Luther says : *' These thieves and robbers form at all times the great majority in the world, and nothing better can they be as long as they are not in Christ. In fact, the world will have such wolf's preaching, and indeed desires no better, because it hears not Christ nor regards Christ. It is no wonder that true Christians and their pastors are so few."
Calvin remarks : " That no man may be moved by the consid- eration, that there have been teachers in all ages who gave themselves no concern whatever about directing men to Christ, Christ expressly states that it is no matter how many there may have been of this description, or how early they began to appear. There is but one Door, and all who leave it, and make openings or breaches in the walls, are thieves.
Lightfoot thinks that our Lord refers to the Pharisees, Saddu- cees, and Essenes, who had long misled the Jews before Christ came, and that they were the three false shepherds whose final casting off is foretold in Zechariah xi. 8.
The expression, " The sheep did not hear them," must mean that true believers, when our Lord came on earth, such as Simeon, Anna, and others, had ceased to put any confidence in the commissioned teachers of the Jews, and were like sheep without a shepherd.
The word " sheep," in this explanatory verse, must evidently be taken in a spiritual sense, and can ouly mean true believers. Mere outward members of the Church, without faith and grace, are not " sheep."
" Sheep," says Hengstenberg, M in the discourses of Christ, are always the faithful members of God's kingdom, the company of believers."
Alford says: "The sheep throughout this parable are not the mixed multitude of good and bad ; but the real sheep, the faith- ful, who are what all in the fold should be. The false sheep, the goats, do not appear."
Brentius remarks that we must not hastily assume, from our Lord's saying " the sheep did not hear them," that godly peo- ple will never be led away temporarily by false teachers. They may be deceived and seduced, but will return to the truth at last. 9. — [7am the door, etc.~\ This verse is one of those wide, broad, grand statements which our Lord sometimes makes, stretching far beyond the subject of which He is immediately speaking. It is like, " I am the Bread, — I am the Light, — I am the Way." — The primary meaning is, " I am He through whom anil by whom alone true pastors must enter the Church. All such pas- tors, entering by Me, shall find themselves at home in the fold, and enjoy the confidence of my flock, and find food for the souls of my sheep, their hearers." — The secondary or fuller meaning is, "I am the Way of access to God. All who come to the