John 10:16

“And I have other sheep which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they will listen to my voice. And they will become one flock and one shepherd.”

Jesus here refers to the Gentile (non-Jewish, non-Samaritan) world, not, according to the Jews, included in many of the promises to them, although having a promise of secondary blessing through their ministration in the future. But Jesus sees the elect Gentiles as part of the one flock, and of equal importance. At this stage the shepherd has widened to include His disciples, for it is they who would mainly carry out this ministry. (In a similar way the Servant and the Son of Man were titles that referred both to Jesus and to the people of God). But it would, of course, be through the empowering of Jesus.

‘They will listen to my voice' - this was a firm rebuke to those who should have listened and had not done so, as we have seen in earlier Chapter s. In contrast to them there would be those among the despised Gentiles who would be more fully responsive than those who should have heard.

‘Them also I must bring.' It was a divine urge, a divine necessity. God's love is for the world (John 3:16). The evangelisation of the Gentiles is here clearly in view, a ministry which Jesus Himself took up after His encounter with the Syro-phoenician woman..

‘And there will be one flock and one shepherd.' In Christ there are no grades, all are one in Christ Jesus. Jew, Samaritan or Gentile, black, yellow or white, male or female, all are equal in His sight and are to be equal in each other's sight (Galatians 3:28). Note that there is now one flock (but not initially one fold) under the One Shepherd. And once they are His all can enter into the fold which is Israel, while those in Israel who were false will have been destroyed by their false shepherds. There will be a new Israel comprising both Jew and Gentile, with the unfaithful of old Israel cast out (see Romans 11; Ephesians 2:11).