For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
Observe here, 1. The state and condition in which both Jews and Gentiles were found before their conversion to Christianity; they were like sheep going astray and lost; wandering in the ways of sin and unbelief, to their threatened ruin and destruction. Observe, 2.
25 For ye were as sheep This also has Peter borrowed from Isaiah, except that the Prophet makes it a universal statement, “All we like sheep have gone astray.” (Isaiah 53:6.) But on the word sheep there is no particular stress; he indeed compares us to sheep, but the emphasis is on what the Prophet adds, when he says that every one had turned to his own way.
(Isa 53:6.) For--Assigning their natural need of healing (Pe1 2:24). now--Now that the atonement for all has been made, the foundation is laid for individual conversion: so "ye are returned," or "have become converted to," &c. Shepherd and Bishop--The designation of the pastors and elders of the Church belongs in its fullest sense to the great Head of the Church, "the good Shepherd." As the...