Book of Common Prayer

⁴ Everyone who goes on sinning is breaking the law; sin, in fact, is lawlessness. ⁵ And you know that he was revealed so that he might take away sins, and there is no sin in him. ⁶ Everyone who abides in him does not go on sinning. Everyone who goes on sinning has not seen him, or known him.

⁷ Children, don’t let anyone deceive you. The person who does righteousness is righteous, just as he is righteous. ⁸ The person who goes on sinning is from the devil, because the devil is a sinner from the very start. The son of God was revealed for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. ⁹ Everyone who is fathered by God does not go on sinning, because God’s offspring remain in him; they cannot go on sinning, because they have been fathered by God. ¹⁰ That is how it is clear who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil: everyone who does not do what is right is not of God, particularly those who do not love their brother or sister.

⁷ So he spoke to them again.

“I’m telling you the solemn truth,” he said. “I am the gate of the sheep. ⁸ All the people who came before me were thieves and brigands, but the sheep didn’t listen to them. ⁹ I am the gate. If anyone comes in by me, they will be safe, and will go in and out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief only comes to steal, and kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—yes, and have it full to overflowing.”

The shepherd and the sheep

¹¹ “I am the good shepherd,” Jesus continued. “The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² But supposing there’s a hired servant, who isn’t himself the shepherd, and who doesn’t himself own the sheep. He will see the wolf coming, and leave the sheep, and run away. Then the wolf will snatch the sheep and scatter them. ¹³ He’ll run away because he’s only a hired servant, and doesn’t care about the sheep.

¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep, and my own know me— ¹⁵ just as the father knows me and I know the father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶ And I have other sheep, too, which don’t belong to this sheepfold. I must bring them, too, and they will hear my voice. Then there will be one flock, and one shepherd.