John 10:1 meaning

[aball1035]

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.”

Can somebody tell me what Christ meant by this?

 

[Verbum]

Hi Aball,

If you read a little further (v. 7), Jesus says, “I am the door of the sheep”. So your passage means that we cannot be saved except through Jesus.

Does this answer your question ?

Verbum

 

[aball1035]

Hi Aball,

If you read a little further (v. 7), Jesus says, “I am the door of the sheep”. So your passage means that we cannot be saved except through Jesus.

Does this answer your question ?

Verbum

Ahhh, so it has nothing to do with ordinations or jurisdiction? It’s just referring to salvation?

 

[Ignatius]

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.”

Can somebody tell me what Christ meant by this?

It was prophetic, He was referring to the Protestants if they do sheep stealing in the sheepfold (i.e. The Church)!

 

[thistle]

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.”

Can somebody tell me what Christ meant by this?

D-R Bible, Haydock Commentary:

Ver. 1, &c. In this parable the fold is the Church: the good shepherd, and also the door is Christ: the thieves and robbers are false guides; the hirelings, such ministers as seek their own profit and gain, and a good living, as they call it; the wolves, heretics; the sheep not yet brought into the fold, the Gentiles not then converted. (Witham)

 

[NHInsider]

It was prophetic, He was referring to the Protestants if they do sheep stealing in the sheepfold (i.e. The Church)!

Not just Protestants (or even particularly Protestants). John the Apostle/presbyter* was particularly involved in defending the Church against some of the earliest heretics - the Nicolatians, of whom we know only that they are denounced in Revelations, Diotrephes, mentioned in the 3rd epistle of John, an otherwise unknown figure who apparently rejected John’s Apostolic authority, the proto-gnostic Simon Magus, and the “many antichrists” mentioned in the first epistle.

Jesus is warning against anyone who tries to lead the people without being subject to His authority.

*Pacem disputers of who wrote what in the Johannine corpus - it doesn’t matter for this discussion!

 

[Benadam]

Jesus refers to someone at the wedding feast who was improperly dressed and sent to the outer darkness. I’ve always connected this with someone who didn’t enter through the proper door.

 

[Crumpy]

it’s just a guess, but i’m thinking about the literal picture of a sheepfold, where someone comes in from an unexpected or you might say unauthorized way. It conjures up in my mind somebody trying to take the easy way, instead of a more difficult, proper way through the door of the pasture, where they might be properly recognized and admitted, which in the spiritual sense, might mean trying to avoid Christ.

 

[Benadam]

it’s just a guess, but i’m thinking about the literal picture of a sheepfold, where someone comes in from an unexpected or you might say unauthorized way. It conjures up in my mind somebody trying to take the easy way, instead of a more difficult, proper way through the door of the pasture, where they might be properly recognized and admitted, which in the spiritual sense, might mean trying to avoid Christ.

Good guess. Looking back at the OP’s passage, I note the word ‘climb’ as to the method of entry. Eastern and gnostic spirituality is a kind of reaching up to God but lacks the lifting up that only God can do of christian contemplative prayer.

 

[erikd]

Catechism of the Catholic Church:
754 "The Church is, accordingly, a sheepfold, the sole and necessary gateway to which is Christ. It is also the flock of which God himself foretold that he would be the shepherd, and whose sheep, even though governed by human shepherds, are unfailingly nourished and led by Christ himself, the Good Shepherd and Prince of Shepherds, who gave his life for his sheep.

Pope John Paul II “Christ Alone Gives the Fullness of Divine Life” Aug. 19, 1993
All this takes place although Christ, the Good Shepherd, wants us to have life. He knows what threatens life; he knows how to recognize the wolf who comes to snatch and scatter the sheep. He can identify those who try to enter the sheepfold but who are really thieves and hirelings (cf. Jn 10:1, 13). He knows how many young people are wasting their lives, shirking their responsibility and living in falsehood. Drugs, the abuse of alcohol, pornography and sexual disorder, violence: these are some of the grave problems which need to be seriously addressed by the whole of society, in every nation and at the international level.

Pope Benedict XVI “Ordination Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica” May 7, 2006
*It is through him that one must enter the service of shepherd. Jesus highlights very clearly this basic condition by saying: “he who… climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber” (Jn 10:1). This word “climbs” - anabainei in Greek - conjures up the image of someone climbing over a fence to get somewhere out of bounds to him.
“To climb” - here too we can also see the image of careerism, the attempt to “get ahead”, to gain a position through the Church: to make use of and not to serve. It is the image of a man who wants to make himself important, to become a person of note through the priesthood; the image of someone who has as his aim his own exaltation and not the humble service of Jesus Christ.
But the only legitimate ascent towards the shepherd’s ministry is the Cross. This is the true way to rise; this is the true door. It is not the desire to become “someone” for oneself, but rather to exist for others, for Christ, and thus through him and with him to be there for the people he seeks, whom he wants to lead on the path of life.
*

 

[callmeChris]

It not only means that Jesus is the only way through to salvation, this I firmly believe. but it also means that it could be one who seeks to destroy and lead the sheep astray. Satan also seeks to ‘climb in the other way’ and take advantage of us; our desires, and passion, etc.

For me personally, a perfect example would be a heretic, who leads the sheep astray with their false, and misleading doctrines. Look at what Martin Luther, and Calvin, and many others did. (Forgive me if anyone found this offensive). But also many heretics live today AND IN THE CHURCH, which is why we must keep on praying, and cast out the ‘robbers’ who come to lead the sheep astray.

“It is time that the lay make sure their bishops act like bishops, and their priests act like true loving priests…”-Fulton J. Sheen

 

[DPMartin]

It not only means that Jesus is the only way through to salvation, this I firmly believe. but it also means that it could be one who seeks to destroy and lead the sheep astray. Satan also seeks to ‘climb in the other way’ and take advantage of us; our desires, and passion, etc.

For me personally, a perfect example would be a heretic, who leads the sheep astray with their false, and misleading doctrines. Look at what Martin Luther, and Calvin, and many others did. (Forgive me if anyone found this offensive). But also many heretics live today AND IN THE CHURCH, which is why we must keep on praying, and cast out the ‘robbers’ who come to lead the sheep astray.

“It is time that the lay make sure their bishops act like bishops, and their priests act like true loving priests…”-Fulton J. Sheen

Then you better go get your AK-47 and go get them no good low down none catholic heroics that are not like you, and set them straight on what Jesus it really all about. isn’t that so there callyouChris. And the truth is I don’t care if that offends you.

 

[DPMartin]

How can hatred condemnation and blame save souls? If one’s church is about hatred condemnation and blame of others or the world then how can that same church be the Light that is the Salvation from hatred condemnation and blame?

Have you ever notice that the thief (wolf) in sheep’s clothing always gets you to look at the clothing they wear (Catholic, Protestant, whatever) and not the heart that’s in it?

 

[ryanoneil]

All who came [before me] are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. (John 10:8)

Jesus refers to the shephereds of Israel who were denounced by the prophets as worthless and evil. (Jer 23:1-3; Ezek 34:1-10; Zech 11:17), and he is saying that the Pharisees are also thieves and robbers because they are their spiritual descendants. (Mt 23:29-36)

"Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever does not enter a sheepfold through the gate but climbs over elsewhere is a thief and a robber. (John 10:1)