Tractates on the Gospel of John

¹⁵ But what is this, “He shall go in and out, and find pasture”? To enter indeed into the Church by Christ the door, is eminently good; but to go out of the Church, as this same John the evangelist says in his epistle, “They went out from us, but they were not of us,” is certainly otherwise than good. Such a going out could not then be commended by the good Shepherd, when He said, “And he shall go in and out, and find pasture.” There is therefore not only some sort of entrance, but some outgoing also that is good, by the good door, which is Christ.

But what is that praiseworthy and blessed outgoing? I might say, indeed, that we enter when we engage in some inward exercise of thought; and go out, when we take to some active work without: and since, as the apostle says, Christ dwells in our hearts by faith, to enter by Christ is to give ourselves to thought in accordance with that faith; but to go out by Christ is, in accordance also with that same faith, to take to outside works, that is to say, in the presence of others.

Hence, also, we read in a psalm, “Man goes forth to his work;” and the Lord Himself says, “Let your works shine before men.” But I am better pleased that the Truth Himself, like a good Shepherd, and therefore a good Teacher, has in a certain measure reminded us how we ought to understand His words, “He shall go in and out, and find pasture,” when He added in the sequel, “The thief comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I have come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

For He seems to me to have meant, That they may have life in coming in, and have it more abundantly at their departure. For no one can pass out by the door— that is, by Christ— to that eternal life which shall be open to the sight, unless by the same door— that is, by the same Christ— he has entered His church, which is His fold, to the temporal life, which is lived in faith. Therefore, He says, “I have come that they may have life,” that is, faith, which works by love; by which faith they enter the fold that they may live, for the just lives by faith: “and that they may have it more abundantly,” who, enduring unto the end, pass out by this same door, that is, by the faith of Christ; for as true believers they die, and will have life more abundantly when they come whither the Shepherd has preceded them, where they shall die no more.

Although, therefore, there is no want of pasture even here in the fold—for we may understand the words “and shall find pasture” as referring to both, that is, both to their going in and their going out—yet there only will they find the true pasture. where they shall be filled who hunger and thirst after righteousness, — such pasture as was found by him to whom it was said, “Today shall you be with me in paradise.” But how He Himself is the door, and Himself the Shepherd, so that He also may in a certain respect be understood as going in and out by Himself, and who is the porter, it would be too long to inquire today, and, according to the grace given us by Himself, to unfold in the way of dissertation.