John 10:10

‘The thief does not come for any other reason but that he may steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”

The thief is now contrasted with the shepherd. The thief is pictured in terms of a thieving rustler or wild beast who breaks into the fold to ravage the sheep. The thief ‘comes only to steal, kill and destroy’ (compareJeremiah 23:1-2; Jeremiah 23:1-2). The men who are pictured in this description would not have thought of themselves in this way, but sadly this was the result of their behaviour. The way the Pharisees had treated the healed man, blind from birth, is one example of their depredations. He discerned between the different voices and followed the shepherd, and so they threw him out of their flock. But he was welcomed into Jesus’ flock.

And later when Jerusalem lay in ruins, the Temple was destroyed, and the people were scattered among the nations, they would have to acknowledge that what Jesus had warned would happen had come about. Great numbers of them had died in the conflict, they had been ravaged by their shepherds and had lost everything, and all they believed in had been destroyed.

But, says Jesus, ‘I have come that you might have life, and that you might have it more abundantly’ (v. 10). He is the Bread of life (John 6:35), the Water of life (John 4:13-14; John 7:37-38), the Light of life (John 8:12), now He is the sacrificial and life-giving Shepherd. To receive that life by full commitment to Him is to enter and be saved and to enjoy abundance of life.