John 10

¹“Most certainly, I tell you, one who doesn’t enter by the door into the sheep fold, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

²But one who enters in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

³The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out.

⁴Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

⁵They will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him; for they don’t know the voice of strangers.”

⁶Jesus spoke this parable to them, but they didn’t understand what he was telling them.

⁷Jesus therefore said to them again, “Most certainly, I tell you, I am the sheep’s door.

⁸All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn’t listen to them.

⁹I am the door. If anyone enters in by me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.

¹⁰The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.

¹¹I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.

¹²He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who doesn’t own the sheep, sees the wolf coming, leaves the sheep, and flees. The wolf snatches the sheep, and scatters them.

¹³The hired hand flees because he is a hired hand, and doesn’t care for the sheep.

¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own;

¹⁵even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep.

¹⁶I have other sheep, which are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

¹⁷Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.

¹⁸No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father.”

¹⁹Therefore a division arose again among the Jews because of these words.

²⁰Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane! Why do you listen to him?”

²¹Others said, “These are not the sayings of one possessed by a demon. It isn’t possible for a demon to open the eyes of the blind, is it?”

²²It was the Feast of the Dedication at Jerusalem.

²³It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in Solomon’s porch.

²⁴The Jews therefore came around him and said to him, “How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”

²⁵Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, these testify about me.

²⁶But you don’t believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you.

²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.

²⁸I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

²⁹My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand.

³⁰I and the Father are one.”

³¹Therefore Jews took up stones again to stone him.

³²Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of those works do you stone me?”

³³The Jews answered him, “We don’t stone you for a good work, but for blasphemy: because you, being a man, make yourself God.”

³⁴Jesus answered them, “Isn’t it written in your law, ‘I said, you are gods?’

³⁵If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture can’t be broken),

³⁶do you say of him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You blaspheme,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God?’

³⁷If I don’t do the works of my Father, don’t believe me.

³⁸But if I do them, though you don’t believe me, believe the works; that you may know and believe that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”

³⁹They sought again to seize him, and he went out of their hand.

⁴⁰He went away again beyond the Jordan into the place where John was baptizing at first, and there he stayed.

⁴¹Many came to him. They said, “John indeed did no sign, but everything that John said about this man is true.”

⁴²Many believed in him there.