a comfort to keep  

Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us

Faith of Our Mothers

In the Garden

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Softly and Tenderly

Personal Saving Relationship "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine." Jesus to His followers, John 10:14 Jesus knows us even better than parents can know their children. Jesus is the good shepherd. Jesus knows us. We know Jesus. The Bible invites us into a personal, saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

Quotes & Notes

• There is a significant emphasis on personal knowledge;  Christ's knowledge of His own people and their knowledge of Him, the Father's knowledge of the Son and the Son's knowledge of the Father... Where no such personal relationships exist, there can be no true shepherd. 

Donald Guthrie, New Bible Commentary: Revised, p. 951
• The understanding between the shepherd and the sheep is a counterpart of the mutual knowledge existing between Father and Son... There may be many folds but there can be only one true flock.

A.J. Macleod, New Bible Commentary, p. 885
• Christ speaks here as if he gloried in being known by his sheep, and though their respect an honour to him. 

Matthew Henry, Commentary, p. 1032
• All beings have a right, even the innocent, to prefer sufferings for others, whether as patriot, martyr, or ransom.  The free volition of the Son was in profound concurrence and harmony with the primitive purpose of the Father's will.  And the whole process was bathed in infinite love.

D.D. Whedon, Commentary, p. 328
• Two applications of this second parable are given (vv 11-13, 14-18), each headed by the same declaration, "I am the good shepherd" (vv 11, 14)...  The first application connects this with the defense of the sheep against "wolves,"  a traditional image for false teachers... The second application speaks first of the inner life of the Church (the shepherd knows the sheep by name) and then of the Church's missionary outreach. 

Reginald H. Fuller, Preaching the Lectionary, p. 264
• He is an hireling, whop would not work, were it not for the hire;  to whom this is the great, if not only, motive of working.  O God!  if a man who works only for hire is such a wretch, a mere thief and a robber, what is he who continually takes the hire, and yet does not work at all?... because he loves the hire, not the sheep. 

John Wesley, Notes Upon the New Testament
• The "thieves and robbers" should not be exclusively applied to the priests;  they include all messianic pretenders and revolutionaries who destroy the flock by their temporal ambitions.

Massey H. Shepherd, Jr.,  Interpreter's One-Volume Commentary, p. 721
• Though Christ claims for himself alone the name of a shepherd, yet he indirectly states that,

in some respects, he holds it in common with the agents by whom he acts. For we know that there have been many, since the time of Christ, who did not hesitate to shed their blood for the salvation of the Church; and even the prophets, before his coming, did not spare their own life. But in his own person he holds out a perfect example, so as to lay down a rule for his ministers. For how base and shameful is our indolence, if our life is more dear to us than the salvation of the Church, which Christ preferred to his own life! 
John Calvin, Commentary
• Precious principle! They could have understood an earthly knowledge and interest on the part of the Messiah on earth with regard to His sheep. But the Son, although He had given His life and was in heaven, knows His own, even as the Father knew Him when He was on the earth.

 John Darby, Synopsis of  the New Testament
• The distinguishing mark of the Christian Church throughout all the world, is that it has only one head, that is Christ, the only keeper, and only shepherd of it. 

 Genevea Study Bible
• The soul's response to the voice that has inwardly and efficaciously called it; for of this mutual loving acquaintance ours is the effect of His.   "The Redeemer's knowledge of us is the active element, penetrating us with His power and life; that of believers is the passive principle, the reception of His life and light. In this reception, however, an assimilation of the soul to the sublime object of its knowledge and love takes place; and thus an activity, though a derived one, is unfolded, which shows itself in obedience to His commands" [OLSHAUSEN]. From this mutual knowledge Jesus rises to another and loftier reciprocity of knowledge.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary
• Not in a general way, as devils and external professors may know him, but with a special, spiritual, and saving knowledge: Christ's own approve of him, as their shepherd and their Saviour, and desire no other; they love him above all, in the sincerity of their souls, and with a love as strong as death; they trust in him as their shepherd, believing they shall not want; and appropriate him to themselves, as their own; and care for him, his cause and interest, his Gospel, ordinances, and ministers; and are not ashamed to own him as theirs, in the most public manner. 

John Gill,  Exposition of the Bible
• He is a hireling who would not work were it not  for this hire, and who works where the hire is highest rather than were he can do the most good.

Johnson, B.W., People's New Testament
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Resource Collections
 

Commentary Texts

Gospel Reading
1. Calvin, John
2. Darby, John N. 
3. Geneva Study Bible, 1599 
4. Gill, John
5. Henry, Matthew 
6. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown 
7. Johnson, B.W.
8. Robertson, A.T.
9. Wesley, John

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