"OTHER SHEEP I HAVE"

(John 10:16) "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."

Jesus was speaking to the Jewish Pharisees on this occasion. He uses this parable of the sheep fold to teach the lesson that only the ones who hear him, even among these self-righteous Pharisees, and respond to his call, will enter the care of his sheep fold. Then he speaks of "other sheep." These other sheep, I believe, has reference to the Gentiles.

God had promised to Abraham that "in thy seed shall ALL NATIONS be blessed" and that blessing would come through the Christ.(See Galatians 3:14) Jesus charged his apostles to "Go ye therefore and teach all nations ..." (Matthew 28:19). All nations (ethnos) can be summed up as Jews and Gentiles. Paul further tells how this will be fulfilled in Acts 28 25-28: "And when they (the Jews) agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, 26 Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: 27 For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 28 Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it."

This also harmonizes with the statement of Paul in Romans 1:16: "For I am not ashamed of thegospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek."

There is room in the kingdom for all who will hear him. To hear him implies that they will respond to what they hear him say and what he says has been recorded in the New Testament. They will all be ONE, of one mind, in this kingdom. There will be no divisions; one of this kind and another of that kind. (Galatians 3:28-29) "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."

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