John 10:1-18
Theology, sociology, psychology (and many other –ogies) have all weighed in and added their two cents worth on life. While I respect their academic efforts and their many theories, they have not really brought together a cohesive working understanding of human behavior and society that has relieved individual and mass suffering and oppression. Yet, man continues to look into these arenas for answers and saviors. Most wise men know that what we observe in individual behavior and society are symptoms of something systemic. In other words there is a backstory, something deeper and foundational that we must drill down into if we are to really discover cause. A single verse of scripture has served me more than all the “-ogies” in thinking about the foundations of reality.
The thief comes to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they may have life, and might have it abundantly. John 10:10 NASB
A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. John 10:10 MSG
This is a one sentence pronouncement by Jesus’ on ultimate and intentional cause and effect. So, as a follower of the Shepherd, this verse naturally weighs heavily into the way I understand the whole of scripture and the whole of life. In both the bible and in life there are many things I cannot fully understand or explain. Truly, we are immersed in mystery. John 10:10 does as much to explain the foundational reality to our mysterious backstory as any sentence or thought I know of.
Its contribution for me is this; Behind the stories and scenes of our individual and corporate experience, there is a very accomplished thief and a very Good Shepherd vying for our hearts and through them, the dominion of this earth. So how does this sentence serve me? It is very
simple. When I see something that has been stolen or is being stolen, when I see something that is dead or is dying, when I see something that has been destroyed or is being destroyed, I immediately presume its the thief, the Shepherd’s enemy, who has climbed over the fence somehow and has gotten into the sheepfold.
On the other hand, If I see life, where new things are being birthed and are growing, I assume the Shepherd is involved. Since I didn’t take any courses on systematic theology I have adopted this basic premise as a cornerstone value in my systemic cosmology (or belief system). Stated even more simply: God is good. Satan is purely evil. This foundational orientation to reality is not only a key to wisdom and discernment, it is essential to how we will learn to hear the Shepherd’s voice.
He calls His own sheep by name…and the sheep hear His voice…and He leads them out…I am the Good Shepherd…and I know my own, and my own know me. (verses 3 & 14)
I have followed this Shepherd for more than 37 years. He has never permitted the enemy to ravage me. But the wolf has dug his teeth into me on occasion. I have told the story in many ways but it required the help of a few of the Shepherd’s apprentices to help me identify the tracks of the beast which had regularly been crawling over the fence and into my heart. The doorway (or gate) into my heart is through my eyes and through my mind. I learned that the enemy had been trafficking in the domain of my thoughts in subtle ways since I was a child. So thorough was the dissemination of his lies in my belief system, that it effected who I believed myself to be.
After discovering this, we (his under-shepherds and I), identified those patterns of thought that were contributing to death in all it expressions. I broke my associations and agreements with those old familiar ideas about God, myself and others and served them notice. The result is that today I am more apt to recognize the enemy’s condemning and accusing voice and reject it as the voice of a stranger who I will not follow.
And a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.
In 1976, I entered through the gate and was saved. Jesus served as a living bridge that I crossed over from the domain of the thief where I had been ripped off and lied to for 23 years into the Kingdom of God, where I have been given safety and pardon for my many years of agreement and obedience with the prince of this present evil age. I have some bite marks to be sure but they only serve to remind me that we are still at war. As I am now in my sixth decade and reflect on the story He is writing on my life I can concur with John 10:10 that He truly is a good Shepherd and is faithful to provide eternal life, an abundantly better life than I ever dreamed possible.
Father, may you teach us to recognize the enemy’s voice where it is entangled in the root system our depressions, our sickness, our hopelessness, our fear and all other places where death and decay are stealing and eroding away at the foundations of our life – robbing us of our
truest identities in Christ and the abundance that is intended to flow from our innermost beings in Him. In Your precious and wonderful and name. Amen.