The Life We Hold

John 10:10 is one of the most loved verses. We print it on coffee mugs and stitch it onto pillows. "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." It is a beautiful promise, and it is absolutely true. But I sometimes wonder if we have become so familiar with the promise that we stop reading too soon, because the very next line changes everything about the line we love so much.

Take a closer look at the words "they may have." In the original Greek, that phrase is "echōsin," meaning to have, to hold, to possess. Some theologians explain its ongoing sense here as "that they may keep on having life.” I love to think of it as a continuous holding…living day after day in the life Jesus offers us. His life is not a gift we open once and set on a shelf, as some of us do with gifts we might receive from an acquaintance or coworker. It is something we keep on having, both in the good times and in the difficult seasons, on the mountaintops and in the valleys.

And what kind of life is it? An abundant one. Abundance in this verse does not mean an easy, painless life. The abundance Jesus describes is fullness, a life overflowing with His presence, His peace, and His purpose, even in seasons that feel empty. It is the difference between surviving our days and truly living them. And there is a difference.

But can I encourage you to keep reading?? Verse 11 contains one of the Bible's most comforting descriptions of Jesus: "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” The abundant life in verse 10 is freely given to us, but it came at the Shepherd's cost. He did not simply give us life; He gave us His own life. He laid it down willingly for us, for sheep who had wandered, for people who did not deserve it, for you and for me.

I think this is why we should never read verse 10 without verse 11. When we quote or post on social media about the promise of this abundant life we have available, but forget the price that was paid for it, verse 10 can quietly become about us, our life, our blessings, our plans. We can begin to believe the lie that we are valuable because of how “full” our life is. But the cross tells a different story about our worth. A shepherd lays down his life only for what he treasures.

So the next time you hear or share John 10:10, please don’t forget verse 11. Remember the price. Remember the Shepherd. Because the same Jesus who promises you life to the full is the One who considered you worth dying for. You are not valuable because you finally live abundantly; you can live abundantly because you have always been valuable to Him. No one can steal that truth from us.