“More Abundantly”


BIBLE READING: John 10

 “So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”   (John 10:7-10)
                A thief is the epitome of selfishness.  They take whatever they want with no consideration for those that they are taking from.  Jesus tells us very simply “That’s not Me!” The entire time that Christ spent on this earth, He spent as a giver.  He gave…in just leaving His home in heaven to come down to live as a man.  He gave His time on earth to accomplish the purpose that His Father had given Him to do.  Finally, He gave the ultimate gift by sacrificing His own life for us to be able to have access to the Father.  Yet for His greatest gift, He saved it for last in His promise of eternal life.  Not only does He give us life, but it is the best life!  The word “abundant” in the Greek is “perisson”, meaning “exceedingly, very highly, beyond measure, more, superfluous, a quantity so abundant as to be considerably more than what one would expect or anticipate.” In short, Jesus promises us a life far better than we could ever imagine, a concept reminiscent of what Paul said in I Corinthians 2.9, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him.” Then in Ephesians 3.20 we learn that He is more than capable of following through on that promise, “God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, and He does it by His power, a power that is at work within us if we belong to Him”.  Not only does a life in Christ give us eternal life, it will be greater than the best life that you could possibly imagine.  Now who wouldn’t want that?


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