First Peter 2:25 says, “You were like sheep being led astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your soul.” This verse reveals Christ as the Shepherd and Overseer of our soul, our inner being. Christ was our Redeemer in His death on the tree (v. 24). Now He is our soul’s Shepherd and Overseer in the resurrection life within us. As such, He is able to guide us and supply us with life that we may follow in His steps according to the model of His suffering (v. 21).
As the Shepherd and Overseer, Christ takes care of us from within our spirit, not from the heavens. Today our Shepherd and Overseer is in our spirit, indwelling us as the life-giving Spirit. His shepherding and overseeing begin from our spirit and then spread to every part of our soul. This means that from our spirit Christ reaches the parts of our soul—the mind, emotion, and will—and takes care of all our problems, needs, and wounds.
Our soul is our inner being, our real person. Our Lord, as the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls, shepherds us by caring for the welfare of our inner being and by exercising His oversight over the condition of our real person. How good it is that we have Christ as our Shepherd! All the believers, from the youngest to the most mature, sense that they need such a Shepherd to take care of them. We all need the Lord to shepherd us. No one, including the angels, can shepherd us as adequately as He can. Our Shepherd is Jehovah the Savior; He is our good Shepherd (John 10:14). Christ is the only One who has no need for shepherding. He is the unique Shepherd, and He is shepherding us all. How good, sweet, and satisfying it is to have such a Shepherd who cares for our soul!
Our problem was that we were like sheep being led astray, but now we have returned, turned back, to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. In 1 Peter 2:25 Peter is not using soul as a synonym of spirit. A shepherd takes care of the physical needs of his flock, and Christ our Shepherd takes care of the needs of our soul. Here Peter speaks of Christ not as the Shepherd of our body but as the Shepherd of our soul, our inner being. We all have a spirit, and the spirit is our inward organ. Yet our being is a soul. Therefore, Christ shepherds us mainly by taking care of our soul. This means that He takes care of our mind, emotion, and will.
We may think that our problems are with the body. No doubt, the body does give us many problems. Nevertheless, our real problem is in our soul. Our mind, emotion, and will all have problems. Unbelievers are wanderers in the soul, and they do not have a shepherd to take care of them. But our situation is different in that we have a Shepherd who takes care of our soul. Not only do we have the Lord’s life within us, but we also have Him as our Shepherd. He is now shepherding us in our soul. First Peter was written to Jewish believers who were suffering much persecution. Apparently, persecution is related to our body outwardly; actually, persecution is aimed at the soul. Because it is our soul that suffers, it is our soul that needs the Lord’s shepherding. It is not our body that needs this kind of care, nor is it mainly our spirit. It is our soul—our mind, emotion, and will—that needs the Lord as the Shepherd.
In our experience sometimes we do not know what to think about. We do not know where to direct our thoughts. This is an indication that our mind needs the Lord Jesus as the Shepherd. As a result of His shepherding, our mind is directed and set in the right way.
Our emotion, being complicated, is easily upset. Therefore, we need the Lord Jesus to shepherd us in our emotion. His shepherding comforts our emotion.
Our will also needs the Lord’s shepherding. As human beings, we often find it difficult to make the right decision. Sometimes the most difficult thing to do is to make a decision. Unbelievers have no one to lead them and guide them in making decisions, but we have a Shepherd to lead us and guide us. The Lord’s leading and guiding is primarily related to our will. As the living Shepherd, the Lord continually directs our will. The Lord is truly the Shepherd of our soul. He directs our mind, comforts our emotion, and leads and guides our will.
According to our experience, there is a difference between leading and guiding. Leading, like a road map, points us to a destination, whereas guidance directs us to the exact place where we want to go. In the Bible some verses speak of the Lord’s leading, and others, of His guiding. The Lord leads His people to the holy land (Amos 2:10; Gen. 15:18-21), but once He has led them there, He guides them to Mount Zion (Exo. 15:13, 17; Isa. 8:18; 18:7). As our Shepherd, the Lord leads us first and then guides us. He leads us to the right place, and He guides us to the exact spot. This is Christ, our Shepherd.
In order to be our living Shepherd, Christ needs to dwell within us. If Christ today were not the life-giving Spirit in us, if He were only the exalted Lord in an objective way in the third heaven, how could He be our Shepherd? For Christ to be our Shepherd, He must be with us, even in us.
Many times Christ goes along with us in order to turn us back. Consider how the Lord was the Shepherd to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus. These disciples were going in one direction, but the Lord went with them in order to turn them to go in another direction. Luke 24:15 says, “While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them.” Then He asked them what they were talking about. In a sense, these disciples rebuked the Lord when one of them said, “Do You alone dwell as a stranger in Jerusalem and not know the things which have taken place in it in these days?” (v. 18). Then the Lord asked, “What things?” (v. 19). After walking a while together, they constrained the Lord to stay with them (v. 29). Then as He took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to them, “their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him” (vv. 30-31). This is an example of the Lord’s shepherding.
Sometimes the Lord shepherds us in the same way that He shepherded the disciples on the road to Emmaus. We also may speak to Him in a nonsensical way or ask Him nonsensical questions. We may even rebuke Him, and He may pretend not to know what we are talking about. Many of us can testify of having the Lord Jesus shepherd us in this way. As the life-giving Spirit dwelling within us, He is the Shepherd to us in our experience.