(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
The good shepherd
- “Amen, amen I tell you: the man not entering into the sheep-fold through the door but climbing in another way, that man is a thief and a robber.
- “But the man entering in through the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
- “The doorkeeper opens for him, and the sheep hear his voice, and he summons his own sheep by name and leads them out.
- “When he ushers all his own sheep out, he travels ahead of them and the sheep follow him because they *know his voice.
- “And they definitely won’t follow a stranger, but will flee from him because they haven’t known the voice of strangers.”
- Jesus told them this metaphor, but those men didn’t know what it was that He was telling them.
- So again Jesus told them: “Amen, amen I tell you: I am the door of the sheep.
- “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.
- “I am the door. If anyone enters through Me, he will be saved. And he will enter in and will go out and will find pasture.
- “The thief doesn’t come unless it’s so he might steal, and kill, and destroy. I came so they might have life, and have it abundantly.
- “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sake of the sheep.
- “And the hired servant – who not being the shepherd, the sheep aren’t his own – sees the wolf coming, and abandons the sheep, and flees. And the wolf seizes them and scatters them,
- “because he’s a hired servant and he doesn’t care about the sheep.
- “I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me.
- “Just as the Father knows Me, I also know the Father, and I lay down My life for the sake of the sheep.
- “And I have other sheep which aren’t from this fold. It’s necessary for Me to bring those also, and they will hear My voice, and they will become one flock under one shepherd.
- “The Father ^loves Me because of this; because I lay down My life so I might take it again.
- “No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down of My own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and have authority to take it again. I received this command from My Father.”
- A schism happened again among the Jews because of these words.
- And many of them were saying: “He has a demon and speaks like a madman; why are you listening to Him?”
- Others were saying: “These words aren’t those of a demon-possessed man. A demon isn’t able to open blind men’s eyes, is it?”
- This happened at the time of the Feast of Dedication1“Feast of Dedication” is another name for Hanukkah. in Jerusalem. It was winter.
I and the Father are One
- And Jesus was walking in the temple in the Colonnade of Solomon,
- So the Jews surrounded Him and were saying to Him: “How long are you keeping our souls in suspense? Tell us plainly if you are the Anointed.”
- Jesus answered them: “I told you and you don’t believe. The works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify about Me.2Jesus had just healed a man born blind; see note on John 9:1
- “But you don’t believe because you aren’t of My sheep.
- “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
- “And I give them the life of ages, and they definitely won’t perish through the age, and no one will snatch them from My hand.
- “My Father who has given them to Me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them from the Father’s hand.
- “I and the Father are one.”
- So the Jews again picked up stones so they might stone Him.
- Jesus answered them: “I showed you many noble works from the Father; for which of these works are you stoning Me?”
- The Jews answered Him: “We don’t stone you for a noble work, but for blasphemy, and because you – being a man – make yourself God.”
- Jesus answered them: “Isn’t it *written in your law: ‘I said you are gods‘.3quotation/allusion to Psalms 82:6
- “If He called those men gods – to whom the word of God came – and the scripture isn’t able to be annulled,
- “why do you say ‘you blaspheme’ about Him whom the Father made holy and sent into the world? Because I said I’m the Son of God?”
- “If I don’t do the works of My Father, don’t believe Me.”
- “But if I do, then even if you don’t believe Me, believe the works, so you might know and might understand that the Father is in Me and I’m in the Father.
- Therefore they were seeking to seize Him again, but He went out of their hand.
- And He again departed across the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He remained there.
- And many came to Him and were saying: “John indeed did nothing for a sign, but as much as John said about this man, all of it was true!”
- And many believed in Him there.
Next: John chapter 11
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