While John 10:1-18 is a metaphor, the meaning is straightforward. Yet, like all else we have seen in John thus far, the verses should not be restricted just to those who heard Christ’s voice.
In verses 1 through 5, Christ is making reference, I believe, to two groups of people – the scribes, Pharisees, and priests as one group and false messiahs as the other group (Matthew 24:24). In verse 19, the words of Christ caused a sharp division among the Jews, likely because at least some of the scribes, Pharisees, and priests understood Him to be referring to them.
The Pharisees in particular took their authority seriously and did not consider Christ to have any authority, for He had not been commissioned in any way through the temple. Christ, meanwhile, continued to assert that His authority came directly from God the Father.
In verses 1 through 5, Christ requires that all who would profess to be a shepherd, pastor, teacher, or leader of His people must enter through the door. In verse 7, Christ states that He is the door. By this, we must understand Him requiring union with Himself before anyone profess to become a shepherd, pastor, teacher, or leader in the church. Union with Christ is the primary qualifier for leadership of God’s people.
The Pharisees were certainly not embodying the righteousness of God because they were relying on strict adherence to the law of Moses for their salvation. They would prefer, as we have seen in other chapters, that those who were suffering continue to suffer just so that the Sabbath would be respected.
These verses are timeless in their application. In a recent example, a convicted felon was recently convicted yet again for stealing more than $1 million in cryptocurrency from people. He held himself out to be an online pastor and conned his listeners into sending him cryptocurrency. In fact, He was not even remotely a Christian and only preyed on the goodness or the greed, I’m not sure which, of his listeners.
Prosperity gospel teachers, people who write so-called Christian books just to make money, and musicians who are only interested in money and sing questionable lyrics are just a few examples of people who do not enter by the door. So-called pastors who twist God’s word and misrepresent Christ’s teachings are also included in this category. Christ does not hold back when He says “he is a thief and a robber” and “the thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy”. In other words, they do not have the best interest of the hearer in mind. Rather than union with Christ as the primary qualifier, they are focused on personal gain.
By requiring that all pastors, teachers, leaders, and shepherds enter through Christ the door, there is a requirement that they abide in Christ and be in union with Him.
If money, fame, or worldly success are our chief aim when engaging in ministry, then we cannot be in union with Christ. There is certainly an application outside the church as well. If personal gain is placed ahead of union with Christ, people around us will suffer at our hands. Christ teaches the opposite, placing union with Christ first, and trusting in Him for our needs. With reference to Matthew 6:33, we are to seek His righteousness first and trust that all we have need of will be sufficiently supplied. With reference to 2 Corinthians 12:9-10 and Hebrews 13:5, what Christ deems sufficient may be vastly different from what we think is sufficient. Our task is to learn to trust in His grace and be content.
We would do well to heed the warning in James 3:1, “Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment.” Let our teaching and leadership be faithful, rooted and grounded in union with Christ, and seeking only to embody the righteousness of Christ. Christ Himself exhorts and warns in John 10:1-21 that He will treat false teachers and false pastors as thieves and robbers, which verifies the truth of James 3:1 that a harsher judgment awaits them. Paul’s exhortation in 2 Timothy 4:1-5 should also be heeded. Regardless of what the sheep follow, the shepherd is to “preach the word”. If the people do not heed sound preaching, they will answer for their own unbelief. However, if the shepherd leads the people astray by preaching something other than “the Word”, both the people and the shepherd are held accountable, with the shepherd receiving the harsher judgment.
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