John 10:7 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

I am the door of the sheep.— As our Lord's parable was not understood, he graciously proceeds to explain it to his audience; and in the first place he informs them, that by the door he meant himself. I am the door of the sheep. Perhaps this is a metonymy for I am the door of the sheep-fold; or our Lord's meaning may have been, "I am not only the door, by which the shepherds must enter,—he whose right alone it is to admit men to the office and dignity of shepherds; but I am also the door of the sheep. It is by me that men enter into the spiritual inclosure of the church." It would be very impertinent to run a longparallel here between Christ and a door: the resemblance plainly centres in this one circumstance, that as a man must observe and pass through the door, in order to his making an unsuspected entrance into a sheep-fold: so he must maintain a proper regard to Christ, in order to his being a true teacher in the church; and must pass as it were through him, or by his authority, into that office. It is by a simile very nearly resembling this, that Christ elsewhere calls himself the way, Ch. John 14:6.