The Good Shepherd vs The Hired Hands

A shepherd, in this context, is not speaking of someone who looks after literal physical sheep, and the sheep being spoken of here are not literal physical sheep like you would find at a farm or at a zoo. For this is speaking on a spiritual level of our shepherd, Jesus Christ, who cares for and who looks after his sheep, i.e. those who have trusted in him to be Lord and Savior of their lives, who have died with Christ to sin, and who have been raised with Christ to live no longer as slaves to sin, but as slaves to God.

Now Jesus Christ, the second person of our triune God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – left his throne in heaven, came to earth, was born as a baby to a human mother, a virgin, but was conceived of the Holy Spirit and not of man. So he was not born with a sin nature as we are, and he never once sinned. He was perfectly sinless in all that we was and did and said. And while he lived on the earth he ministered to both the physical and the spiritual needs of the people, teaching repentance and obedience to God.

And because he spoke the truth that many did not want to hear, his own people, even some of his own family, and the rulers in the temple and in the synagogues, and all who followed after them, they hated him, and they wanted him dead. So some of them plotted and had carried out his death on a cross. But in his death, he put our sins to death with him so that, by faith in him, we will now die to sin and live to God and to his righteousness in walks of obedience to his commands, in surrender to the will of God.

So, all those who, by faith in Jesus, have died with Christ to sin, and who are now walking (in conduct, in practice) in obedience to his commands, are his sheep. And all those who profess faith in Jesus Christ with their lips, but who have continued to make sin their practice, and not obedience to our Lord and to his commands, they are not his sheep. For faith in Jesus is shown, not by lip service, but by what we do in love response to Christ in following him in walks of obedience to his commands in living holy lives, pleasing to God.

Sadly, that is not “the gospel” that is being so popularized today in the USA, and perhaps in other nations, as well. What is so largely being accepted as the gospel of salvation today is that all we have to do is to pray a prayer to “receive Christ,” or to confess him as the Lord and to believe in his bodily resurrection, or to merely acknowledge his physical death and resurrection, and now that means we are saved for eternity, and heaven is now our eternal destiny, regardless of how we live or how we treat God after that.

But it is these “hired hands” (many pastors) who are the ones who are spreading these lies, convincing so many people that heaven is their destiny, when in truth that is a bold-faced lie from hell. They are the ones deserting the people and leaving them to the wolves when they convince them to believe the lies and to reject the truth, and to follow a gospel of the flesh and not the gospel that Jesus gave his life up for on that cross. But we need to follow the gospel that Jesus, our shepherd, taught his sheep.

For Jesus Christ taught that to come to him we must deny self, take up our cross daily (die daily to sin), and follow (obey) him. For if we hold on to living in sin and for self, we will lose our lives for eternity. But if we deny self, die daily to sin, by the Spirit, and we walk in obedience to our Lord and to his commands, in his power, then we have eternal life with God. For not everyone who calls him “Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one DOING (obeying) the will of God (see Luke 9:23-26; Matthew 7:21-23).

For by God-gifted faith in Jesus Christ, which is not of our own doing, we are crucified with Christ in death to sin and raised with Christ to walk in newness of life in him, no longer to live as slaves to sin but as slaves to righteousness in walks of obedience to God’s commands. We are no longer to permit sin to reign in our mortal bodies to make us obey its desires. For if sin is what we obey, it results in death. But if obedience to God is what we obey, it results in sanctification, and its end is eternal life with God (see Romans 6:1-23).

So, don’t follow the “hired hands” who are feeding you lies, who are handing you over to the wolves to devour you. Follow the Good Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and follow His teachings, taught in their appropriate context. For many lies stem from Scriptures taught out of context which are being made to teach what they do not teach if taught in the correct context. So don’t rely on humans to tell you the truth. Study the Scriptures in their context, know the truth, live the truth, die to sin, and obey God with your lives.

[Matthew 7:13-14,21-23; Luke 9:23-26; John 1:12-13; John 6:44; John 10:27-30; Acts 26:18; Romans 2:6-8; Romans 6:1-23; Romans 8:1-14; 1 Corinthians 10:1-22; Galatians 5:16-24; Ephesians 2:8-10; Ephesians 4:17-32; Ephesians 5:3-6; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 3:1-19; Hebrews 4:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-2; 1 Peter 2:24; 1 John 1:1-10; 1 John 2:3-6; 1 John 3:4-10]

My Sheep

Based off John 10:1-30 NIV
An Original Work / June 24, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

My sheep hear me. They know me.
They listen to my voice and obey.
I call them and lead them.
They know my voice, so they follow me.
They will never follow strangers.
They will run away from them.
The voice of a stranger they know not;
They do not follow him.

So, I tell you the truth that
I am the gate, so you enter in.
Whoever does enter
Will find forgiveness and will be saved.
Nonetheless whoever enters
Not by the gate; other way,
He is the thief and a robber.
Listen not, the sheep to him.

Oh, I am the Good Shepherd,
Who laid his own life down for the sheep.
I know them. They know me.
They will live with me eternally.
The thief only comes to steal and
Kill and to destroy the church.
I have come to give you life that
You may have it to the full…

They know my voice, so they follow me.


The Good Shepherd vs The Hired Hands
An Original Work / July 26, 2025
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love