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The word poimne, flock, is intimately associated with poimen, shepherd, the flock
being viewed not so much as so many sheep, but as so many sheep under one shepherd.
Poimnion, the diminutive, is found in Acts 20: 28, 29 where it most certainly is used of
the church of God:--
"Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God which He hath purchased with His
own blood. For I know that after my departure shall grievous wolves enter in among you,
not sparing the flock."
If Paul could use the word "flock" in its diminutive sense for the church as constituted
in Acts 20:, the Lord could use the words, "one flock" of a company composed of the
gathered sheep of the house of Israel, and of the "other sheep" who, though not of Israel's
fold, would, nevertheless, under the one great Shepherd, constitute one flock. While this
is far removed from the unity expressed by the One Body, with the Lord as Head, it
nevertheless as in consonance with that blessing which must necessarily take its character
from the present position of the ascended Lord, and while not being in the full blaze of
that central glory, nevertheless basks, as it were, in its penumbra.
Peter was definitely commissioned to feed the Lord's sheep and lambs, but his
curiosity was not satisfied when, concerning John, he asked: "And what shall this man
do?" Peter and John are associated very closely in their early ministry with the Lord and
the twelve, and it looks as though both were to be under-shepherds, though tending
different folds. Gal. 2: 9 indicates that John, like Peter, had a ministry to the
circumcision, but we are not thereby justified in concluding that God could not send John
to another company--such a conjecture is beyond our right or ken.
We know that Paul had a twofold ministry. Why, then, should not John be similarly
commissioned? In the same way there is no more difficulty in believing that Gentile
believers may be called "other sheep" than they are likened to a "wild olive". And if
Gentiles could be grafted on to the stock of Israel, there is nothing to render it impossible
that they should form part of that great "flock", though never of the "fold of Israel".
Partakers of the true bread.--None but those who came out of Egypt ate the manna in
the wilderness:--
"Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from
heaven to eat" (John 6: 31).
The Lord, when replying to this, and declaring Himself to be the true bread that came
down from heaven, speaks of the world as recipients:--
"For the bread of God is He which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life to the
world."
"The bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world."