What did Jesus mean when He said, "Other sheep I have which are not of this fold" (John 10:16)?

Here the Lord can speak distinctly for the first time of other objects of His love. He might come minister of the circumcision for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. (Matt. 15:24.) But His love could not be so circumscribed, when His death opens the floodgates. The mention of His death leads Him to speak of what was quite outside Israel. "And other sheep I have which are not of this fold" — not of the Jewish people within their enclosure of law and ordinance; "them also I must lead, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock, one shepherd" (verse 16). ℵcorr.BDLX, etc., support the plural form, γενήσονται, "they shall be," the rest have the sing., γενήσεται [Weiss, Blass], which might bear the same meaning.

160 Having now viewed Himself as the Shepherd in His exalted position, He looks at those belonging to Him as thus the exalted Shepherd, confirming I think distinctly the distinct positions of the office and order of the passage as followed here: "And other sheep I have" (of the Gentiles), "who are not of this [Jewish] fold," the "fold" in which He then was: "them also I must" (it was an obligation on Him of His Father, and the dueness of His own love), "bring," not "lead out," as before as to the Jews, or sheep among them at least: "and they shall hear my voice"; it is Christ's voice now, "therefore," "turn away from him that speaketh from heaven"; "and there shall be one" (not aulee, "fold") poimnee, "flock, and one Shepherd," to wit, the Church and Christ.

The Lord's words in verse 16 add another unexpected development. He was about to find sheep who had been outside that fold. There was to be the calling of an election from among the Gentiles. We see the beginning of this early in the Acts — the Ethiopian in Acts 8, Cornelius and his friends in Acts 10. We have often dwelt upon the "must" which occurs several times in John 3: have we ever praised God for the "must" here? — "them also I MUST bring." Sinners of the Gentiles become the subjects of the Divine work. They hear the Shepherd's voice and are attached to Him. Then, as a result of this two-fold calling — from Jewish fold and from the straying Gentiles — there is to be established one flock, held together under the authority of the one Shepherd. The word in this verse is definitely "flock" and not "fold." Sheep held together by outward restrictions: that was Judaism. Sheep constituted a flock by the personal power and attraction of the Shepherd: that is Christianity.

John 10:16. The Shepherd of the sheep has led His sheep outside the Jewish fold and opened the door to "any man" to enter into the new blessings of the flock. Manifestly, then, the flock cannot be limited to sheep from among the Jews. There are other sheep that the Shepherd must bring from amongst the Gentiles. They too shall hear His voice (cf John 17:20; Acts 13:46-48; Acts 15:7). His sheep thus separated from the Jewish fold and the Gentile nations would form one flock under one Shepherd.

"The Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep" - Israel as His sheep - those lost sheep of the house of Israel - and for the "other sheep" also which are not of Israel's fold - which are gathered and brought by His death from amongst the Gentiles, that thus there should be "one flock, one shepherd" ({Greek} mia poimne eis poimen). But this is spoken of as consequent upon His death - for, indeed, whether of Jew or Gentile there could be no association with God or enjoyment of salvation apart from his death.

Contrast with all these the true Shepherd. The sheep, when He came, were in a fold, "shut up" as Galatians 3:23 puts it. Into this fold the Shepherd graciously enters in a regular way, the gate being opened to him by the porter, John the Baptist perhaps. He delivers His sheep from the fold and brings them to a place of safety, liberty and pasturage (John 10:3, 9). Then He speaks of other sheep which never belonged to the fold and did not, therefore, need deliverance from it. These are the Gentiles, far away and needing to be brought. "Them also I must bring," says the Shepherd (verse 16), and the two kinds of sheep, those delivered from the fold, and those who never belonged to any fold, should be formed into one flock (R.V.), and both should have one and the same Shepherd.

The “other sheep” of verse 16 are manifestly Gentile believers, not of the fold of Israel. They were to be brought also, as a result of the death of the Good Shepherd, and to be joined with the Jewish sheep, but not brought into the fold. Rather, “there will be one flock and one Shepherd.” The one flock is the Church of God composed of all believers of the present age, whatever their race. It is not a fold, where restraints of laws and ordinances are present, but a flock, free of legal encumbrances, in order to follow the Shepherd to the green pastures. For the Shepherd is present: He is their resource, their leader, their protection. It is the sense of the abiding presence of the Lord Jesus that is so essential to the true welfare of the Church in her entire history. Let us settle for nothing less.

In verse 16 our Lord speaks of other sheep, which are not of this fold. These are the Gentiles. He leads out first from the Jewish fold His sheep; then there are the other sheep whom He will bring and who will hear His voice. The result will be one flock and one Shepherd. The Authorized Version is incorrect in using the word "fold." Judaism was a fold, the church is not. The ecclesiastical folds in which Christendom is divided have been brought about by the Judaizing of the church. The fold no longer exists. There is one flock as there is one Shepherd; one body, as there is one Lord. All who have heard His voice, believed on Him, entered in by Him, are members of the one flock.

There were other sheep that were not of the Jewish fold, but they were Christ’s, and He says “Them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice; and there shall be one flock, and one Shepherd.” These were Gentiles, and they were not to form a flock by themselves; but the sheep taken out of the Jewish fold, along with the Gentiles, were to form one flock, a new thing in the history of God’s dealings with the nations. It is a heavenly company that God owns upon earth during the day of Christ’s rejection.

“Other sheep I have which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one flock, and one shepherd.” (John 10:16.) In such terms does the Lord Jesus announce the great change which would be effected consequent upon His death and resurrection. Sheep He had which did not belong to the fold of Israel. He was, He is, in a special sense (see Ezek. 34:23; Zech. 13:7), the Shepherd of Israel. But He has other sheep whom He would bring, and they should hear His voice; and thus following Him, as did the believing remnant of Israel, the two would form one flock, owning, and cared for by, the one Shepherd. This explains a passage in 1 Corinthians 10, where the children of men on the earth are divided now into three classes, the Jews, the Gentiles, and the Church of God. Before the Lord’s death there were but two classes on the earth — the Jews and the Gentiles. So when the Lord in John 7 stated that whither He would go they could not follow Him, reasoning among themselves the Jews said: “Will He go to the dispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?” There were then but Jew and Gentile on the earth. By and by it will be the same. After the Church has been caught up to meet the Lord in the air, the human family will again be divided into these two classes, and these only, Jew and Gentile.