogs of yours.”

He goes on to explain the purposes and promises of his grace toward his people. “I must bring them home to God, bring them into the church, and, to do that, bring them away from their empty way of life and back from their wandering, like the lost sheep in Luke 15:5.” But why must he bring them? The need of their condition required it. If he did not bring them, they would wander forever, because, like sheep, they would never return on their own, and no one else could or would bring them back.

His own commitments also required it. He must bring them, or he would not be faithful to the trust given to him or true to his own promise. They are his own, bought and paid for, so he must not neglect them or let them perish. He is bound in honor to bring those entrusted to him.

The result is blessed in two ways. First, “They shall hear my voice.” This does not only mean that his voice will be heard among them, though before they had not heard, and so could not believe. It also means that they themselves will hear it. He will speak, and he will give them ears to hear. Faith comes by hearing, and careful attention to Christ’s voice is both a means of coming to Christ and a sign that we have been brought to him and to God through him.

Second, there will be one flock and one shepherd. As there is one shepherd, so there will be one flock. Jews and Gentiles, when they turn to the faith of Christ, will be joined into one church and share equally in its privileges, with no divide between them. United to Christ, they will be united in him. Two sticks become one in the hand of the Lord. One shepherd makes one flock, and one Christ makes one church. Since the church is one in its structure, under one head, filled by one Spirit, and guided by one rule, its members should also be one in love and affection (Ephesians 4:3-6).

Christ’s giving up himself for his sheep is another proof that he is a good shepherd, and here he shows even more clearly the greatness of his love (John 10:15, John 10:17, John 10:18). He says plainly that he means to die for his flock: “I lay down my life for the sheep” (John 10:15). He did more than simply risk his life for them, where the chance of saving it might balance the fear of losing it. He actually gave it up and accepted the necessity of dying for our rescue. The word here means to place something down as a pledge or payment, like purchase money paid in full. Sheep set apart for slaughter, ready to be sacrificed, were ransomed with the blood of the shepherd.

He laid down his life for the sheep, not only for their good, but in their place. Many sheep had been offered in sacrifice for their shepherds as sin offerings, but here the great surprise is the reverse, the shepherd is sacrificed for the sheep. When David, the shepherd of Israel, had sinned, and the destroying angel drew his sword against the people because of him, David had good reason to plead, “These sheep, what evil have they done? Let your hand be against me” (2 Samuel 24:17). But the Son of David was sinless and pure, and his sheep had done much evil. Yet he says, “Let your hand be against me.” Christ seems to be pointing to the prophecy, “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd” (Zechariah 13:7). And though striking the shepherd scatters the flock for a time, it does so in order to gather them in the end.

He also removes the offense of the cross, which many see as a stumbling block, by four considerations. First, his laying down his life for the sheep was the condition that led to the honor and authority of his exalted state (John 10:17). “Therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life.” In this way, as Mediator, that is, as the one who brings God and people together, he was to receive his Father’s approval and the glory prepared for him, by becoming a sacrifice for the chosen remnant. This does not mean the Son of God was not loved by the Father from eternity. Rather, as God-man, as Immanuel, he was loved by the Father because he agreed to die for the sheep.