Luke 15:7, commentary and pictures

Likewise joy is in heaven over one sinner who repents and is found, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance, spoken in the parable of the lost sheep when the Pharisees and scribes murmured because Jesus received sinners. The ninety-nine are those who think themselves safe and in no need of repentance, while the one lost sheep is every helpless sinner separated from God who could never find the way back unless divine love seeks him. The Good Shepherd seeks persistently until He finds, and when found He lays the wanderer on His shoulders rejoicing and brings him home without reproach, revealing the price heaven paid in giving Jesus to humiliation and death for lost man. That recovery fills heaven itself with joy, shared by the Father with singing, by Jesus, and by angels and the whole universe in songs of triumph because a soul for whom Christ died is saved from ruin and restored to His image. Because one soul is of more value than a whole world of property, the church and every believer must actively seek the erring with patient, tender love and share heaven's joy instead of standing aloof in self-righteous neglect.

Parable Setting and Story

The saying was given in the parable of the lost sheep after tax collectors, publicans and sinners drew near to hear Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes murmured that He receives sinners and eats with them. His welcome answered their need for a Saviour rather than indifference to sin, and His mission was to recover what was lost, not to condemn and destroy. The parable was meant to expose self-righteousness and pride and to lead some accusers to conviction so that afterward they might receive the Spirit and join the work of searching after and helping the lost.

The joy follows the finding, for a man having a hundred sheep leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness or fold to go after the one that is lost until he finds it. He lays it on his shoulders rejoicing, brings it home, and calls friends and neighbors to rejoice with him because the lost sheep is found. Likewise the woman having ten pieces lights a candle, sweeps, and seeks diligently until the lost piece is found, then gathers friends and neighbors to share her gladness, with likewise joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents. The lost-sheep parable was spoken immediately before that of the lost piece of silver, and then carried still farther by the prodigal son.

The illustration uses familiar shepherd and sheep scenes from daily life to teach immortal truth with tact for prejudiced minds, winning attention and reaching the heart through the imagination. It links heaven and earth together, breaks the spell of absorption in earthly things by placing this life subordinate to eternal interest, and makes the teaching a living reality so that ever afterward seeing sheep would recall His words. Though simple the illustration has wonderful depth of meaning, presenting recovery of the lost as a practical lesson of character and conduct with eternal significance. It was little understood at the time and remains a lesson few have learned for daily life, yet after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the disciples understood it when they saw Gentiles repenting and being gathered in while the Jews were enviously angry, and entered into the joy over the lost being found and the dead made alive again.

The same finding is seen when lost people are converted and return to God and are brought back to the fold. About fifty youth coming forward seeking the Lord, many for the first time, was a cause for joy in heaven, and the decision of twenty people with their households to obey the truth brought still greater joy with the consecration of their children and entire households. The lesson was illustrated at a school where teachers and students reaching higher in the spiritual life saw remarkable conversions. Steps toward such recovery include prayer and children's sobs as a means toward recovering George Lay, and confession and prayer as the way of Martha's return to the fold.

Lost Sheep and Ninety-Nine

The ninety-nine who need no repentance are those who think themselves safe, just and pious and feel no need of repentance, praising themselves for supposed piety while holding aloof from those who need help. They were the self-righteous Pharisees and scribes who felt they needed nothing, despised and condemned those needing help, were confident in their own righteousness, refused to share heaven's joy when sinners came, and were unwilling to come to Christ themselves. They include Jews who claimed to respect the law but kept commandments of men, and today professed Christians bearing no fruit, satisfied with attainments, feeling no want of healing, confession or reformation, who will not acknowledge need and insist on their own way.
The one lost sheep is publicans and sinners and all who know they are lost, separated from God, helpless and unable to rescue themselves, like the most helpless of creatures strayed from the fold and bleating without knowing how to get back. Unless divine love seeks him he could never find his way back and would otherwise perish, for every sheep depends on the Shepherd's rescue and no one has reason to be self-righteous or critical. Jesus seeks even those the Pharisees despised outside the Jewish nation, exposing their narrow view of salvation, and His mission is to rescue people who recognize their sin and need with all compassion and tenderness.

The lost sheep pictures those who know they are lost, who realize they are separated from God and are in perplexity, humiliation and sore temptation and cannot recover themselves. The lost coin pictures those lost in trespasses and sins who have no sense of their condition, estranged from God without knowing it, with souls in peril yet unconscious, unconcerned and indifferent to the claims of God. Yet both are objects of pitying love to be sought that they may be brought back to God, and both can be found again by proper diligent search with great joy in the finding. The coin though lost close at hand in the house is unlike the sheep lost in the wilderness or mountains, but even the indifferent close at hand can be recovered only by diligent search.
The wilderness where the sheep is lost is the darkness, confusion, bewilderment, misery, peril and danger of one who is lost and cannot find the way back without help. The lost sheep is one who has known and enjoyed the love of Jesus and the care of the compassionate Shepherd but through Satan's deceiving power has left the pleasant pasture and rushes farther and farther from heaven. Wandering sheep are sinners drawn away from allegiance to God by rebellion and deception, yielding themselves to a false guide and hurrying on in blind self-confidence farther and farther from light and peace and happiness and rest. Though the great Shepherd calls His sheep by name and invites them to follow, flashes light from His word to show peril, and speaks from heaven in warnings and reproofs and invitations to return, many have followed sin so long they will not hear the voice of Jesus and leave all that can give rest and security.

In a wider meaning the one lost sheep is the whole fallen world that has apostatized and been ruined by sin, guilty, condemned and helpless with all hope excluded when justice demanded death and hindered from return. The ninety and nine just persons that need no repentance are the sinless worlds that never went astray from the fold and that love Him. Though this world is only an atom or little part among the vast dominions over which God presides, the one lost sheep is more precious in His sight than the ninety and nine that love Him. To gain the joy of receiving it back God gave Himself in His Son, and Christ, the loved Commander in the heavenly courts, stooped from His high estate, laid aside the glory He had with the Father, left the sinless worlds on high and left purity, happiness and glory to come to this earth to be wounded for transgressions and bruised for iniquities. He labored persistently and untiringly, suffered and sacrificed, accepted humiliation, agony, baptism of blood and death and paid the redemption price on the cross of Calvary so perishing millions might gain everlasting life, and in Gethsemane seeing the helplessness of man, the power of sin and the woes of a doomed world He made the final decision to save man at any cost to Himself and would not turn from His purpose. Angels expressed joy over its salvation when commissioned to announce Jesus' birth to shepherds.

All have sinned and wandered away from God like sheep wandered from the fold, and the Saviour-Shepherd's care is not for those only who are in the fold but for the lost, for Christ came to bring them back to the fold, to loyalty, pardon and sonship by helping them live without sin. The lost include backsliders who need personal care with learning of their condition and truth presented to bring conviction, strayed church members who are precious and to be treated with tenderness, patience and wise care, those in contention, and scattered sheep neglected in many places. They include children and youth in peril with inherited unfavorable traits and manifold temptations, whom He has purchased and claims as His property with tender sympathy and angelic protection, those who once knew the faith, those who left the truth, those isolated and hungry for truth to be found and gathered into the kingdom, those who never heard the truth and are out of the fold, and those in new fields.

Divine Seeking and Rescue

The verse reveals the value God places on lost humanity by giving heaven's best gift, Jesus, to a life of humiliation, poverty, self-sacrifice, contempt, rejection and death so that the lost might be saved, and Calvary reveals the Father's love in that gift. Every soul is valued by the immense ransom of the life of God's only begotten Son, whose property each person is by purchase of His blood and by bearing His image, whether rich or poor, black or white, of whatever nation, kindred or tongue. No one is to be treated with contempt because of social position, wealth, race or condition, for Christ served humbly to lift the lowly, and to show contempt or hatred toward any reveals the character of Satan. He came to seek and save the lost, not those who are faultless and lovely, calling sinners to repentance and dying to save every son and daughter of Adam at a price that cannot be measured, with special love for children and youth in peril and temptation whom He has purchased and claims as His own. The lost are not to be cut off as a diseased limb but healed as by a physician, with tender forbearance, meekness, calmness under provocation and kindness in return for abuse, ingratitude and betrayal, since dealing with people as they deal with one another would leave none saved.

The Good Shepherd seeks persistently without resting until the sheep is found, leaving the ninety-nine in the fold or shelter to search through dark night and storm over mountains and valleys amid frost, cold, tempest, hardship, danger and peril. He calls the wanderer by name until its terrified, faint, dying cry is heard, then rescues it from peril and carries it back with rejoicing, calling others to rejoice because the lost is found, without complaint over the long hard search. He seeks earnestly at all times and places, in temple courts, festivals, mountainside, boat, desert and thoroughfares, comforting the poor and ministering to the sin-sick, forgetting His own suffering in the joy of finding. He labors tirelessly not only for those already gathered and safe but for the lost gone astray, yearning to restore those who have wandered from salvation rather than devoting all care to those already safe.

When found, the wandering one is not blamed, scolded, driven with a whip, led back in frightened distress, reproached, suspected, faulted or abandoned, but lifted to the shoulder or taken in the arms and gathered close to the bosom so that warmth and vitality may give life and inspire courage. The shepherd returns home rejoicing and singing and calls friends to rejoice with him, and the returning wanderer is received with tender compassion without censure or reminders of unworthiness, what is required being penitence and a broken heart. The finding and restoration, not the wandering, is the cause for celebration, and the joy outweighs the sorrow, trouble, danger and perplexity of the search. A true shepherd leads, guards lambs tenderly as a mother, carries the helpless enfolded in his robe, and searches himself even through the night until restoration is complete.

That recovery comes after a hard contest between light and darkness for the soul, in which Jesus fights Satan's desperate efforts with compassion, sorrow and persistence, enduring self-denial, hardship and privation while under-shepherds share only a small part of that stern conflict. The search cost deep waters crossed and dark night passed through to reach the lost one fainting, helpless and ready to die, with blood-drops shed all along the mountain track and hands rent, torn and pierced by thorns. Christ looked down on a hopeless world cut off from heaven, and sympathy led Him to leave His high place on His Father's throne, take human weakness, be tempted, ridiculed and beset, and suffer woes, griefs and sorrows without murmur to leave an example. He descended step by step in humiliation to the cross as a criminal, so that with infinite love He could encircle the race while grasping infinite power and connecting earth with heaven, stooping to uplift the fallen, and the salvation of souls was the joy set before Him for which He endured the cross and its shame.

The parable teaches God's tender patience, perseverance and great love in taking the first step while the sinner is still in rebellion, seeking the wanderer and bringing back to the Father's house every one willing to return, like a helpless bewildered sheep that cannot find its way back without divine rescue. Perishing souls helpless in sin and liable to Satan's snares are cared for with shepherd mercy, forbearance, patience and love, for Jesus knows His sheep, gave His life for them, and goes to seek them even before they seek Him. He does not leave them in misery when they turn away, but bears long with the presumptuous, high-headed and hard-hearted, weeps in agony over resistance, abuse of privilege and formalism, takes guilt upon His own divine soul and imputes His righteousness to the guilty, the Innocent suffering for the guilty so the perishing need not perish. It is not the Father's will that even the lowest little one should perish, and the parables teach mercy and forgiveness reflecting the Father's desire that none of the lost perish in Christ's mission to seek and save them.

All heaven is interested in the ransom, with ten thousand times ten thousand angels ascending and descending to minister to heirs of salvation and encamping around those who fear God, coming not to denounce, destroy, rule or exact homage but as messengers of mercy cooperating with Christ and human agents. Angels come close to the tried, suffering and tempted and labor untiringly for those Christ died for, watching the Shepherd's steps with intense interest and wonder as the lost are sought and saved. When sinners are led to the Saviour, angels bear the tidings heavenward, every successful effort to dispel darkness and spread knowledge of Christ is recounted before the Father, and joy thrills the heavenly host. The Father and Christ with all heaven are interested in salvation, heaven is at work with the great Shepherd teaching workers how, and one instrumental in saving a soul may rejoice because angels have watched with intense interest and rejoice in the success.

The Lord's special work is not for the self-satisfied but for seeking the lost until found, and true shepherds must do that faithful work with the goodness and mercy revealed in Christ's life with the great Shepherd. The same providence that watches over beasts and birds and notes even the sparrow so it does not fall without His knowledge extends in the shepherd's care over all creatures, leaving the ninety-nine to go after the one until found, laying it on the shoulders rejoicing and calling others to rejoice.

Heavenly Joy over Repentance

There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents and turns to God and is saved, more than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance or have not gone astray. The heart of infinite love rejoices more over one repenting than over ninety-nine that never went astray, and the contrast underscores the importance of seeking and recovering the lost. This joy follows the shepherd finding and bringing home the lost sheep, and it is pictured again by the woman with ten pieces who lights a candle and sweeps and searches diligently until the lost piece is found and then gathers friends and neighbors to share gladness, with likewise joy in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents. The lost sheep's return pictures the sinner being found and restored, for the shepherd carries it home rejoicing rather than blaming it for straying. The finding and restoration, not the wandering, are the cause for celebration, and the joy outweighs the sorrow, trouble, and danger of the search, giving reason to labor for people Christ died to save and calling people to view everyone with divine compassion and to actively seek the strayed and help bring them back rather than wait for them to return.

The joy is in heaven in the presence of God and holy angels, shared by God, the Father Himself with singing and holy ecstasy, Jesus Christ, the heavenly hosts, the whole universe and heavenly court with songs of holy triumph and richest melody. When one is recovered the weary but rejoicing human shepherd cries, Rejoice with me, angels in heaven catch up the glad strain from the shepherd, and the Lord Himself joins in the anthem of joy and gladness over the one repentant sinner. Christ Himself tells the angels to rejoice with Him because His lost sheep is found, and the angelic choir answers with a joyful anthem that fills all heaven, and all heaven echoes that note of joy. The sinner's restoration to favor with God brings joy to the Christian heart, and it is the privilege of believers to share in that joy. After the resurrection He entered the Father's presence bearing triumph in His wounded body and presenting the wave-sheaf raised with Him as pledge of the last-trumpet resurrection, declaring the pre-creation covenant fulfilled.

Heaven rejoices not when one who has sinned is destroyed but when one sinner repents, because to God the work of destruction is a strange work and that in which all heaven delights is the restoration of God's own image in the souls He has made. Angels rejoice because Christ has not lost the soul for whom He died, and Christ rejoices that His death has not been in vain. The repentant sinner turning from error to seek Christ's righteousness is redeemed from Satan's power and eternal ruin, rescued from Satan and brought back to Christ, accepts the Saviour and receives peace, and the heavenly courts resound with joy. This joy gives urgency to the work of seeking the lost, including people cast out of society, with angels cooperating with those who labor to save them through loving practical care and the gospel so they can restore God's moral image in themselves and help restore it in others. The repentant person can take heart in heaven's joy, rest in God's love, and resist criticism and suspicion that might discourage a return to God.

One soul's repentance sends inexpressible joy through all the host of heaven, calling forth melody from every harp and every voice in glorious anthems because another name is registered in the book of life and another light is kindled to shine amid the moral darkness of this corrupt world. The same event spreads consternation and rage among the fallen angels and humiliates Satan as the great leader in rebellion, who sees a soul he counted his own escaping from his control like a bird out of the snare of the fowler and making Christ his refuge by laying hold of His righteousness. He then works with hellish intensity to entrap the escaped one again and doubles his efforts to regain mastery over those standing under the banner of Jesus Christ. Joy follows long untiring labor of angels and the Holy Spirit when the soul appreciates its advantages and heavenly help and puts its will on Christ's side by desire, prayer and resistance of Satan, with angels bearing the tidings heavenward and reporting success in the heavenly courts. Repentance and confession are the Spirit's work in the human heart, and when a person is humbled and contrite and turns from sin Satan loses his hold, Christ wins a victory, and each case of repentance is a defeat for Satan celebrated by the angels.

There is joy in heaven over children and youth who repent and begin a new life, from eight to fifteen years of age coming forward to become Christians. Angels look with gladness upon such a conversion, and the brief testimonies of hope and determination ascend like incense to the throne, softening even the hardest heart, deeply moving believers and parents, and bringing a precious season marked by the presence of God. All heaven rejoices when weak faulty people give themselves to Jesus and through His strength live a pure life He makes possible. When children come to Jesus with penitence and humility to be cleansed from sin and prepared for His kingdom, turning from living for self-gratification, from impatient fretful words, disputing about trifles, and unwillingness to make the smallest sacrifice for others, there is joy in heaven and joy on earth with true peace, making the happiest year they have known. A young man's desire to please Jesus is presented as reason for that joy when a sinner turns to Jesus.

The joy rests upon newly repentant souls whose future work cannot be measured if they keep gathering increasing light from God's Word and obey all His commandments, becoming channels of light in a dark and irreligious city and God's witnesses whose fervent piety and Christlike example win other souls to the truth. It attended Edson's renewed effort to recover the Christian graces he had lost, with every temptation resisted and every effort to deny self and show unselfish love recorded in heaven as treasure if he continues to overcome. It attended Brother Faulkhead's softened return from the enemy's snare, Sister Martin's change from fierce opposition to meek surrender, a stubborn opposer overwhelmed with conviction crying in soul agony then surrendering and finding rest as a miracle of mercy, a man overcome making humble confession to sit clothed at Jesus' feet, and sincere reform bringing pleased triumph to angels. It attended two women taking stand for truth, deceived people convinced of errors and converted, those who left truth brought back, prison converts baptized with thanksgiving, thirteen saved, Sabbath decisions, and remarkable conversions in which lost sheep are found and brought back as teachers and students reach higher in spiritual life.

Believers on earth should share heaven's joy with courage when labor brings souls to truth, for the sight of people of every age humbly seeking Jesus for pardon should bring inexpressible joy to Christ's followers. Those saved by Christ can share that joy when they help others repent and turn to Christ and become obedient, and kind loving private admonition that leads an erring brother to repentance restores the sinner and does work for eternity that will be part of the joy of eternity. This joy calls people to perseveringly work to save others as well as themselves, with patient efforts to do good helping bring conversion about. The church should share this joy and give sincere active support to work that brings repentant sinners back to God, rather than standing aside as spectators or responding with distrust, faultfinding, envy like the elder son, sneering at revivals as fanaticism, or grumbling like Pharisees at time spent hunting souls. Soul-winners share Christ's work and glory, find joy found nowhere else, and will have great reward, for repentance brings joy on earth as well as heaven and in the believing soul, and compassion for a fallen brother shows Christ's character.

Worth of Soul and Repentance

One soul is of more value to heaven than a whole world of property, houses, lands and money, because God created it and Christ redeemed it at great price as the pearl of great price sought at any peril and any cost. Its worth lies in the possibilities before it, the spiritual advantages granted to it, the capabilities it can possess when vitalized by the word of God, and the immortality it can gain through the Life-giver and the hope of the gospel if obedient, while perishing without Christ means losing an eternity of bliss. A soul redeemed and cleansed from sin, with all its noble powers dedicated to the service of God, has surpassing worth, so that even a poor man possesses in himself a wealth and dignity the world could never bestow, and nothing he could give in exchange for his soul could compare with the glorious inheritance that may be his. When that pearl is found all heaven rejoices, which proves the worth of the soul and requires conscientious work with hearts of flesh and not of steel, controlling impulses, praying much, humbling before God, feeling deeply the value of the soul, trembling when it is in danger, taxing resources to the utmost and even selling possessions rather than letting one be lost. Believers must not exhaust energies in idle lamentation but feel a burden, weep to some purpose, and go to work for themselves and others, for to work and sacrifice as Christ worked is sacred trust and neglect is betrayal of sacred trust and insult to God who gave His Son to a shameful death. One soul truly won will flash heaven's light around him, penetrate moral darkness, save other souls, and cause one, five and ten talents to accumulate and double.

Even if only a few accept grace the work for those in deep suffering is not wasted, because one soul is precious to God and Christ would have died so that one person could live forever. One precious soul saved is worth more than all the means needed to establish an institution for healing disease, because judicious treatment restoring health and enjoyment wins confidence and gratitude, brings unbelievers otherwise impossible to reach directly under the influence of truth, removes prejudice by acquaintance with Sabbath-keepers and their real faith, and prepares sin-sick souls for the healing balm so good seed lodges, is nourished, springs up and bears fruit to God's glory, with even those lacking moral courage to sacrifice all going away to defend the faith and introduce it in new places.

Heaven rejoices when a sinner repents, and that rejoicing follows the sinner's response to Christ's drawing and heavenly help by putting the will on Christ's side and turning from sin. Repentance and confession are the Spirit's work in the human heart; when a person is humbled and contrite Satan loses his hold, Christ wins a victory, and each case of repentance is a defeat for Satan celebrated by angels. A sinner does not return by personal effort, for as the shepherd must seek and bring the sheep back, so Jesus seeks sinners, draws them to Himself, and enables the repentance that leads toward justification, since no one can make himself worthy of that blessing. God seeks first, and repentance does not earn His love but He reveals His love so that people may repent, in contrast to ninety-nine who consider themselves righteous and in need of no repentance. Conviction alone does not save and God does not force acceptance, but when the convicted soul chooses Christ moral revival and reformation begin.

Repentance comes when Satan's delusions are broken and the sinner looks to Calvary and the cross, sees the costly offering given to save an apostate and ruined race, contemplates God's love in loving man first, and is deeply moved. By beholding Christ the sinner is changed and transformed in character from glory to glory and enters the conflict between light and darkness, and comprehending even faintly God's love and compassion toward fallen man changes how a person looks and lives. The lost sheep is the poor sinner after whom the Shepherd is seeking and whom the Lord is anxious to save, even when self-righteous Pharisees despise him as worthy only of sneers and hatred. Recognizing oneself as that sheep Jesus came to save, and grasping God's promises by faith, brings new life and strength to resist temptation, for faith comes through hearing God's word, not through feelings or dramatic emotional change, as the Spirit impresses truth on the mind.

Heaven rejoices when a lost sinner is found and returns to God, and being found brings the sinner under the Shepherd's care where the person is to remain rather than return to wandering, accepting the obligations of belonging to Him. His love surrounds and draws the lost back to the fold where they may share life with Him in heavenly places, and His saving work brings peace and joy. When a wandering sheep is found he must be called to the fold and not left until seen safely enfolded there, going out in the Spirit and love of Christ and loving one another as He loved, with any wrong by the worker taken out of the way even if one against a hundred and confessed in humility to open the way, which may touch the wanderer to confess with weeping and put away his own wrongs so a soul for whom Christ died is saved. Repentance is joined to faith in Christ's personal merits as personal Saviour, and its transformation by grace is shown in compassion for others and loving ministry to those in need. One who confesses and believes Christ's promise of forgiveness and cleansing can be led into the light, and that change is cause for rejoicing in heaven. Every self-denial and sacrifice in following Christ is a step of the lost sheep returning to the fold toward the heavenly Canaan whose doors stand opened wide, entered through the door and not by climbing up some other way, as thorough work for eternity. Turning is turning from darkness to light, from error to truth, and from breaking God's law to obeying it, with deliverance on condition of obedience to the Shepherd's word and peace coming when the burden is laid at the cross.

The verse gives hope and courage to a person in unbelief who questions whether any hope remains, showing Christ came to save and to call sinners rather than the righteous, God desires sinners to turn from sin and live, Jesus receives those who come to Him, and repentance and faith open the way to promised mercy, abundant pardon, forgiveness and salvation. It is precious words to be believed and received into the heart, to be held as a standard against the enemy when Satan says there is no hope and tries to steal assurance and light, and to be used in exercising faith, fighting doubts, seeking the Lord while He may be found, and returning to Him. The joy reflects the Father's desire that none of the lost perish and Christ's mission to seek and save them, and those who recognize departure from God and return are welcomed with tenderness and compassion so that recovery of each soul brings God joy. Each person should take courage, let faith replace unbelief, look at pierced hands and rejoice in saving power, remembering God, Christ and heaven are engaged to save, with still opportunity because Jesus redeemed by blood, giving glimpses of heavenly treasure to choose the eternal inheritance by fearing God, trusting wisdom above, staying responsive to the Spirit, and using influence and money for Him, applying to the remorseful feeling lost and longing for pardon as a straying sheep needing help to find the Saviour.

One who has wandered far in sin and seeks to return will meet criticism and distrust, doubt whether repentance is genuine, and whispers that there is no stability and no holding out, yet must contemplate heaven's rejoicing and in no case be disheartened by such scorn and suspicion or be driven still farther from hope and from God. Those who criticize and suspect in this way do not do God's work but do Satan's work as accuser of the brethren, through whom Satan hopes to discourage that soul. The repentant can rest in God's love, for God delights in restoring His image in people, not in destroying them. Heaven's joy is pictured as music over restored unity and fellowship when the erring accepts loving reproof, admits the wrong, and asks God and the injured person for forgiveness. The verse applies when deceived people are convinced of errors and converted, when those who left truth are brought back to the fold, and when one who strongly opposed truth is convicted by the Spirit, surrenders, and shows changed character.

Calling to Seek and Restore

The verse rebukes neglect of publicans and sinners and exposes a self-centered, self-righteous religion that would leave the lost to die without compassion and tenderness. It was spoken in the lost-sheep parable to answer criticism for receiving sinners and eating with them, clearing understanding by showing the one lost sheep bleating outside the fold, knowing it is lost, departed, helpless in mist, perplexity, humiliation and temptation, while the ninety-nine are those who think themselves safe, praise their supposed piety, regard themselves as righteous needing nothing, and hold aloof from those needing help. It exposes confidence in own righteousness and failure to share heaven's joy when sinners come to be rescued, warning that if men truly needed no repentance the mission to seek with eager, hungering, thirsting perseverance until brought back to God was not for them, for He came to rescue those who feel sin and need. It sets before leaders the shepherd work God requires, that the Lord's special work is not for the self-satisfied but for seeking the lost until found, to be done by true shepherds with the goodness and mercy of the great Shepherd, joining Him in bringing back the lost and showing His mercy instead of criticizing His work, and refusal proves piety false. It was meant as a symbol to lead some scribes to conviction so that after resurrection and ascension they would receive the Spirit and join the disciples, and its lesson remains for all who read it.

The verse calls the church and every minister, teacher and Christian regardless of position to actively seek the erring, weak, trembling, apostate and strayed, call them back and help bring them home rather than wait for them to return. The lost-sheep picture shows the value of seeking and bringing back, and neglecting this sacred, blessed duty leaves the lost without help and perils the worker's own soul with guilt to be acknowledged, as applied to efforts for George Lay. The lost must be diligently sought as a shepherd searches, with the whole world the field, including house-to-house labor and personal effort for those unreached by public meetings, since those rejecting one worker may receive another. Searching is saving souls, proclaiming a pardoning Saviour and rescuing from Satan's snare in dependence on God for strength, courage, faith and hope, and the church should reflect heaven's joy by rejoicing sincerely at return rather than gossiping, standing back in pride, or treating it with jealousy, faultfinding and murmuring like the elder brother.

Ministers, teachers and workers must follow the straying not with harsh words and a whip but with winning invitations, patience, lasting love, careful instruction, prayer and watching instead of coldness, sternness, gossip, pride, jealousy, faultfinding or contempt. No souls are converted by harshness and denunciation, but victories come by keeping close to Jesus, letting heart touch heart, healing and binding up instead of crushing, showing tender consideration that shames wrongdoers and wins them. The erring are to be sought with travail, earnest prayer, kindly words, wisdom and tact, not judged or driven into unbelief, for heaven delights in saving not judging, and servants overflow with sympathy yet make no compromise with sin but call it sin. When found the wandering one is not driven, scolded for trouble caused, led back in frightened distress, reproached, abandoned or left to go its own way, but lifted to the shoulder or taken in the arms close to the bosom that warmth and vitality may give life and courage, then brought back rejoicing and singing while calling others to rejoice. True servants show exceeding joy and gratitude when one soul is saved from death, sacrificing personal ease and comfort to seek a soul in peril amid frost, cold, storm, tempest, hardship and patient labor until found.

A faithful shepherd labors for the sheep and not for ease and convenience, not shrinking from opposition, darkness and conflict but forgetting self, weariness, cold and hunger with the single object of saving the lost at whatever expense to himself. His wages do not govern labor or turn him from duty, for he holds a commission from the Majesty of Heaven and expects reward when the work entrusted is done, going into new places, meeting people where they are, and giving stirring practical as well as doctrinal appeals with precept backed by example. Followers serve as under-shepherds showing His tenderness and compassion to the strayed, filled with fervent love for perishing souls amid dangers seen and unseen, trusting God's power to deliver through toilsome travel, hardships, privations and dangers without faltering. Earnest pursuit is every shepherd's privilege requiring heart-searching and prayer, illustrated by Paul and Barnabas enduring hardship without seeking comfort.

Leaving the ninety-nine means workers enter new districts to labor for people in error and darkness through patient witness, prayer and house-to-house work that preserves preaching impressions, ceasing criticism to carry the last message of mercy and warning to unbelieving neighbors and friends with tactful, simple, line-upon-line instruction under the Holy Spirit's control. Ministers must not merely hover over churches with milk preaching that makes members weak, helpless consumers and not producers, but leave to hunt lost sheep, for that kind of preaching does not strengthen churches. Converts sharing Christ's spirit will help ministers instead of murmuring like the elder brother when attention goes to the ignorant, and interested workers following the minister's example go forth as missionaries with solemn travail, prayer and persevering effort refusing to yield until the Lord's lost property is recovered. A minister's first duty where some believe is to secure the army by visiting every family not for hospitality but to inquire into spiritual condition, winning by kindness, love and courtesy then entreating, warning and encouraging as each case demands, since seeking requires more than desk preaching, through conversation, prayer and personal caring that brings teachers into homes, calling for a hundred workers where there is one to go now before the crisis.

The verse shows sinners who wandered from God are not objects of scorn but of His compassion and rescue, for Christ receives them and offers escape, and their return is cause for joy in heaven. Because heaven so values the soul purchased by Christ's blood, man must not treat any fellow man with indifference or contempt nor lay a stumbling-block before one fighting sin and Satan, but must encourage and help him on the steep way heavenward. No one is to be despised for social position, wealth, race or condition, for Christ served humbly to lift the lowly, and this calls for pitying love, forgiveness and practical care without excusing sin toward the tempted, outcasts, poor, sick, colored people in the South regarded as irreclaimable, youth and those around us, relieving suffering, feeding, clothing, teaching righteousness and telling of pardon to restore God's image through divine-human cooperation. For every lost sheep God has provided a human shepherd in harmony with angels, to approach the strayed with loving compassion, seek the lost and weak through love and sympathy, and guide erring youth patiently toward repentance whose changed lives bring joy in heaven.

The joy of heaven gives reason to labor with God and angels to seek and save those who are lost, and such work is blessed, brings joy to church and workers as well as heaven, pays, and is the best lasting use of strength and resources for eternity in building souls into what will last through eternal ages. Winning one soul is worth great effort and sacrifice, and if ninety-nine efforts fail but one is saved a noble deed is done in safe acceptable service as co-labor with Jesus who died for those who esteemed Him lightly, requiring patience and humility and never saying the hopeless are not worth saving. The calling of friends to rejoice pictures heaven's joy, and when one is brought under Christ's banner through meek persuasion a star is placed in the worker's crown and the saved soul brings others so the work multiplies beyond measure. Youth should purpose to rescue souls by light, firmness and prayer, viewing everyone with divine compassion and patiently doing good to help bring conversion.

The recovery pictured by guiding sheep back is a practical lesson of eternal significance, guaranteeing that no straying sheep submitting to ransom from corruption and sin is overlooked or left without help, with mercy and compassion as a golden chain passed around every imperiled soul. The lost can be recovered through diligent search with emphasis on success in which all heaven is interested, and many more would be recovered if believers labored as represented. Wandering sinners are brought back through the working power of truth adapted to minds, becoming sons and daughters and laborers, for Christ's work is to restore and build up rather than keep them under past sinfulness, encircling with love, giving heavenly places in peace and joy, and calling heaven and earth to rejoice. Converted agencies manifest God's power, and even one saved is worth more than the whole world, while restored ones still have vineyard work and through experience can become effective workers praising Him not only with words but by consecrating all they are and have.

Heaven looks on wanderers with pity while human eyes are dry and hearts closed, for a sheep not brought back wanders until it perishes and many go to ruin for want of a hand stretched out, though the hard and reckless-appearing might have shown nobility and talent for usefulness with the same advantages. God's people must not focus only inside the fold while surrounding sinners with possibility of immortal life are in peril without warning, for withholding guiding compassion grieves and angers God. True religion makes believers faithful shepherds with uncongealed sympathies as brother's keepers at home and abroad, melting racial and caste barriers, going to highways and byways to help sufferers, changing the condition of the poor and distressed and removing obstacles to truth. Ministers going to waste places to sow truth are most precious, answered by those leaving farms, business, home comforts and if need be families even at loss of life so the cross is planted and seed sown in sorrow yields harvest. Neglect to strengthen the perishing with determined effort, close personal labor, tender sympathy and earnest prayer that will not let go is inexcusable and will be questioned in judgment, for without active labor love wanes and heaven is indignant, so bringing souls back requires refusing to be swayed by criticism or evil reports and using time carefully with heaven in the life.

The finding and restoration, not the wandering, is the theme of celebration, and the joy of finding outweighs sorrow, trouble, danger, care, perplexity and peril of the search, for the shepherd lifts the sheep to the shoulder and returns rejoicing without murmuring or censuring for trouble caused. The return gives greater cause for heartfelt rejoicing than earthly harvest abundance, for a soul born again with name in the book of life is God's most valuable blessing, calling for the voice of rejoicing and salvation in the dwelling of the righteous at every fresh token of saving grace. The joy of believing and receiving God's word at once is right and is not why stony-ground hearers fall away, for God desires the word received as soon as it comes to the heart. Genuine conversion as renewing grace should not be dismissed as fanaticism because counterfeits occur, and heaven and earth connect when brethren unite in fellowship, love for souls and prayer to move the Omnipotent arm.