For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
We were as sheep gone astray from God and the fold, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Overseer and guardian of souls. As strayed sheep we were utterly helpless to find the way back alone, fainting and ready to die far from His care amid wild mountains, desert, thickets and mire. Because souls are precious to God, Christ came from heaven bearing our sins and dying for us, leaving the ninety and nine to seek the one over rough roads and through dark night until He lifts it from the mire and carries it home rejoicing. Return is possible only because His love seeks the wanderer, and in repenting and coming back into favor we are healed, restored to righteous living, and brought into close union with Him. Those who labor for souls must therefore continually look to Him for guidance and power, and seek the wounded and weak with His tenderness instead of abandoning them.
Straying Sheep, Faithful Shepherd
The verse describes people as sheep that had gone astray from God and from the fold, having rejected the Shepherd's voice, yet now returned to Christ as Shepherd and Bishop of souls. That reclaiming attaches them to Christ Himself and brings them into close fellowship and union with divinity. Wandering leaves the soul as helpless as a strayed sheep, the most helpless of all creatures, unable to find its way back by itself and unable to get out alone.
The straying sheep is far from the tender Shepherd's care, out on wild mountains and in the desert, in a wilderness of thickets, quagmires, briers, mire, and dangerous crevices in the rocks, fainting and helpless and ready to die. The lost, straying sheep is to be pitied and understood in weakness, as one bound in chains of darkness, lacking resolution and moral power. It suffers remorse as one stunned, staggering and sinking into the dust, with beclouded mind unable to see clearly or know what steps to take, misunderstood and unappreciated, full of distress and agony, unable to find God yet longing intensely for pardon and peace.
Shepherd and Bishop means overseer and guardian of souls, who cares for them with love, power, watchfulness, and tenderness. Christ came from heaven to bring the strayed back to the fold and to Himself, bearing their sins, suffering for them, and dying for them because souls are precious to God. His bearing their sins and suffering for them brings healing and enables righteous living.
Sought, Restored, Returned
Return to God is possible only because divine love comes to rescue and seeks out the wanderer, for wandering leaves the soul as helpless as a strayed sheep, the most helpless of creatures, unable to find its way back by itself. Christ as Shepherd guides the lost and scattered sheep back to the fold.
The Shepherd leaves the ninety and nine to go after the one, over rough and steep roads, through deep waters and dark night, through the desert and meeting every difficulty. He hears its cry and its bleating afar off, because one lost sheep is enough to awaken His sympathy and start Him on His quest. His seeking costs blood shed along the mountain track and hands rent and torn by thorns. As the pure sinless Redeemer and Sin-Bearer He parts the briers with firm yet gentle hand and lifts the sinful unclean sheep from the mire with no reproaches and only gladness that it is alive. He carries it on His shoulders back to the fold as a burden so precious that He rejoices and sings over it, with a cry to the gate of heaven to rejoice and angels singing around the throne, so that no sheep would ever enter the fold without that search.
The Shepherd waits to receive the strayed into the fold, and returning means repenting, doing the first works, and coming back into favor with God to follow the great Shepherd. In a time of persecution the true sheep hear the true Shepherd's voice, and self-denying efforts to save the lost bring many who have strayed back to Him. The return brings healing and restoration and enables righteous living, for His bearing sins and suffering for them makes that life possible. In trials this return is a source of comfort.
God reclaims the returned, attaches them to Christ Himself, and brings them into close fellowship and union with divinity. His guiding work is not abstract theory but truth essential to the development of character, enlarging capacity for knowing God and increasing efficiency to do good, speaking truths that relate to the conduct of life and take hold upon eternity. The strayed can be guided back to Him through study of His works alongside Scripture.
Looking to Christ, Seeking Lost
Those who labor for souls are to continually look to Christ as the Shepherd and Bishop of souls, follow His guidance, rely on Him, ask every hour, and receive power from on high. Looking to Him means being pledged to cooperate with Him and obey His directions, while cherishing a constant sense of His love, efficiency, watchfulness, and tenderness. Those who so look to Him have the sympathy and support of heavenly angels, have Christ as their joy and crown of rejoicing, have hearts controlled by the Holy Spirit, and gain a knowledge of the truth that merely nominal believers can never gain. His love, power, watchfulness, and tenderness sustain them as they proclaim the message.
Turning from human weakness and deception, including Satan's schemes and plans, to Christ brings people to stand securely on the platform of eternal truth. Turning from human foolishness and frailty, from man's seductive arts, and from Satan's planning to the Shepherd and Bishop brings people to stand secure upon that same platform of eternal truth. The verse belongs to the instruction in the first and second chapters of First Peter on the manner in which God's workers should labor. It teaches that medical missionary work shall be bound up with the gospel ministry and not made the body, that physicians are to hold the right God-designed relation to their brethren, that God's chosen people are to live in the world without being of the world and be kept free from contaminating worldly influences and counsels, and that medical workers are to be molded after Christ's similitude, take their stand on the platform of truth, and labor unitedly with church and ministers in soul-saving work. Caring for souls, like caring for bodily infirmities, calls for dependence on God who made people and knows how to direct them, since souls are precious to God and Christ died for them.
Christ has a yearning desire to bring those who have gone astray back again to His fold. The strayed include perishing souls and unbelievers in high places as well as in low places, and those who belong to Christ must work for them, search diligently for them, and watch for them as those that must give an account. In a time of persecution the true sheep hear the true Shepherd's voice, and self-denying efforts to save the lost bring many who have strayed back to follow the great Shepherd. God's lost sheep are scattered in many places and need to be reached with truth and brought back to the Shepherd. The work of seeking them is being neglected, and truth-bearing books are a means of reaching them.
Christ's followers should seek out the wounded and weak, bind them to themselves with love and sympathy, and help them regain strength and steadfastness. They are to show the erring the Great Shepherd's tenderness, lasting care, and love, and to seek those who have wandered rather than abandon them. They must search diligently and watch for the gone astray rather than hold a masterly, self-righteous, criticizing spirit toward them, for no sheep would ever enter the fold without the Shepherd's search. Each person should consider himself as individually borne on Christ's shoulders. The reference to sheep gone astray and returned to the Shepherd and Overseer is to be studied and practiced by looking to Jesus and trusting His grace to overcome destructive habits and regain self-control.
We were as sheep gone astray from God and the fold, but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Overseer and guardian of souls. As strayed sheep we were utterly helpless to find the way back alone, fainting and ready to die far from His care amid wild mountains, desert, thickets and mire. Because souls are precious to God, Christ came from heaven bearing our sins and dying for us, leaving the ninety and nine to seek the one over rough roads and through dark night until He lifts it from the mire and carries it home rejoicing. Return is possible only because His love seeks the wanderer, and in repenting and coming back into favor we are healed, restored to righteous living, and brought into close union with Him. Those who labor for souls must therefore continually look to Him for guidance and power, and seek the wounded and weak with His tenderness instead of abandoning them.
Straying Sheep, Faithful Shepherd
The verse describes people as sheep that had gone astray from God and from the fold, having rejected the Shepherd's voice, yet now returned to Christ as Shepherd and Bishop of souls. That reclaiming attaches them to Christ Himself and brings them into close fellowship and union with divinity. Wandering leaves the soul as helpless as a strayed sheep, the most helpless of all creatures, unable to find its way back by itself and unable to get out alone.
The straying sheep is far from the tender Shepherd's care, out on wild mountains and in the desert, in a wilderness of thickets, quagmires, briers, mire, and dangerous crevices in the rocks, fainting and helpless and ready to die. The lost, straying sheep is to be pitied and understood in weakness, as one bound in chains of darkness, lacking resolution and moral power. It suffers remorse as one stunned, staggering and sinking into the dust, with beclouded mind unable to see clearly or know what steps to take, misunderstood and unappreciated, full of distress and agony, unable to find God yet longing intensely for pardon and peace.
Shepherd and Bishop means overseer and guardian of souls, who cares for them with love, power, watchfulness, and tenderness. Christ came from heaven to bring the strayed back to the fold and to Himself, bearing their sins, suffering for them, and dying for them because souls are precious to God. His bearing their sins and suffering for them brings healing and enables righteous living.
Sought, Restored, Returned
Return to God is possible only because divine love comes to rescue and seeks out the wanderer, for wandering leaves the soul as helpless as a strayed sheep, the most helpless of creatures, unable to find its way back by itself. Christ as Shepherd guides the lost and scattered sheep back to the fold.
The Shepherd leaves the ninety and nine to go after the one, over rough and steep roads, through deep waters and dark night, through the desert and meeting every difficulty. He hears its cry and its bleating afar off, because one lost sheep is enough to awaken His sympathy and start Him on His quest. His seeking costs blood shed along the mountain track and hands rent and torn by thorns. As the pure sinless Redeemer and Sin-Bearer He parts the briers with firm yet gentle hand and lifts the sinful unclean sheep from the mire with no reproaches and only gladness that it is alive. He carries it on His shoulders back to the fold as a burden so precious that He rejoices and sings over it, with a cry to the gate of heaven to rejoice and angels singing around the throne, so that no sheep would ever enter the fold without that search.
The Shepherd waits to receive the strayed into the fold, and returning means repenting, doing the first works, and coming back into favor with God to follow the great Shepherd. In a time of persecution the true sheep hear the true Shepherd's voice, and self-denying efforts to save the lost bring many who have strayed back to Him. The return brings healing and restoration and enables righteous living, for His bearing sins and suffering for them makes that life possible. In trials this return is a source of comfort.
God reclaims the returned, attaches them to Christ Himself, and brings them into close fellowship and union with divinity. His guiding work is not abstract theory but truth essential to the development of character, enlarging capacity for knowing God and increasing efficiency to do good, speaking truths that relate to the conduct of life and take hold upon eternity. The strayed can be guided back to Him through study of His works alongside Scripture.
Looking to Christ, Seeking Lost
Those who labor for souls are to continually look to Christ as the Shepherd and Bishop of souls, follow His guidance, rely on Him, ask every hour, and receive power from on high. Looking to Him means being pledged to cooperate with Him and obey His directions, while cherishing a constant sense of His love, efficiency, watchfulness, and tenderness. Those who so look to Him have the sympathy and support of heavenly angels, have Christ as their joy and crown of rejoicing, have hearts controlled by the Holy Spirit, and gain a knowledge of the truth that merely nominal believers can never gain. His love, power, watchfulness, and tenderness sustain them as they proclaim the message.
Turning from human weakness and deception, including Satan's schemes and plans, to Christ brings people to stand securely on the platform of eternal truth. Turning from human foolishness and frailty, from man's seductive arts, and from Satan's planning to the Shepherd and Bishop brings people to stand secure upon that same platform of eternal truth. The verse belongs to the instruction in the first and second chapters of First Peter on the manner in which God's workers should labor. It teaches that medical missionary work shall be bound up with the gospel ministry and not made the body, that physicians are to hold the right God-designed relation to their brethren, that God's chosen people are to live in the world without being of the world and be kept free from contaminating worldly influences and counsels, and that medical workers are to be molded after Christ's similitude, take their stand on the platform of truth, and labor unitedly with church and ministers in soul-saving work. Caring for souls, like caring for bodily infirmities, calls for dependence on God who made people and knows how to direct them, since souls are precious to God and Christ died for them.
Christ has a yearning desire to bring those who have gone astray back again to His fold. The strayed include perishing souls and unbelievers in high places as well as in low places, and those who belong to Christ must work for them, search diligently for them, and watch for them as those that must give an account. In a time of persecution the true sheep hear the true Shepherd's voice, and self-denying efforts to save the lost bring many who have strayed back to follow the great Shepherd. God's lost sheep are scattered in many places and need to be reached with truth and brought back to the Shepherd. The work of seeking them is being neglected, and truth-bearing books are a means of reaching them.
Christ's followers should seek out the wounded and weak, bind them to themselves with love and sympathy, and help them regain strength and steadfastness. They are to show the erring the Great Shepherd's tenderness, lasting care, and love, and to seek those who have wandered rather than abandon them. They must search diligently and watch for the gone astray rather than hold a masterly, self-righteous, criticizing spirit toward them, for no sheep would ever enter the fold without the Shepherd's search. Each person should consider himself as individually borne on Christ's shoulders. The reference to sheep gone astray and returned to the Shepherd and Overseer is to be studied and practiced by looking to Jesus and trusting His grace to overcome destructive habits and regain self-control.