John 10:15 — Community Reflections

JOHN 10:15 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

Just as the Father knows me and I know the Father — and I lay down my life for the sheep — Jesus establishes a parallel between His knowledge of the Father and His knowledge of His sheep, suggesting that the same intimate, self-sacrificial love that characterizes the Father-Son relationship extends to the flock. The laying down of life is presented as the ultimate expression of this knowledge and love. This verse reveals the trinitarian depth of Christ's redemptive work: the Father's love generates the Son's sacrificial love for the sheep.

Church Fathers on John 10:15

Two evil persons have been mentioned, one that kills, and robs the sheep, another that does not hinder: the one standing for those movers of seditions; the other for the rulers of the Jews, who did not take care of the sheep committed to them. Christ distinguishes Himself from both; from the one who came to do hurt by saying, I am come that they might have life; from those who overlook the rapine of the wolves, by saying that He gives His life for the sheep. Wherefore He said…
Chrysostom · 4th century

As if He said, I love My sheep, and they love and follow Me. For he who loves not the truth, is as yet very far from knowing it.
Gregory the Great · 6th century

Hence the difference of the hireling and the Shepherd. The hireling does not know his sheep, because he sees them so little. The Shepherd knows His sheep, because He is so attractive to them.
Theophylact · 11th century

Read all 26 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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