"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me." (John 10:27)
This verse gives the character of true Christians.
1. God's children, His real believing people, are compared to sheep, because they are gentle, quiet, harmless and inoffensive; because they are useful and do good to all around them; because they love to be together, and dislike separation; and because they are very helpless and wandering and liable to stray.
2. Jesus calls them "My sheep," as if they were His peculiar property. "Mine," He would have us know, by election; "Mine" by purchase; and "Mine" by adoption.
3. Christ's sheep hear His voice, they listen humbly to His teaching, they take His word for their rule and guide.
4. Christ's sheep follow Him, they walk in the narrow path He has marked out, they do not refuse because it is sometimes steep and narrow--but wherever the line of duty lies they go forward without doubting.
by J.C. Ryle
