As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.
Jesus is the true Shepherd of God's flock, in contrast to unfaithful leaders, to the thief who steals and destroys, and to the hireling who flees from danger, and He is the door by whom all enter to be saved and find abundant life. The Father and the Son know one another in close, complete and intimate unity, and Christ knows His sheep and is known by them in that same close way. He lays down His life of His own choice and by His own power, with power to take it again in obedience to His Father, and no one takes it from Him. In giving His life He became their substitute and surety, bearing their guilt and its penalty to vindicate God's law and make it possible for God to be just and to justify believers. As Shepherd He knows each one personally even by name and cares for each individually with infinite tenderness, having purchased them not with gold or silver but with His own precious blood, seeking the straying, defending them from danger, and leading them to pasture and refreshment.
Shepherd Picture and Setting
John 10:15 presents Jesus as the Messiah and the true Shepherd of the Lord's flock, whose mission is to care for His people by gathering and protecting them, in contrast to Israel's unworthy leaders. Unlike the thief who comes to steal and destroy, and unlike the hireling who does not own the sheep and flees when the wolf comes, He is the good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. He is also the door by whom anyone enters to be saved and to find pasture and abundant life. He has other sheep not of this fold whom He must bring to hear His voice, so that there will be one fold and one shepherd.
The shepherd and the sheep carry immortal truth through familiar images from daily life, illustrating His relationship to God and His unity with every member of the human family. The illustration is drawn from facts of life and facts of experience familiar to the hearers, with something to interest every mind and to appeal to every heart. It brightens and uplifts the daily task from a mere round of toil bereft of higher thoughts, giving constant reminders of the spiritual and the unseen and lifting ordinary work toward thoughts of the unseen. The shepherd picture was given for comfort before Christ left His disciples, so that whenever they saw a shepherd watching a flock they would remember His love and care.
As a shepherd guides hundreds and thousands of sheep by voice alone with no whip, making a peculiar sound that every sheep understands when one strays, so Christ leads His people by a call they know. They understand where He desires them to go and press close together following Him as the true Shepherd whom His sheep follow. His people must understand the voice of the true Shepherd, and workers must learn to recognize and obey His guidance as Israel was taught in the wilderness to know God and follow their invisible Leader.
Mutual Knowledge With Father
The Father and the Son know each other in a close, complete, intimate and mutual relationship of unity. That knowing belongs to Jesus as the true Shepherd, whose willingness to die for the sheep identifies Him, for He lays down His life of His own choice and has power to take it again in obedience to the commandment received from His Father. In giving His life to redeem them He became their substitute and surety, taking their liabilities and transgressions, fulfilling God's will and vindicating His law so that God can be just and yet justify those who believe in Jesus. His death is the sacrifice that recovers humanity, expressing the good Shepherd's faithful care for a dependent flock, and the Father's love for the Son is expressed in love for this saving sacrifice, while God Himself suffers in the suffering of His Son.
Christ knows His sheep and is known by them in the same close way that He and the Father know each other. Unlike the thief who steals and destroys and unlike the hireling who does not own the sheep and flees when the wolf comes, He is the door by whom anyone enters to be saved and to find pasture and abundant life. He has other sheep not of this fold whom He must bring to hear His voice, so that there will be one fold and one shepherd. This proves God's deep interest in the human family and shows where strength lies, in connection with Christ, calling believers to respond with interest in keeping their bodies free from disease.
That knowing and communion between Christ and the Father is the pattern for communion between Christ and His people on earth. The closeness promised is as deep as that of the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father and who is the Man that is God's fellow. Jesus is not only Shepherd but everlasting Father, and He loves His own as His children with a greater love than a shepherd has for sheep. They are loved because they are the gift of His Father and the reward of His work, and this love is the greatest and best that heaven can bestow, so it is ground for trust.
Being one with the Father, He reveals God's perfection in self-sacrifice, proving by the love displayed at Calvary that God is love. His laying down of His life is the giving of His flesh for the life of the world in obedience to the commandment He received from His Father, expressing the great love with which He loved humanity. That love brings moral power within human reach through faith in Christ, so that men may become partakers of the divine nature and form characters after the divine similitude by perfect obedience to the law of God.
Christ agreed with the Father to reveal God's love to fallen humanity from intimate knowledge of the Father. Because no lesser gift could display that infinite love, He became one with humanity, took human nature, endured temptation, and died so that people might live through faith in His redeeming power. His sacrifice is the supreme reason believers should love one another as He loved them.
The Father loves the Son because the Son lays down His life for the sheep. The laying down of His life was His spotless perfection of character and His life of unselfish service for others as an unchanging companion, by which He manifested the Father's name. It proves that God's love is a living reality, not uncertain and unreal, and that the Father loves every member of the human family with so great a love that He loves His Son more for dying for them.
Willing Sacrifice for Sheep
He lays down His life of His own choice and by His own power, with power to take it again, in obedience to the commandment received from His Father, and no one takes it from Him. In giving His life to redeem fallen humanity He became their substitute and surety, taking their liabilities, transgressions, and guilt and its full penalty upon Himself. By that sacrifice He fulfilled the Father's will and vindicated the justice of God's law, making it possible for God to be just and to justify those who believe in Jesus.
His sacrifice expresses the great value He places on God's children and His love for them, for He laid aside His honor and heavenly position, took human nature, became humanity's representative, and offered a complete sacrifice through which He can offer perfect righteousness and full salvation to everyone who believes in Him as a personal Saviour. Because no lesser gift could display infinite love, He agreed with the Father to reveal God's love, became one with humanity, endured temptation, and died so that people might live through faith in His redeeming power. His death is a ransom for many bearing the penalty due transgressors of God's law, and by suffering in human nature while free from sin He upholds the law as holy, just, and good, reveals sin's true guilt, preserves the honor of God's authority, and magnifies and honors the law while securing eternal life. His laying down of life was also His spotless perfection of character and His life of unselfish service for others as an unchanging companion, by which He manifested the Father's name.
His sacrifice is sufficient for every soul from Adam's time to the end of earth's history, not limited to one people or nation, so people of every tribe and nation may come to Him, and He is the only one to whom His sheep can look to give them eternal life. The laying down of life for the sheep is the giving of His flesh for the life of the world, to be received as the living bread that came down from heaven by personal faith in a personal Saviour that brings spiritual union, dwelling in Him and He in the believer and living by Him unto everlasting life and resurrection at the last day, for mere outward connection with the church does not save. His self-sacrifice is part of God's plan to reconcile fallen humanity to Himself after apostasy began in denial of the love of God plainly revealed, providing a powerful revelation of God's love and an opportunity to return to allegiance to Jehovah and to save completely to the uttermost, because God is light and love.
Shepherd's Love and Care
The heavenly Shepherd knows each person in His flock personally, even by name, and cares for each one individually as though no one else existed. He values every lamb and tenderly watches over them.
He loves His own as His children with a greater love than a shepherd has for sheep. That love is grounded in their being the Father's gift and the reward of His work, and it is the greatest and best gift heaven can bestow, so it is ground for trust. Tribulation cannot separate them from Him, for having died for them He lives to intercede for them. The closeness promised is as deep as that of the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father.
He looks upon them with infinite tenderness and unutterable affection as the claims of His love and His own property and His chosen ones. He purchased them at great cost in suffering in the flesh, not with gold or silver but with His own precious blood, so they should not perish. His care is marked by kindness, mercy, and tenderness, and He gives the fragrance of His own righteousness to His loved ones who believe in Him. His self-sacrifice joins the sheep to Him as their Shepherd and the guardian of their souls. By that giving the whole human family became His property in addition to His ownership by creation, entrusted to Him as flocks of sheep are entrusted to a shepherd to be tended with pastoral care. He guards them as the faithful Chief Shepherd working through faithful under-shepherds, and if they obey the voice of the Chief Shepherd they will not be left to be devoured by wolves.
He remains with His sheep to defend them from danger, seeks out those who are lost, carries them back to the fold, and leads them to green pastures and living waters to quench their thirst and refresh their spirits. He labors for His sheep and lambs with tender love and guides lost sheep back to the fold with truths that shape character, deepen the knowledge of God, equip people to do good, and matter for eternity. That shepherd work of leading them to safety applies to teachers who are to win and help those for whom He died rather than abandoning them. He bids His flock draw near to Him for refuge in every circumstance, trial, and opposition, longing to help every soul, and He rejoices when the lost is found. He identifies Himself with suffering believers, so that harm done to them for His sake is done to Him. His devoted care for His flock, including praying for them, reflects the shepherd's self-giving love.
Because all His followers are wholly dependent on His atoning sacrifice and belong to one Shepherd, it dishonors Him when His sheep crowd and push one another and make dissension out of inferior things. Their divine relationship of oneness with Christ as He is one with the Father should bind them in holy fellowship with one another, loving as brethren in kindness, courtesy, patience and forbearance, with unity as their strength. His relation to His sheep is grounded in His own life-giving sacrifice: He has redeemed them, so they belong to Him and are not the possession of any human leader. Shepherds are therefore charged to feed the sheep and lambs, not to whip or drive them, and judgment of the hearts and motives of those He purchased belongs to Him, not to human beings.
Following the Shepherd Pattern
No under-shepherd can give his life for the flock as the great Shepherd did, and because Christ alone has done this, ministers of the Word are His ambassadors to be respected and treated as such, with medical missionary work never to be exalted as a body so as to make the gospel ministry of no account. The faithful shepherd puts the sheep's interests before his own comfort, working to save the lost and wandering even at personal cost and not turned from duty by wages, expecting his reward when his work is finished. Faithful shepherds accept hardship and self-sacrifice in laboring for souls rather than abandoning the work for comfort. Luther showed this pattern when he called the people of Wittenberg his sheep and was willing to face death for their sake.
Giving himself for the sheep means carrying the burden of laboring for souls and enduring privations and hardships as his lot, remaining self-sacrificing and faithful so souls are saved rather than lost through unfaithfulness and carelessness. It refuses to let trifles such as bad roads, rainy weather, or little matters at home divert him, refuses to leave when an interest has been raised and minds are agitated to let the interest die out for a more pleasant and easy field, and refuses to wish to be carried by the people. His example of leaving heavenly honor to come to a fallen world where people needed Him, reaching into human suffering to rescue them, calls those entrusted with His work to care for the sheep and lambs and bring help where it is most needed.
A minister must not merely present truth from the desk but care for the sheep and lambs, searching out the lost and straying and bringing them back to the fold. He should visit every family, not merely as a guest to enjoy hospitality but to inquire into the spiritual condition of every member of the household. His own soul must be imbued with the love of God, and then by kindly courtesy he may win his way to the hearts of all and labor successfully for parents and children, entreating, warning, encouraging, as the case demands, seeking to keep the church alive and laboring with him for the conversion of sinners, for this shared work brings far better results than if the minister performs all the work alone. The shepherd's care is personal and active: he tends souls, notices when they are absent or in need, and seeks to keep them from straying, for merely preaching is not enough and neglecting this care leaves the sheep vulnerable. He lays down time and attention for souls instead of letting temporal matters absorb him, ministers to the needs of sinners, visits believers when they are sick, inquires when they are absent from meetings, heeds word of their spiritual condition, and makes personal effort to help them, seeking to restore those who stray and give up truth, since failure to visit and care for souls leaves members tempted and lost.
With undying care and love for straying sheep, His followers must show the same tenderness and long-suffering by seeking and helping the erring, for harshly letting them go can undo others' work and leave them to perish. The erring, the weak and trembling, and even those who have apostatized are now given a special call to come fully into the fold, which lays a special duty on church members to go and search for these lost sheep instead of letting them wander and letting them go. Christ would open the fold and welcome back one who pleaded to return, so another trial is to be offered on confession despite past hurt and without evidence of marked change. The same shepherd care applies to teachers, who are to seek sheep that stray rather than abandoning them and to win and help those for whom Christ died.
Children in the home are lambs of Christ's fold upon whom His blessing rests, with God's peace to abide in the home with them, and they must be nurtured and cherished and given the attention they need because they are building characters for time and for eternity, even if care of inanimate things and other work has to be left undone. The child entrusted to others is a lamb of Christ's fold whom Jesus will guard and love. Children are among those precious flock He loves and desires to bless and protect from temptation, invited to belong to Him, and Christlike parental love and tender care help guide them into the fold of safety. Children are God's property and the lambs of Christ's flock for whom He lays down His life, so fathers, mothers, and teachers must be fitted up in home and school for a ministry of careful training of which they will not be ashamed. They must neither pass by self-indulgence and disobedience without correction nor correct in an inconsiderate, overbearing, masterful way that makes children's lives miserable and causes them to lose all respect for father, mother, brothers, and sisters, for such failure injures the lambs and prepares their souls for Satan to work his will upon them.
His self-giving for sinners' salvation calls those who become God's children to consecrate their lives and talents to serving Him and seeking the lost. He came from heaven to seek and save the lost through infinite sacrifice to redeem sinners, and His sacrifice calls His followers to labor for those who are unsaved. Those who follow Him are to cooperate with God in leading lost sheep back to His fold, laying hold by living faith on the power of divinity and working while the day lasts to turn wandering ones to the path of life. His sacrifice was made so that people might learn to make their own lives a convincing witness to truth and righteousness.
This is blessed assurance of His mercies and matchless grace to those who greatly need it, to be received with thanksgiving and prayer, to be imparted to others to comfort them, and to be used to God's glory with the strength He gives. It proves God's deep interest in the human family and shows where strength lies, in being connected with Christ, which calls believers to respond with interest in keeping their bodies free from disease. His sacrifice is the supreme reason believers should love one another as He loved them, since He agreed with the Father to reveal God's love to fallen humanity and no lesser gift could display that infinite love. Being one with the Father, He reveals God's perfection in self-sacrifice, proving by the love displayed at Calvary that God is love, and that love brings moral power within human reach through faith, so that men may become partakers of the divine nature and form characters after the divine similitude by perfect obedience to the law of God.
Jesus is the true Shepherd of God's flock, in contrast to unfaithful leaders, to the thief who steals and destroys, and to the hireling who flees from danger, and He is the door by whom all enter to be saved and find abundant life. The Father and the Son know one another in close, complete and intimate unity, and Christ knows His sheep and is known by them in that same close way. He lays down His life of His own choice and by His own power, with power to take it again in obedience to His Father, and no one takes it from Him. In giving His life He became their substitute and surety, bearing their guilt and its penalty to vindicate God's law and make it possible for God to be just and to justify believers. As Shepherd He knows each one personally even by name and cares for each individually with infinite tenderness, having purchased them not with gold or silver but with His own precious blood, seeking the straying, defending them from danger, and leading them to pasture and refreshment.
Shepherd Picture and Setting
John 10:15 presents Jesus as the Messiah and the true Shepherd of the Lord's flock, whose mission is to care for His people by gathering and protecting them, in contrast to Israel's unworthy leaders. Unlike the thief who comes to steal and destroy, and unlike the hireling who does not own the sheep and flees when the wolf comes, He is the good Shepherd who lays down His life for the sheep. He is also the door by whom anyone enters to be saved and to find pasture and abundant life. He has other sheep not of this fold whom He must bring to hear His voice, so that there will be one fold and one shepherd.
The shepherd and the sheep carry immortal truth through familiar images from daily life, illustrating His relationship to God and His unity with every member of the human family. The illustration is drawn from facts of life and facts of experience familiar to the hearers, with something to interest every mind and to appeal to every heart. It brightens and uplifts the daily task from a mere round of toil bereft of higher thoughts, giving constant reminders of the spiritual and the unseen and lifting ordinary work toward thoughts of the unseen. The shepherd picture was given for comfort before Christ left His disciples, so that whenever they saw a shepherd watching a flock they would remember His love and care.
As a shepherd guides hundreds and thousands of sheep by voice alone with no whip, making a peculiar sound that every sheep understands when one strays, so Christ leads His people by a call they know. They understand where He desires them to go and press close together following Him as the true Shepherd whom His sheep follow. His people must understand the voice of the true Shepherd, and workers must learn to recognize and obey His guidance as Israel was taught in the wilderness to know God and follow their invisible Leader.
Mutual Knowledge With Father
The Father and the Son know each other in a close, complete, intimate and mutual relationship of unity. That knowing belongs to Jesus as the true Shepherd, whose willingness to die for the sheep identifies Him, for He lays down His life of His own choice and has power to take it again in obedience to the commandment received from His Father. In giving His life to redeem them He became their substitute and surety, taking their liabilities and transgressions, fulfilling God's will and vindicating His law so that God can be just and yet justify those who believe in Jesus. His death is the sacrifice that recovers humanity, expressing the good Shepherd's faithful care for a dependent flock, and the Father's love for the Son is expressed in love for this saving sacrifice, while God Himself suffers in the suffering of His Son.
Christ knows His sheep and is known by them in the same close way that He and the Father know each other. Unlike the thief who steals and destroys and unlike the hireling who does not own the sheep and flees when the wolf comes, He is the door by whom anyone enters to be saved and to find pasture and abundant life. He has other sheep not of this fold whom He must bring to hear His voice, so that there will be one fold and one shepherd. This proves God's deep interest in the human family and shows where strength lies, in connection with Christ, calling believers to respond with interest in keeping their bodies free from disease.
That knowing and communion between Christ and the Father is the pattern for communion between Christ and His people on earth. The closeness promised is as deep as that of the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father and who is the Man that is God's fellow. Jesus is not only Shepherd but everlasting Father, and He loves His own as His children with a greater love than a shepherd has for sheep. They are loved because they are the gift of His Father and the reward of His work, and this love is the greatest and best that heaven can bestow, so it is ground for trust.
Being one with the Father, He reveals God's perfection in self-sacrifice, proving by the love displayed at Calvary that God is love. His laying down of His life is the giving of His flesh for the life of the world in obedience to the commandment He received from His Father, expressing the great love with which He loved humanity. That love brings moral power within human reach through faith in Christ, so that men may become partakers of the divine nature and form characters after the divine similitude by perfect obedience to the law of God.
Christ agreed with the Father to reveal God's love to fallen humanity from intimate knowledge of the Father. Because no lesser gift could display that infinite love, He became one with humanity, took human nature, endured temptation, and died so that people might live through faith in His redeeming power. His sacrifice is the supreme reason believers should love one another as He loved them.
The Father loves the Son because the Son lays down His life for the sheep. The laying down of His life was His spotless perfection of character and His life of unselfish service for others as an unchanging companion, by which He manifested the Father's name. It proves that God's love is a living reality, not uncertain and unreal, and that the Father loves every member of the human family with so great a love that He loves His Son more for dying for them.
Willing Sacrifice for Sheep
He lays down His life of His own choice and by His own power, with power to take it again, in obedience to the commandment received from His Father, and no one takes it from Him. In giving His life to redeem fallen humanity He became their substitute and surety, taking their liabilities, transgressions, and guilt and its full penalty upon Himself. By that sacrifice He fulfilled the Father's will and vindicated the justice of God's law, making it possible for God to be just and to justify those who believe in Jesus.
His sacrifice expresses the great value He places on God's children and His love for them, for He laid aside His honor and heavenly position, took human nature, became humanity's representative, and offered a complete sacrifice through which He can offer perfect righteousness and full salvation to everyone who believes in Him as a personal Saviour. Because no lesser gift could display infinite love, He agreed with the Father to reveal God's love, became one with humanity, endured temptation, and died so that people might live through faith in His redeeming power. His death is a ransom for many bearing the penalty due transgressors of God's law, and by suffering in human nature while free from sin He upholds the law as holy, just, and good, reveals sin's true guilt, preserves the honor of God's authority, and magnifies and honors the law while securing eternal life. His laying down of life was also His spotless perfection of character and His life of unselfish service for others as an unchanging companion, by which He manifested the Father's name.
His sacrifice is sufficient for every soul from Adam's time to the end of earth's history, not limited to one people or nation, so people of every tribe and nation may come to Him, and He is the only one to whom His sheep can look to give them eternal life. The laying down of life for the sheep is the giving of His flesh for the life of the world, to be received as the living bread that came down from heaven by personal faith in a personal Saviour that brings spiritual union, dwelling in Him and He in the believer and living by Him unto everlasting life and resurrection at the last day, for mere outward connection with the church does not save. His self-sacrifice is part of God's plan to reconcile fallen humanity to Himself after apostasy began in denial of the love of God plainly revealed, providing a powerful revelation of God's love and an opportunity to return to allegiance to Jehovah and to save completely to the uttermost, because God is light and love.
Shepherd's Love and Care
The heavenly Shepherd knows each person in His flock personally, even by name, and cares for each one individually as though no one else existed. He values every lamb and tenderly watches over them.
He loves His own as His children with a greater love than a shepherd has for sheep. That love is grounded in their being the Father's gift and the reward of His work, and it is the greatest and best gift heaven can bestow, so it is ground for trust. Tribulation cannot separate them from Him, for having died for them He lives to intercede for them. The closeness promised is as deep as that of the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father.
He looks upon them with infinite tenderness and unutterable affection as the claims of His love and His own property and His chosen ones. He purchased them at great cost in suffering in the flesh, not with gold or silver but with His own precious blood, so they should not perish. His care is marked by kindness, mercy, and tenderness, and He gives the fragrance of His own righteousness to His loved ones who believe in Him. His self-sacrifice joins the sheep to Him as their Shepherd and the guardian of their souls. By that giving the whole human family became His property in addition to His ownership by creation, entrusted to Him as flocks of sheep are entrusted to a shepherd to be tended with pastoral care. He guards them as the faithful Chief Shepherd working through faithful under-shepherds, and if they obey the voice of the Chief Shepherd they will not be left to be devoured by wolves.
He remains with His sheep to defend them from danger, seeks out those who are lost, carries them back to the fold, and leads them to green pastures and living waters to quench their thirst and refresh their spirits. He labors for His sheep and lambs with tender love and guides lost sheep back to the fold with truths that shape character, deepen the knowledge of God, equip people to do good, and matter for eternity. That shepherd work of leading them to safety applies to teachers who are to win and help those for whom He died rather than abandoning them. He bids His flock draw near to Him for refuge in every circumstance, trial, and opposition, longing to help every soul, and He rejoices when the lost is found. He identifies Himself with suffering believers, so that harm done to them for His sake is done to Him. His devoted care for His flock, including praying for them, reflects the shepherd's self-giving love.
Because all His followers are wholly dependent on His atoning sacrifice and belong to one Shepherd, it dishonors Him when His sheep crowd and push one another and make dissension out of inferior things. Their divine relationship of oneness with Christ as He is one with the Father should bind them in holy fellowship with one another, loving as brethren in kindness, courtesy, patience and forbearance, with unity as their strength. His relation to His sheep is grounded in His own life-giving sacrifice: He has redeemed them, so they belong to Him and are not the possession of any human leader. Shepherds are therefore charged to feed the sheep and lambs, not to whip or drive them, and judgment of the hearts and motives of those He purchased belongs to Him, not to human beings.
Following the Shepherd Pattern
No under-shepherd can give his life for the flock as the great Shepherd did, and because Christ alone has done this, ministers of the Word are His ambassadors to be respected and treated as such, with medical missionary work never to be exalted as a body so as to make the gospel ministry of no account. The faithful shepherd puts the sheep's interests before his own comfort, working to save the lost and wandering even at personal cost and not turned from duty by wages, expecting his reward when his work is finished. Faithful shepherds accept hardship and self-sacrifice in laboring for souls rather than abandoning the work for comfort. Luther showed this pattern when he called the people of Wittenberg his sheep and was willing to face death for their sake.
Giving himself for the sheep means carrying the burden of laboring for souls and enduring privations and hardships as his lot, remaining self-sacrificing and faithful so souls are saved rather than lost through unfaithfulness and carelessness. It refuses to let trifles such as bad roads, rainy weather, or little matters at home divert him, refuses to leave when an interest has been raised and minds are agitated to let the interest die out for a more pleasant and easy field, and refuses to wish to be carried by the people. His example of leaving heavenly honor to come to a fallen world where people needed Him, reaching into human suffering to rescue them, calls those entrusted with His work to care for the sheep and lambs and bring help where it is most needed.
A minister must not merely present truth from the desk but care for the sheep and lambs, searching out the lost and straying and bringing them back to the fold. He should visit every family, not merely as a guest to enjoy hospitality but to inquire into the spiritual condition of every member of the household. His own soul must be imbued with the love of God, and then by kindly courtesy he may win his way to the hearts of all and labor successfully for parents and children, entreating, warning, encouraging, as the case demands, seeking to keep the church alive and laboring with him for the conversion of sinners, for this shared work brings far better results than if the minister performs all the work alone. The shepherd's care is personal and active: he tends souls, notices when they are absent or in need, and seeks to keep them from straying, for merely preaching is not enough and neglecting this care leaves the sheep vulnerable. He lays down time and attention for souls instead of letting temporal matters absorb him, ministers to the needs of sinners, visits believers when they are sick, inquires when they are absent from meetings, heeds word of their spiritual condition, and makes personal effort to help them, seeking to restore those who stray and give up truth, since failure to visit and care for souls leaves members tempted and lost.
With undying care and love for straying sheep, His followers must show the same tenderness and long-suffering by seeking and helping the erring, for harshly letting them go can undo others' work and leave them to perish. The erring, the weak and trembling, and even those who have apostatized are now given a special call to come fully into the fold, which lays a special duty on church members to go and search for these lost sheep instead of letting them wander and letting them go. Christ would open the fold and welcome back one who pleaded to return, so another trial is to be offered on confession despite past hurt and without evidence of marked change. The same shepherd care applies to teachers, who are to seek sheep that stray rather than abandoning them and to win and help those for whom Christ died.
Children in the home are lambs of Christ's fold upon whom His blessing rests, with God's peace to abide in the home with them, and they must be nurtured and cherished and given the attention they need because they are building characters for time and for eternity, even if care of inanimate things and other work has to be left undone. The child entrusted to others is a lamb of Christ's fold whom Jesus will guard and love. Children are among those precious flock He loves and desires to bless and protect from temptation, invited to belong to Him, and Christlike parental love and tender care help guide them into the fold of safety. Children are God's property and the lambs of Christ's flock for whom He lays down His life, so fathers, mothers, and teachers must be fitted up in home and school for a ministry of careful training of which they will not be ashamed. They must neither pass by self-indulgence and disobedience without correction nor correct in an inconsiderate, overbearing, masterful way that makes children's lives miserable and causes them to lose all respect for father, mother, brothers, and sisters, for such failure injures the lambs and prepares their souls for Satan to work his will upon them.
His self-giving for sinners' salvation calls those who become God's children to consecrate their lives and talents to serving Him and seeking the lost. He came from heaven to seek and save the lost through infinite sacrifice to redeem sinners, and His sacrifice calls His followers to labor for those who are unsaved. Those who follow Him are to cooperate with God in leading lost sheep back to His fold, laying hold by living faith on the power of divinity and working while the day lasts to turn wandering ones to the path of life. His sacrifice was made so that people might learn to make their own lives a convincing witness to truth and righteousness.
This is blessed assurance of His mercies and matchless grace to those who greatly need it, to be received with thanksgiving and prayer, to be imparted to others to comfort them, and to be used to God's glory with the strength He gives. It proves God's deep interest in the human family and shows where strength lies, in being connected with Christ, which calls believers to respond with interest in keeping their bodies free from disease. His sacrifice is the supreme reason believers should love one another as He loved them, since He agreed with the Father to reveal God's love to fallen humanity and no lesser gift could display that infinite love. Being one with the Father, He reveals God's perfection in self-sacrifice, proving by the love displayed at Calvary that God is love, and that love brings moral power within human reach through faith, so that men may become partakers of the divine nature and form characters after the divine similitude by perfect obedience to the law of God.