Then Jesus said to them again, "Most assuredly I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and go out, and will find pasture.

Therefore take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit placed you [as] overseers, to shepherd the church of the Lord, and of God, which He purchased with His own blood.

It is necessary, therefore, for a bishop to be irreproachable, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, well-behaved, hospitable, skillful at teaching;

one ruling his own house well, having [his] children in submission with all reverence;

not a new convert, lest being puffed up [with pride] he fall into [the same] condemnation as the devil.

Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the eldership.

For this reason I left you behind in Crete, so that you should set in order the things that are lacking, and you should appoint elders in every city as I commanded you:

The mystery of the seven stars which you saw in My right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands which you saw are the seven churches.

"To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, 'These things says He that holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands:

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep.

But a hired hand, he who is not the shepherd, one who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf catches the sheep and scatters them.

I am the good shepherd; and I know My [own], and I am known by My own.

A Psalm of David. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

For the end, for alternate [strains], a testimony of Asaph, A Psalm concerning the Assyrian. Attend, O Shepherd of Israel, who guides Joseph like a flock; You who sit upon the cherubim, manifest Yourself;

The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails firmly fastened, which have been given from one shepherd by agreement.

He shall tend His flock as a shepherd, and He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and He shall soothe them that are with young.

Then he remembered the days of old, [saying], Where is He that brought up from the sea the shepherd of the sheep? Where is He that put His Holy Spirit in them?

And I will raise up one shepherd over them, and he shall tend them, [even] My servant David, and he shall be their shepherd;

And she shall have peace when the Assyrian shall come into your land, and when he shall come up upon your country; and there shall be raised up against him seven shepherds, and eight attacks of men.

There is a voice of the shepherds mourning, for their greatness is brought low; a voice of roaring lions, for the pride of the Jordan is brought down.

which their possessors have slain, and have not repented: and they that sold them said, Blessed be the Lord; for we have become rich: and their shepherds have suffered no sorrow for them.

And I will cut off three shepherds in one month, and My soul shall grieve over them, for their souls cried out against Me.

Awake, O sword, against My shepherds, and against the man who is My citizen, says the Lord Almighty; strike the shepherds, and draw out the sheep: and I will bring My hand upon the little ones.

Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, that great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the everlasting covenant,

For you were like sheep going astray, but you have turned back now to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory.