By me if any man enter in. — He returns to the thought of the door, through which every true shepherd must himself enter the fold. The thought is parallel to that of the “strait gate” and “narrow way,” in Matthew 7:13-14, and with St. Paul’s thought in Romans 5:2, and Ephesians 2:18. No one can really enter the fold and become a shepherd of the flock who does not seek to do so through the character and life and death of Christ — i.e., to devote himself in entire self-sacrifice to the sheep whom he seeks to lead; to live in unfailing prayer to and communion with God, whose the sheep are; to find for himself as for them “the access through Christ Jesus by one Spirit unto the Father.” We may not narrow the door to the fold, nor yet may we widen it. He is the Door. No shepherd may enter unless through Him.
He shall be saved. — The words refer primarily to the dangers without the fold from which he shall be delivered. (See the striking parallel in 1 Corinthians 3:15, and Note there.) But in the wider thought they include the salvation from sin which is in this life to be realised, and is a necessary qualification for the pastor’s work.
And shall go in and out, and find pasture. — The fold will ever be open to him who enters by the Door. He will have perfect freedom to enter, whenever storm or danger or night approaches. He will lead out and find pasture for his flock. In the devotion of his service, and in communion with God, he will daily have an increasing knowledge of truths new and old, and the truths which he learns he will give as food for the souls of men.