As one who follows Jesus, you have likely realized at some point that Satan desires to see you fail. He wants to destroy anything you do that causes the kingdom of God to expand on the earth and causes his kingdom to shrink. He wants to kill your dreams, your motivation, and your desire to follow God. He is the father of lies (John 8:44) and will use his evil nature to influence anyone and anything that will serve his purpose. He is subtle, sneaky, and tenacious. So, when we see Jesus use this phrase in John 10:10, we can easily associate it with Satan:
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
The problem is that Jesus was not actually talking about Satan in this passage. Many people take this verse out of context when they warn other believers about the actions of Satan. We already know these are some of his attributes, but who is Jesus really talking about in this passage? What is the rest of the story? To find out, we need to go back to the previous chapter. When interpreting Scripture, we need to read enough to understand the context of the verse we are working with. Sometimes we only need to back up a few verses to find the beginning of a writer’s thought, other times we need to read much more because the message being conveyed includes a lot of material. This particular verse is part of a much larger story that includes a miraculous healing, multiple conversations between different people, and then a final conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees.
The first question we should ask if we read this verse by itself is, “Who is the thief?” It is not clear from this single verse or from the few verses preceding or following. One needs to go back to the beginning of chapter 9 to get the full context. John 9:1-7 tells the story of Jesus healing a blind man. You will recognize this one because it is the time Jesus spat into the dirt, made mud, and then disgustingly rubbed it onto the man’s eyes. Verse seven gives us this report:
“Then he went and washed and came back able to see.”
His neighbors were astonished by what happened and began asking him about it. He recounted the story, and they all ended up going to see the Pharisees to discuss it further. Of course, we know from the Gospels that most of the Pharisees were not fans of Jesus. So, this meeting did not go very well. The conversation with the one who was healed, and his parents, turned into an argument and an accusation that this man was one of Jesus’ disciples. As a result, he and his parents were kicked out of the Synagogue and not allowed to return. Imagine that; God performs a miracle, and the religious leaders get upset.
Jesus later comes back onto the scene, reveals himself as the Messiah to the man who was healed, and shares that part of his mission on earth will cause some to become spiritually blind. This led to a conversation with the Pharisees who were offended by his statement. Now we have the background to the story which can lead into the context of John 10:10. Jesus’ response to the Pharisees was to use an analogy of a shepherd entering into a sheep pen by a gate and contrasts this with thieves who do not enter through the gate. He identifies himself as the gate and that those who came before him are “thieves and robbers” (10:8). Thieves come to harm the sheep. In context, Jesus is calling the Pharisees thieves and robbers because they are harming his flock. At another time, in Matt. 23:23, Jesus chastised the scribes and Pharisees for similar activity:
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.”
The Pharisees wanted the Jews to follow their ways of religious observances and would punish anyone who challenged their perspectives. The man who was healed was kicked out of the synagogue, along with his parents because of a disagreement about who Jesus was! That is certainly a harmful action. We can also look to Jer. 23 and Ezek. 34 where the prophets use similar language to challenge the failures of the shepherds of God’s people. This is the fuller context of John 10:10. The thief was actually the Pharisaical leaders. Does Satan come to kill, steal, and destroy? Absolutely. Was he influencing the Pharisees in this situation? Very likely (or a member of his team). But the immediate context points to the Pharisees. This highlights the importance of reading the entire context of a passage. We need to read as much as is necessary, even if it requires several hours of reading, in order to determine the full context. Studying the Bible is much more valuable when we put in the time necessary to arrive at these conclusions.
Keep digging!