John 10:16Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

That Christ appeared as a guide in religion for the Gentiles is easy for everyone to know. The divinely inspired Scripture is full of testimonies to this. One might, it seems, pass them by, leaving their investigation to the inquisitive.

Yet I shall set forth two or three passages from the prophets concerning this, and then speak about what follows in order.

Thus God the Father says of Him in one place: "Behold, I have given Him as a testimony to the nations, a ruler and commander for the nations," Is 55:4. Indeed, Christ bore witness to the teaching among the nations, giving salvation and openly declaring that through which salvation had to be received.

The divine Psalmist, as though calling those who dwell everywhere into one assembly and commanding the whole world to gather for a heavenly feast, says: "All nations, clap your hands. Shout to God with a voice of joy," Ps 46:2.

If anyone wishes to investigate the cause of so radiant and glorious a triumph, he will find clear words about it: "For God is the King of all the earth. Sing with understanding. God has reigned over all the nations," Ps 46:8-9.

In one place he brings forward the Lord Himself proclaiming the Gospel preaching to all the nations together in His own words. In the forty-eighth Psalm He says: "Hear this, all nations. Give ear, all who inhabit the world, earthborn and sons of men, rich and poor together. My mouth shall speak wisdom, and the meditation of my heart understanding," Ps 48:2-4.

Indeed, what can one point to as wiser than the Gospel commandments? What shall we find spoken with such understanding as the teaching of Christ?

Thus, returning to the beginning, He clearly foretells that the multitude of the Gentiles will be joined to one flock with those who are converted from the Israelites.

But why, someone may ask, if he investigates more precisely the meaning of the saying being interpreted, does the Savior reveal mysteries while speaking to the Jewish rulers? Why was it necessary, tell me, to teach such men, whose hearts were inflamed with hatred and envy, that He would rule over the Gentiles and bring into His courts sheep outside Judea?

What will you say to this? What will you answer? The Lord does not communicate mysteries to them as to friends. Yet He does not give them this explanation in vain. He does it because it could benefit them, so far as depended on Him Himself.

Such indeed was the saying set before them, though the mind of the hearers, being frivolous, remained altogether unreceptive and inaccessible to good obedience.

He knew that the writings of Moses and the foretellings of the prophets were known to them. In the prophets there are many extensive sayings that Christ would draw the Gentiles to the knowledge of God. Therefore, setting before them as the clearest sign the fact that He had already been clearly foretold, He openly declares that He will also call sheep who are not of the fold of the Jews.

He does this so that at last, as we have just said, they may believe that He is truly the One concerning whom the choir of holy men had foretold.

Therefore let all be in one Shepherd and choose the one voice of the Shepherd, which the sheep hear. Let them follow their Shepherd, not this one or that one, but their own. Let all choose one voice in Him and not have different voices.

Clement speaks of other sheep worthy of another flock in the heavens.

But perhaps someone will think that, since He did not come to us Himself but sent His disciples to us, we have not heard His voice, but only the voice of those whom He sent to us. Not at all. Let this thought be driven from your hearts.

For in those whom He sent, He Himself was present. Hear Paul, whom He sent. Paul was sent above all to the Gentiles as an apostle. Paul himself, instilling fear not before himself but before Him, said: "Do you seek proof that Christ speaks in me?" cf. 2 Cor 13:3.

Hear also the Lord Himself: "I have other sheep," namely from the Gentiles, "which are not of this fold," that is, not from the people of Israel, "and them also I must bring." Therefore He also brings them through His disciples, in no other way.

Hear what follows: "And they will hear My voice." Behold, through His disciples He Himself speaks, and from those whom He sent His voice is heard, so that there will be one flock and one Shepherd.

For these two flocks, as for two walls, He became the cornerstone, cf. Eph 2:20. Thus He is both Door and Cornerstone. All this is by way of likeness, not in the literal sense.

I have already spoken about this and entrusted it to you with all sincerity. Those who received it understood. Those who have not yet grasped it by reason should hold by faith what they cannot yet understand.

Christ appears in many likenesses which He is not in the literal sense. Figuratively, the stone is Christ, the door is Christ, the cornerstone is Christ, the shepherd is Christ, the lamb is Christ, and the lion is Christ. He is many things by likeness, including things that would take long to mention.

But if you proceed from the proper sense of the things you usually see, He is not a stone, because He is not hard and insensible. He is not a door, because a carpenter did not make Him. He is not a cornerstone, because a builder did not set Him in place. He is not a shepherd, because He does not care for four-footed sheep. He is not a lion, because He does not belong among wild beasts. He is not a lamb, because He does not belong among livestock.

He is all these things by likeness. What, then, is He in essence? "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," Jn 1:1. And what of the man in whom He manifested Himself? "And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us," Jn 1:14.

In a higher sense, by the fold one may also understand the heavenly dwelling. Therefore those who here are planted in the house of the Lord, which is the Church of the living God, will also flourish there "in the courts of our God"; Ps 91:14.

But whoever makes a god of the belly, or glory, or silver, or anything else which he prefers to all the rest, does not worship the Lord. He is not in the holy fold, even if he seems worthy of visible assemblies.

The Lord said that He has other sheep, that is, plainly, us. These are not of this flock, that is, not of the Jewish flock. From the Jews first came the Mother, according to the human beginning, of the Lord and God.

Then came the holy apostles, and with them and because of them the faithful from Judea. For there was no saving birth in travail of the Church among men before this. There had been no preaching to us.

There was no Baptism, which Christ accomplished after the Resurrection through His apostles, blending us into the faithful flock from the Jews. Thus all we faithful are one flock, shepherded and preserved by one Shepherd.

He is Christ, the High Priest and Shepherding Master. For there is one Lord, one faith, one Baptism. So said the elder disciple to the shepherds, and the great Apostle, teacher of the world beneath heaven.

He also said: "When the full number of the nations has entered, then all Israel will be saved"; Rom 11:25-26. He does not say that salvation will appear to the Jews at the end.

Rather, he means those who see God in purity of mind and faith. This is Israel, as all interpret it, including the Jews themselves: "a mind knowing God."

Not all who are from Israel are Israel. Not all who are Abraham's seed are children. Rather, "in Isaac" the seed is named. That is, the children of the flesh are not children of God, as the same Apostle said.

Again, the Lord said in the Gospel that many are called, the descendants of Israel and Christians, but few are chosen, that is, saved.

When the fullness of the nations enters, that is, the universal Church, plainly at the Judgment, then all Israel will be saved. This means the "mind that sees God," that is, every man who understands God in faith and piety.

For when He chooses the simple from both peoples for eternal life, He brings the sheep to the sheep's own possession. Of these true sheep He again says: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life"; Jn 10:27-28.

Of them He also says a little earlier: "If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out, and find pasture"; Jn 10:9.

Before Christ's coming, the nations inhabiting the earth could be divided into Jews, who worshiped the true God and therefore constituted the chosen flock, and pagans, who worshiped idols. Jesus' words that there will be one flock and one Shepherd prove that, henceforth, the Jews cease to be the exclusive chosen flock of God.

They prove that pagans, sheep not of this fold, will also be drawn into this chosen flock. In this way one flock of many peoples will be formed under the headship of one Shepherd, Christ. This thought, contained in the cited words of Jesus Christ, is clear and raises no objection.

But one may ask whether this thought can be developed more broadly. Should one think that, in time, all humanity without exception, containing all the nations of the earth, will enter this one flock?

Will there be no other flocks outside this flock? Consequently, will all people acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Shepherd?

The answer to this question must be sought in the Gospel, in the sayings of Jesus Christ. Speaking of the end of the world and His coming second advent, Christ said: "And this gospel of the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations. And then the end will come" (Mt 24:14, cf. Mk 13:10).

This saying of Jesus Christ leads to the conclusion that, before the end of the world, the Gospel will be preached to all nations inhabiting the earth. That is, all will be given the possibility of knowing the true God and His will.

But from these words of Jesus, according to some interpreters, one cannot conclude whether they will all love God and all do His will. Nor can one conclude whether all will unite into one harmonious family, animated by love for God and one another.

The coming division at the final Judgment into righteous and sinners includes not only all who are raised for that purpose, but also those who live until that time. This leads these interpreters to think that, even at the end of the world, humanity will not constitute one flock whose sheep obey the voice of their Shepherd.

One cannot, however, agree with such an opinion. The thought of one flock and one Shepherd was placed, so to speak, into human hearts at their very creation. It was upheld in the consciousness of the best representatives of the human race throughout the whole very long period of its existence.

The thought that God Himself reigns over men, whose will they must fulfill as an unconditionally binding law, illumines the whole history of the Old Testament. The fundamental laws of God, love God, love your neighbor, and labor, were given already to the first people.

In them is all God's righteousness, and by them all mutual relations among people were to be determined. If people had truly been governed by these laws, they would long ago have formed one flock with one Shepherd.

They would have formed that earthly paradise, that Kingdom of God, which constitutes the purpose of humanity's earthly life. But people were created as free beings. They could submit to God's will expressed in these laws, and they could also resist it.

Having understood the freedom given to them as resistance to every other will, and therefore to God's will, people unknowingly began blindly to fulfill another will. It was an evil will, setting them against one another, dividing them, and thereby preventing them from joining into one harmonious flock with one Shepherd.

Not noticing this submission, man thought that he was doing his own will and doing what he himself wanted. Therefore he began to regard his desires as the highest law for himself, and their satisfaction as the meaning of his life.

Many years passed in this way, and people fell morally lower and lower. Having forgotten the will of God expressed in His eternal and unchanging laws, they did not understand the goal of human life and saw no meaning in it.

The best representatives of paganism reached despair and considered that man's only happiness lay in the possibility of ending his aimless and meaningless life by suicide. Yet almost all nations inhabiting the earth possessed a dim recollection of that blessed time when people lived in happiness, lacking nothing.

There was grief over the loss of this blessedness and dreams of the coming golden age, of the return of the lost paradise. All this led people whose souls were not sunk in the trifles of everyday life to understand that life could not go on this way.

They understood that a Man must appear who would renew the fallen world. They awaited this Man from the East. Inspired by God, the Hebrew prophets proclaimed the swift coming of this blessed future.

The prophet Isaiah, thundering in fiery speeches against the lawlessness of his contemporaries, nevertheless consoled them that the blessed time would come. Then "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.

The calf, the young lion, and the ox shall be together, and a little child shall lead them. The infant shall play over the hole of the asp, and the child shall stretch his hand over the den of the serpent. They shall not do evil or harm on My holy mountain" (Is 11:1-10).

The prophet Micah, speaking of the same blessed time, foretold that when people "beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.

But each shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, and no one shall make them afraid" (Mic 4:1-4). In general, the best people of that time believed that happiness would be possible only when swords rusted and plows shone.

It would be possible when granaries were full, and hospitals and prisons empty. It would be possible when the steps of churches and schools were worn down, and the road to the courts was overgrown with grass.

And then Christ came with the good news that man is immortal. His brief earthly life is a preparation for eternal Life. For this eternal Life people will be raised, and after the final Judgment over them, some will be blessed and others will suffer.

One can be counted worthy of the blessedness of eternal Life only by fulfilling the will of God. God requires of people love for Him, the Creator, and for all people. Man's good lies not in oppressing his neighbors, but in constant help to them.

It lies in love even toward those whom we mistakenly consider our enemies. There must be no enemies. All must be brothers and friends.

Bringing such news, Christ knew that He had "not brought peace to the earth, but a sword." He knew that His teaching would produce fearful divisions among people, even among members of one and the same family.

Yet at the same time, in His farewell discourse, He told His apostles not to be troubled by this, because victory was assured to Him: "Be of good cheer. I have overcome the world" (Jn 16:33).

Earlier He had said that all the nations of the earth would hear His voice, that is, His teaching. Then that blessed time would come of which the prophets proclaimed and the pagans dreamed. Then there would be one flock and one Shepherd.

Can one doubt the truth of what the Lord said about one flock with one Shepherd, after He said that He had overcome the world? In what else could this victory be expressed, if not in the uniting of all people inhabiting the earth into one flock?

It is their uniting into one Kingdom of God, in which God Himself reigns, and which Christ came to restore. Of course, such a union of people into one Kingdom of God will take place very slowly. But it is already taking place.

According to the Lord's word, it will certainly be accomplished. Much tares still grow now in Christ's field. Yet, through the united efforts of all true disciples of Christ, these tares will become fewer and fewer.

Much land is still not occupied by this field. Yet the word of God is now sown even where there are no favorable conditions, and it sprouts. Let no one say that the tares will choke the wheat.

Although at times the tares may grow strongly and oppress the wheat by their growth, we must not forget that the word of God, like a mustard seed, possesses wondrous power to grow into a luxuriant tree. Under its branches there will be no place for tares.

Certainly, if we preach that people will never unite into one harmonious family loving God and one another, then by this we will delay the return to humanity of the lost paradise. We will delay it, but we will not prevent the fulfillment of God's will and of what Christ said.

Let us not doubt the truth of the Lord's words. Let us try to warm our own hearts and the hearts of our neighbors with love, so that the God of peace and love may reign in us. Let us, according to our strength, broaden the borders of the Kingdom of God.

Let us all unite in prayer and beseech the merciful Creator: may the spirit of malice, enmity, and hatred of mankind, which now reaps an abundant harvest, fall silent. May our hearts be kindled with love for Him, the heavenly Father, and for one another.

May He help us recognize our spiritual poverty, our moral impotence, and our nothingness in comparison with the perfection toward which we must strive. May He grant us strength to broaden the borders of His Kingdom.

May we all be one, and may we be one with Him. May we be one flock with one Shepherd.

He also speaks this way because of the indisputable reality of their future conversion. To the Lord's gaze it already appears as accomplished.

"Which are not of this fold," that is, they do not belong to the society of the Hebrew theocracy. They are represented as wandering outside the fold, because God allowed them for a time to walk in their own ways.

Yet He did not leave Himself without witness among them; Acts 14:16-17; Acts 17:27.

"I must," according to the eternal decree of God. "The word 'must' does not signify compulsion, but points to an action that will surely follow"; Chrysostom.

"Bring": having gathered the scattered, He will bring them, as a shepherd leads his sheep; Jn 10:4, into the sheepfold, His Church, which will replace the ancient theocracy.

"They will hear My voice"; cf. Jn 10:3-5, 14. Hearing the voice, they will recognize it as the voice of their shepherd, as known and familiar, though forgotten. That is, they will believe the Gospel preaching when they hear it; Acts 28:28.

A special solemnity and majesty are contained in the final words of this great prophecy: "and there will be one flock and one shepherd." This enclosure, which had until now separated the Gentile world from the Jewish world, will fall.

Both will be joined under one enclosure, under one shelter, under the guidance of one shepherd. They will be in one Church of Christ, without distinction of nationalities or conditions.

A majestic explanation of this majestic prophecy is found in the holy Apostle Paul, Eph 2:11-22. The fulfillment of this prophecy is still taking place through the gradual spread of Christianity in the Gentile world.

It will be finally completed by the conversion of the Jews to Christ, as the holy Apostle Paul prophetically depicts it in Rom 11:25 and following.

What an all-embracing promise! What a wondrous prophecy! Before the gaze of the seer and shepherd stand the nations of the whole universe with their future.

He sees that, despite the manifoldness of the human will, the Gentile nations will enter His sheepfold at His call. Has this been fulfilled? It has been fulfilled with complete precision.

After His Resurrection, He sent the apostles to preach the Gospel to the inhabitants of the whole earth; Mt 24:14; Mt 28:19; Lk 24:47; Acts 1:2, 8; Acts 10:11. He sent them to receive them into the new and eternal covenant; Mt 24:28; Lk 22:20.

How many nations now glorify the name of Jesus! The calling has not yet ended. The remaining nations also, in their own time, will be in the fold of Jesus.