8
All those who have come before me have been thieves and robbers, but the sheep didn't listen to them.
9
I am the gate; if someone enters through me, he will be safe and will go in and out and find pasture.
10
The thief comes only in order to steal, kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, life in its fullest measure.
11
"I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
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The hired hand, since he isn't a shepherd and the sheep aren't his own, sees the wolf coming, abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf drags them off and scatters them.
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The hired worker behaves like this because that's all he is, a hired worker; so it doesn't matter to him what happens to the sheep.
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I am the good shepherd; I know my own, and my own know me --
15
just as the Father knows me, and I know the Father -- and I lay down my life on behalf of the sheep.
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Also I have other sheep which are not from this pen; I need to bring them, and they will hear my voice; and there will be one flock, one shepherd.
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"This is why the Father loves me: because I lay down my life -- in order to take it up again!
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No one takes it away from me; on the contrary, I lay it down of my own free will. I have the power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again. This is what my Father commanded me to do."