John 10:26

But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. BUT YE, [ all' (G235) humeis (G5210)]. The "ye" is here in emphatic contrast to the "sheep." BELIEVE NOT, BECAUSE YE ARE NOT OF MY SHEEP, AS I SAID UNTO YOU. Our Lord here manifestly refers back to His discourse about the Shepherd and the sheep at the Feast of Tabernacles (John 10:1). He did not there expressly say what is here mentioned; but the sharp line of demarcation there drawn between the sheep who hear only their own shepherd's voice, and those who are led away by deceivers, implied as much, and what follows shows that His object was, first, to resume that subject, and then to carry it out further...

26._Because you are not of my sheep. _He assigns a higher reason why they do not believe either in his miracles or in his doctrine. It is, because they are reprobate. We must observe Christ’s design; for, since they boasted of being the Church of God, that their unbelief may detract nothing from the authority of the Gospel, he affirms that the gift of _believing _is a special gift. And, indeed, _before that men know God_, _they must first be known by him_, as Paul says, (Galatians 4:9.) On the other hand, those to whom God does not look must always continue to look away from him. If any one murmur at this, arguing that the cause of unbelief dwells in God, because he alone has power to make _sheep_; I reply, He is free from all blame, for it is only by their voluntary malice that men reject his grace. God does all that is necessary to induce them to believe, but who

22-30 All who have any thing to say to Christ, may find him in the temple. Christ would make us to believe; we make ourselves doubt. The Jews understood his meaning, but could not form his words into a full charge against him. He described the gracious disposition and happy state of his sheep; they heard and believed his word, followed him as his faithful disciples, and none of them should perish; for the Son and the Father were one. Thus he was able to defend his sheep against all their enemies, which proves that he claimed Divine power and perfection equally with the Father....

Verse 26. _YE ARE NOT OF MY SHEEP_] Ye have not the disposition of those who come unto me to be instructed and saved: see what follows....

ARE NOT OF MY SHEEP - Are not my people, my followers. You do not possess the spirit of meek and humble disciples. Were it not for pride, and prejudice, and vainglory for your false notions of the Messiah, and from a determination not to believe, you would have learned from my declarations and works that I am the Christ. AS I SAID UNTO YOU - Compare John 8:47....

EXPOSITION JOHN 10:1 5. _Christ the Shepherd of the flock of God_._ _The discourse which now follows was the Lord's parabolic or allegoric reply to the conduct of the Pharisaic malignants. These men, claiming to be infallible guides of the ignorant, to be veritable shepherds of the flock of God, had ignored the advent of the true and good Shepherd, had opposed the Divine call and supreme claim of the Messiah, had set themselves to disturb and dislocate the relations between him and those who saw his glory and found in him the Consolation of Israel. They had excommunicated the adoring disciple who had passed out of lifelong darkness into marvelous light. They had exaggerated the faint glimmer of light which had broken upon their own blindness into true vision. They had said, "We see," and thus shown themselves to be willfully

BUT YE BELIEVE NOT,.... In me, as the Messiah: BECAUSE YE ARE NOT OF MY SHEEP; they were not among the sheep given him by his Father, were they, they would have come to him; that is, have believed in him, according to John 6:37, they were not the chosen of God, predestinated unto eternal life; for as many as are ordained of God to eternal happiness, do believe in God's own time, Acts 13:48; but these not being the elect of God, had not the faith of God's elect. Christ, as the omniscient God, knew this, that they were not the chosen of God; for he was present, when the names of God's elect were written in the book of life; had they been his sheep, he must have known them, for he knows all the sheep, and calls them by name; had they been given him by the Father, he must have known it, an

John 10:1. _Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber._ The positiveness of our Lord's teaching is noteworthy. Whatever may be said about dogmatical teaching now, it is certain that his teaching is of that character. He does not raise questions, but he solves them. He does not suggest probabilities, but he declares certainties. This might be taken as the key-word to all the Saviour's teaching, «Verily, verily.» He makes a strong asseveration; he speaks as one having authority, not as the scribes who only claimed to have authority, but as the Sent One of the Father who really has it: «Verily, verily, I say unto you.» Whatever comes to us with the imprimatur of the «Verily, verily,» of the Son of God is not to be questioned or doubted by us for a single moment. «He that entereth not

JOHN 10:26 evmw/n {B} The two readings, which are almost equally well attested, can be evaluated in different ways. On the one hand, a minority of the Committee explained the absence of the clause kaqw.j ei=pon u`mi/n to be me result of deliberate deletion by copyists who could find in the previous account no saying of Jesus that the Jews were not of his sheep. On the other hand, the majority of the Committee regarded the clause as an obvious scribal accretion to the text....

CHAPTER 10 _ 1. The Shepherd of the Sheep. (John 10:1 .)_ 2. The Good Shepherd, His Sheep and His Work. (John 10:6 .) 3. At the Feast of Dedication; the Repeated Testimony. (John 10:22 .) 4. Accused of Blasphemy and His Answer. (John 10:31 .) 5. Beyond Jordan; and Many Believed on Him. (John 10:40 .) The teaching of this chapter is closely linked with the preceding event. It has become evident that the true sheep of Christ, belonging to His flock, would be cast out of the Jewish fold. The healed man cast out had become one of