THE SHEEP AND THE GATE
Play Audio
If you prefer listening to today’s Bible guide reading, play this audio file.
If the audio bar is not appearing, click here to play the audio.
Opening Prayer
Lord, I thank you for everything you have in store for me—far beyond my deserving and often my desiring. Help me not to miss the way to these wonders.
Read JOHN 10:1–10
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Good Shepherd and His Sheep
10 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.
7 Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.[a] They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Why do you think Jesus used the image of sheep to describe his followers?To us today, a gate is an ordinary, uninspiring object. It is important but functional rather than exciting. Sheep, meanwhile, are not animals many of us have to deal with on a daily basis. We pass them in fields, see them on farms—we may even eat them from our plates. For Jesus’ listeners in the agricultural society of first-century Israel, sheep were a key source of income for many families, and a gate in front of a sheep pen offered essential safety and protection. Jesus adopts this metaphor for himself, claiming to be a spiritual gate for any ‘sheep’ who choose to follow him.
Jesus then takes his illustration further, saying that he offers not only safety but also freedom and enjoyment. Anyone who enters through him ‘will come in and go out, and find pasture’ (v. 9). This gate is not a restrictive, freedom-killing one; rather it is one that provides joy and life ‘to the full’ (v. 10). By living according to the ways of Jesus the gate, we find two seeming opposites available to us: safety and protection but also liberty and pleasure.
Jesus is our gate, keeping us safe from the threats of the enemy but also offering freedom and satisfaction. This is how the Christian life is meant to be lived—balancing protection with freedom, safety with expansion, and obedience with joy.
Apply
Is your relationship with Jesus, ‘the gate’, characterized by these elements?
Closing prayer
Thank you, Jesus, for the life that is mine in you, for the safety and freedom that is mine because of you. You know me; you know me by name—help me to follow wherever you lead me.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2025 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.