THE THIEF COMES TO STEAL, KILL & DESTROY (PART XX)

“Sheep Recognize the Shepherd’s Voice”

By Akin Ojumu

One Verse Doctrine (OVD) or One Verse Theology (OVT) is the term used to describe the ungodly and biblically erroneous practice of plucking a single Bible verse out of its proper context and scrubbing it out of its original intended meaning to create, promote, and push a theological belief or doctrine. The resulting effect is a faulty, sketchy, skewed, and dubious understanding of the subject addressed by the Bible verse.

The modern-day Church is like a landfill of OVDs and OVTs; its landscape is littered with debris of mangled Bible texts twisted and distorted beyond recognition. A few of such mutilated Bible passages include the following.

Proverbs 23:7a

“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he…”

Proverbs 29:18a

“Where there is no vision, the people perish…”

Matthew 18:20

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”

As they are commonly interpreted, every single one of the above Bible verses is totally different from their actual and contextual meaning. Contemporary understanding and application of the verses bear no resemblance to their original intended meaning. Because their interpretation is so far off the mark, the words of the texts have been rendered of no effect.

Another one of the widely abused and misused Bible texts is the subject of this commentary series.

John 10:10

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”

Even as we gradually and exegetically work our way to John 10:10, it’s already pretty clear from the context in which the text exists that the popular understanding of the passage is erroneous. From what we know so far, judging by the clues in the preceding chapters and verses leading up to John 10:10, we can categorically and unambiguously say that the thief that comes to steal, kill, and destroy mentioned in the verse is not who church folks have always believed it is. 

Taking off from where we stopped last time. We understand that in ancient Israel shepherding, a special relationship existed between shepherds and their flock of sheep. It’s this unique bond that made it possible for shepherds to recognize their own sheep and for sheep to recognize their own shepherds. 

In our day, this type of kinship between shepherds and sheep can be compared to the bond between a breastfeeding mother and her infant. As the baby suckles milk from the mother’s breast, she receives the much-needed nourishment, derives a sense of safety and security in the protective arms of the mother. In the process, a strong bond develops between mother and child through physical closeness and skin-to-skin contact.

Employing the metaphor of shepherding, the Lord Jesus, in John 10:2-5, rebukes the religious leaders of Israel by letting them know that the reason they reject Him and refuse to believe in His message is because they are not of His sheep. Had they belonged to His flock, they would have recognized that He is the Christ, the Son of David, the Anointed One of Israel.

Just as the Good Shepherd spoke to the religious leaders of Israel in John 10:2-5, He is also speaking to the world of our day. And His message is pretty simple. Those who are the true sheep of Christ will recognize His voice and will never follow a stranger. Jesus’s metaphor about sheep hearing the voice of the shepherd and never following a stranger is to instruct the Church that the mark of a true Christian is determined by whose voice he follows.

When the Bible says, “my sheep hear my voice…and a stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him,” this is a reference to the fact that sheep recognize and respond only to the voice of their own shepherd and never to the voice of another shepherd. What that means is that it’s impossible for the sheep of God to be stolen by thieves and robbers, which is a metaphor for being deceived and led astray by false teachers and charlatans. 

John 8:47

“Whoever belongs to God hears the Words of God. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.”

Those who are truly of Christ recognize and respond only to the voice of Christ. True followers of Christ will only respond to the call of Christ. Genuinely born-again believers in Christ will never follow after wolves in sheep’s clothing who are nothing more than thieves and robbers. It’s impossible for someone who is genuinely saved and fully surrendered to Christ to fall into the hands of impostors and Gospel Hucksters.

2 John 1:9-11

“Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.”

You cannot claim to be a Bible-believing Christian and follow after peddlers of destructive heresies. It is self-delusion to think that you belong to Christ and yet remain a member of a religious establishment headed by a general overseer who says that, “the number one reason why God chose David to be king was because he was a musician...singing the right kind of songs.”

It’s important that you realize that you cannot be a Christian and preach and believe in aberrant doctrines that do not conform with what the Bible teaches. There’s a question mark on your Christianity if you subscribe to a supposed minister of the Gospel who claims, “we used to summon spirits in this kingdom.” 

There’s no truth to your Christianity if you are a follower of the self-appointed apostle who says, “John the Baptist came in the spirit and the power of Elijah. Unfortunately, he manifested the spirit of Elijah, but he did not manifest the power of Elijah.” 

You do not belong to Christ if you attend and participate in a convention where the general overseer asks the crowd to comb their troubles away with magic combs and to wipe their misfortunes away with magic handkerchiefs.

Isaiah 35:8

“And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray.”

Charlatans and impostors are strangers. False apostles, fake prophets, and faux teachers are thieves and robbers. The Scripture is explicit. No one who is indwelled by the Holy Spirit can fall for the shenanigans for strangers. There’s no true child of God who will follow after thieves and robbers and call them their daddies or mummies in the Lord.  

Many of you reading this commentary belong in religious establishments owned and operated by strangers. There are a lot of you who look up to thieves and robbers as your spiritual parents. The only reason you are there and feel comfortable remaining there is because you do not know God or belong to Him. You can claim to be a Christian all you want, but Scripture says you aren’t. 

What I’m saying may sound harsh and too hard for you to accept. But here’s the truth. My willingness in expressing these thoughts stems from both my affection for you and my genuine concern for your spiritual well-being.  I can’t imagine anything worse than believing you are saved while in reality you are not. 

Unfortunately, the Church is packed full of hypocrites and unregenerate people who vainly deceive themselves with false hopes and carnal presumptions of being in the favor of God. The sooner you realize that you’ve been lured into the devil’s trap of a false sense of eternal security, the better it is for you. My prayer is that you’ll be humble enough to honestly and biblically reexamine your life, cry out to God, and plead for His mercy and salvation

We’ll take it from here next time.