From Bill Muehlenberg:
Jesus made it quite clear who is a true shepherd: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep” (John 10:11-13).
A false shepherd does not care about his flock, but will instead allow the enemy to come in and wreak havoc. He will tolerate and even promote false teaching and immoral conduct. And Paul warned that in the last days this sort of thing would be on the increase:
“Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears” (Acts 20:28-31).
We are seeing this all over the place today. We are seeing sham shepherds setting up sham churches, resulting in sham congregations. Examples abound, but let me highlight one recent example. A social media site had posted a poster which I assume is legit.
