John 10:1–6

“Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which He spoke to them.

Jesus is still talking to the group that was with the blind man He had cured. This passage comes right after He said to some Pharisees, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.”

As I pointed out in the previous lesson, the Pharisees are merely sinful in normal ways. Their role as Pharisees just makes their sin unusually annoying. That role is what Jesus is busting on here—and it’s no surprise that they don’t understand. So Jesus clarifies what He’s talking about.

John 10:7–10

Then Jesus said to them again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

What the Pharisees get wrong is that they think they’re the gatekeepers. There’s nothing wrong with them teaching the law, even if they’re so pedantic that it keeps people from seeing the forest for the trees.

But they aren’t just teaching the law; they’re enforcing it. That’s wrong. God’s law does not institute a bunch of little enforcers. They will end up making that very point to Pontius Pilate.

We all tend to be little enforcers. When we think we have something figured out, we naturally tend to think that gives us the right to make everyone else go along. We all do it, though some are bolder and more annoying than others.

This is the root of the cancel culture. It’s also why people think they can enforce their views about climate change. Both of those groups take their pharisaic tendencies to extremes.

But this can get much worse. When ideological people get real power, their pharisaic nature can go nuclear. They become dictators. People frequently end up fleeing their nations in droves, often at great personal cost and risk.

The human tendency to be a Pharisee is the root cause of every humanitarian crisis of our time.

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Saturday DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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The weekly study guides, which include the Monday–Friday devotionals plus related questions for discussion or meditation, are available for download here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.