John 10:7

Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(7) Then said Jesus unto them again.—Better, Therefore said Jesus again, the words “unto them” being of uncertain authority. He says what follows because they did not understand what He had said before. It is not that a new allegory begins at this place. He spake in the beginning of the door and of the shepherd (John 10:1-2). He now proceeds to unfold the meaning of both.

Verily, verily, I say unto you.—Comp. Note on John 10:1.

I am the door of the sheep.—Taking these words in connection with John 10:1-2, they seem to mean not “the door for the sheep,” but “the door to the sheep,” “the door into the sheep-fold.” Our Lord returns to the words, and explains them more fully, in John 10:9.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

10:6-9 Many who hear the word of Christ, do not understand it, because they will not. But we shall find one scripture expounding another, and the blessed Spirit making known the blessed Jesus. Christ is the Door. And what greater security has the church of God than that the Lord Jesus is between it and all its enemies? He is a door open for passage and communication. Here are plain directions how to come into the fold; we must come in by Jesus Christ as the Door. By faith in him as the great Mediator between God and man. Also, we have precious promises to those that observe this direction. Christ has all that care of his church, and every believer, which a good shepherd has of his flock; and he expects the church, and every believer, to wait on him, and to keep in his pasture.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I am the door - I am the way by which ministers and people enter the true church. It is by his merits, his intercession, his aid, and his appointment that they enter.

Of the sheep - Of the church.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

7-14. I am the door of the sheep—that is, the way in to the fold, with all blessed privileges, both for shepherds and sheep (compare Joh 14:6; Eph 2:18).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Our Saviour had before been speaking of the door in another notion; there he spake of the door of the shepherd; here, of the door of the sheep: there, of the door, that is, the true and regular way of entrance into the care, conduct, and government of the church; here, of the true way of entrance, not into the church militant only, but into the church triumphant. It may be also understood of the door, or way of entrance and admission, into the church visible here upon the earth. Circumcision, baptism, external profession, are the doors into the visible Church; but none, unless by Christ, that is, by a true and lively faith wrought by the Spirit of Christ in the soul, can be a true member of Christ’s invisible church here upon the earth, much less a member of his glorious church in heaven.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Then said Jesus unto them again,.... By way of explanation of the above parable, since they did not understand it:

verily, verily, I say unto you; this is certainly truth, and what may be depended on as such, whether it will be believed or not:

I am the door of the sheep; and of none but them; not of goats, dogs, or swine; none but sheep enter at this door; and all the sheep do sooner or later: Christ is the door to them, by which they enter into a visible church state, and are let into a participation of the ordinances of it, as baptism and the Lord's supper: no man comes into a church, at the right door, or in a right way, or has a right to partake of Gospel ordinances, but he that truly believes in Christ, and makes a profession of faith in him: Christ is the door of the under shepherds of the sheep; none are fit to be pastors of churches, but who first enter into a Gospel church at this door, and are qualified, and called, and sent forth by Christ: he is the door of the sheep, by which they are let into the presence of his Father, and have communion with him, and partake of all the blessings of grace; it is through him that sanctifying, justifying, pardoning, and adopting grace, are conveyed unto them, and they brought into the enjoyment of them; it is through him they have all their peace, joy, and comfort, and deliverance from, and victory over all their enemies; through him they have heirship, and a right unto eternal life, and that itself; for he is the door into heaven itself, through which they shall have an abundant entrance into it: and he is the only door into each of these; there is no coming to God the Father but by, and through him; nor to a participation of the blessings of the covenant, nor rightly into a Gospel church state, and to the ordinances of it, nor into heaven at last, but in at this door: and this is a door of faith and hope, and an open one, for all sensible sinners, for all the sheep of Christ, to enter in at; though it is a strait gate, the number being few that enter in at it; and those that do, though they are certainly, yet but scarcely saved; for it is through many tribulations and afflictions that they enter.

Geneva Study Bible

Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

7. Then said Jesus unto them again] Better, Therefore said Jesus again. They did not understand; therefore He went through the allegory again more explicitly, interpreting the main features. ‘Unto them’ is of doubtful authority.

Verily, verily] This is the important point, to recognise that the one door of the fold, through which the sheep and the shepherds enter, is Christ. I (with great emphasis) am the Door. Comp. ‘I am the Way’ (John 14:6).

the door of the sheep] Better, ‘the Door to the sheep’ (John 10:1-2), and also ‘the Door for the sheep’ (John 10:9). Sheep and shepherds alike have one and the same door. The elect enter the Church through Christ; the ministers who would visit the flocks must receive their commission from Christ. Note that Christ does not say, ‘the Door of the fold,’ but ‘the Door of the sheep.’ The fold has no meaning apart from the sheep.

Bengel's Gnomen

John 10:7. Ἡ θύρα, the door) Christ is both the Door, and the Shepherd, and our All: there is none else.—τῶν προβάτων, of the sheep) to the sheep.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 7-10. -

(2) Allegory of the door and the fold, in which Christ claims to be "the Door of the sheep." Verse 7. - Jesus therefore (οϋν, with its resumptive force, introduces the effect upon Christ of the unsusceptible character of the Pharisees). Some pause may have occurred, during which these men displayed their bitter feeling and utter lack of appreciation, and he proceeds first to give them an explanation of the words, which should leave them in no doubt as to one emphatic meaning which they contained; Said again unto them, I am the Door of the sheep, This exposition of the allegory is introduced by the solemn Amen, amen. Christ first calls attention to the "door" into the sacred fellowship of men with God. On a subsequent occasion (John 14:6), he said, "I am the Way" to the Father; "no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." The parable as it stands refers to true and false teachers of the people, and to just and unjust claims to confer upon the sheep of God's pasture safe and sure access to God, and all privileges of Divine life. In interpreting it, he declares first that he is the one Door, not of "the fold" so much as of the sheep, in their individual capacity. This corresponds with every claim made by him and made in his Name, that he, in all the fullness of his Personality, had always been the one Medium by which, in the theocracy or beyond it, men have drawn near to the Father. The Logos is the Angel of the covenant, the Rock in the wilderness, the great High Priest, the Veil over the holy place, the propitiatory Sacrifice, the Prophet, the King. He it is who ever and always has given consolation and peace to his people. He is the one method, agency, reality, by which not only the shepherds, but the sheep, enter into the fold, and go forth thence to pasture. John 10:7

Vincent's Word Studies

The door of the sheep

Meaning the door for the sheep; not the door of the fold. "The thought is connected with the life, and not simply with the organization."