What does it mean that the thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10)?

As to the thief, he came to steal, to kill, and to destroy. His object was to benefit himself, and that by covetous and dishonest means, and by inflicting suffering and loss on the sheep; whereas the Good Shepherd came to save, to give life, and that more abundantly: all through the priceless cost of laying down His own life for the sheep.

218 This is the general position, but there is more (v. 10). Jesus, in contrast with all the false pretenders, who only came to steal and to kill, came that we might have life, and that we might have it in abundance. The first expression is the object of His coming in general, which characterises the Gospel, and also the Epistle, of John: it is the Son of God come down, that we might live through Him. He is the eternal life which was with the Father, and gives life, and becomes Himself our life. (Compare 1 John 4:9; ch. 1:2; ch. 5:11-12; John 3:15-16; one might multiply quotations.) The second part of the sentence shews the character and fulness of this life: this life is in the Son. Having the Son, we have life, and we have it according to the power of His resurrection. The faithful in old times were quickened; but here it is the Son Himself who becomes our life, and that as Man risen from amongst the dead. We have it "abundantly." This 10th verse gives us the great purpose of the coming of the Son of God; but His love must unfold itself fully; He is not only the Shepherd, but the "Good Shepherd," and the Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. His death has done everything for them; it has redeemed them, washed them from their sins, justified them, purchased them for heaven; however, I think the object of the passage is the love and devotedness of the Good Shepherd; rather than lose His sheep, He lays down His life. The hireling thinks of himself, and runs away; and the wolf comes and seizes the sheep, and scatters them. In Gethsemane, Jesus said: "If ye seek me, let these go their way." Those who have the place of shepherds, abandon the sheep when the enemy comes; He lays down His life, rather than leave them a prey to the wolf. But there is yet more: the Good Shepherd knows His own, and His own know Him, as the Father had known Him, and He had known the Father. Wonderful position! Wonderful relationship! Jesus had been the object of His Father's heart; in the same way His sheep were the objects of His heart. Taught of God, His sheep knew Him, and trusted in Him, as He trusted in the Father; and He lays down His life for them. But in laying down His life, He opens the door to the sheep from amongst the Gentiles, which He must also bring, and they should hear His voice. With both one and the other, all should be the fruit of His heart and of His mouth, and there should be but one flock, and one Shepherd. As to man, this completes the fruit of the Lord's work, at least down here.

In verses 10 and 11 we get the contrast between the thief and the Good Shepherd. These thieves and robbers were men such as those mentioned by Gamaliel, in Acts 5:36-37; self-seeking imposters who brought in destruction and death. The true Shepherd brought in life; laying down His own life in order to do so. If He had not come and died, there would have been no life at all for sinful men; having done so, life is made available, and it is bestowed in abundant measure upon His sheep. We live in the light of the abundant revelation of God which has reached us in the Word made flesh, hence we have life abundantly. The life given to saints in all ages may be intrinsically the same, yet its fulness can only be known as God is fully revealed. This is indicated in 1 John 1:1-4.

Contrasts. — Having presented Himself under the simile of the door, the Lord will return to that of the Shepherd, there being much more to say on this head. Now He necessarily contrasts Himself with a thief and with a hireling. Self-seeking characterised such. The everlasting welfare of the sheep was the Lord's concern. To further it was His aim, even at the cost of His life. The thief would kill, steal, and destroy, gratifying his will at the expense of the sheep. "I am come [or, came]," said the Lord, "that they may have life, and may have it abundantly" (10). So the original should be translated, and not as in the Authorised Version, "more abundantly." Life, then, in its fulness, in its abundance, He gives. What a word for the Jews standing by! The One they despised, and would kill, if they could, came to give life to dead souls!

The Good Shepherd. — But this really necessitated His death. No spiritual blessing could one born in sin enjoy, apart from the Lord's atoning death. All that saints had enjoyed from Abel till the Lord's day was bestowed in view of His sacrifice to be offered up, of which sacrifices in the past were but typical. We can read that in Abel being accepted, but with his offering; and in Noah and his sons being blessed only when the burnt offering had ascended to God. So we read, "I am the Good Shepherd: the Good Shepherd gives His life for the sheep" (11). Who but the Lord, the Lord of glory, ever offered to do this? Who but the sinless One could do it? It is here in this discourse (11) that the Lord first in plain language speaks of His death, and that for the sheep. Needing life, as all of them do, He would provide it, and He would die that they might for ever possess it. Love indeed was this! What interest, too, in His sheep! What blessedness to form one of that company which He designates as His own (4)! And why such interest in them? A contrast here comes out between a mere hireling and a shepherd, and drawn by the Good Shepherd. The hireling would think first of his own safety, and would seek for that in flight. Seeing the wolf coming, he flees, and leaves the sheep. He is but an hireling. The sheep are not his. He has no real concern about them. But the Shepherd — would He flee, and seek for safety thereby? The sheep are His own. He has an interest in them. He would face the danger to save them (12, 13).

Then there was the Thief (verse 10). His object is predatory; gain for himself is all he seeks. The sheep may perish: what cares he? Nay, he may destroy them by his wicked ways and wicked preaching. Nothing matters to him so long as he gains what he is after: money, popularity, fame or social position.

The thief (a false spiritual leader) had the object of stealing, killing and destroying, causing the ruination of God's work (v. 10). Christ, the true Shepherd, came that the sheep might have life and have it more abundantly. What a contrast! For He Himself is the source of life, the living God, on whom the sheep are totally dependent. Of course true believers had life before ever Christ came into the world, but that life was even then dependent on Him, and manifested to be so when He came. He Himself being the full manifestation of eternal life, then in Him, come into the world, the sheep find abundant fullness of life.

The Gadarene, dominated as he was by Satan, afforded a perfect contrast with the Prophet of Jehovah. The Son of man had come not "to destroy men's lives, but to save them" (Luke 9:56), but the demoniac was under the control of the Evil One who "comes not but for to steal and to kill and to destroy" (John 10:10). He was destroying himself, and his impulse was to destroy others of his kind also. This destructive tendency is the true Satanic nature, as Scripture reveals it. Saul, under the influence of an evil spirit, sought the death of David, the anointed of Jehovah (1 Sam. 19:9-10). In the Apocalypse, Satan, or one of his chief agents, is named Apollyon, that is, the Destroyer (Rev. 9:11) a name in contrasted significance with that of Jesus the Saviour of men. Satan is destructive of that which is good, but Jesus is destructive of nothing but what is evil. For the Son of God was manifested that He might annul both the devil and his works (Heb. 2:14; 1 John 3:8). And the Servant-Prophet demonstrated this purpose of His in the country of the Gadarenes by the deliverance of this notorious victim of Satan.

(Vv. 1-5). In the story of the demoniac we have first brought vividly before us the utter misery of the man under the power of Satan. We see a man "who had his dwelling among the tombs." Where men dwell, there they die, and hard by their dwellings will ever be found a burying place with its tombs, ever reminding us that this world is under the shadow of death. All Satan's power is put forth to drive men into death. "The thief comes not but for to steal, and to kill and to destroy" (John 10:10). He would rob us of every spiritual blessing, kill the body, and destroy the soul.

The assurance of all blessing lies in this that he is in the care of the Good Shepherd. Wisdom and love are His; with power also that can lack no resources. The thief comes only to steal and to kill and to destroy. He on the contrary comes to give life, and that abundantly. Here a power beyond all creature power is seen; a need which is beyond all that the figure would imply. The theme of John's Gospel discloses itself once more: life, which is eternal and His gift, without whose work none could have it. This, of course, looks backward as well as forward: life for any, at any time, could be but the result of His coming; which waited not for its effectuation to bring forth its fruit; or else, of necessity, every mercy shown to man must have waited likewise. But we know without any peradventure it was not so.

Again, the Lord contrasts others with Himself. The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy." By their fruits they should know them. How could the sheep trust such shepherds as these? "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." There had been life when there was only a promise; there had been life all through the dealings of law. Clearly Christ had ever been the means of life from the day death entered the world. But now He was come, it was not only that they might have life, but that they might have it "more abundantly." This was the effect of the presence of God's Son in this world. Was it not right and becoming, that when the Son of God did humble Himself in this world, even to death, the death of the cross, dying also in atonement for sinners, God should mark this infinite fact and work and person by an incomparably richer blessing than ever had been diffused before? I cannot conceive it otherwise than the Word shows it is, consistently with the glory of God, even the Father.