as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.

 This was the title which Jesus took to himself when he called himself the Good Shepherd and when he said that the Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep ( John 10:1-18). To Jesus the men and women who did not know God and who were waiting for what he could give them were like sheep without a shepherd ( Mark 6:34). The great privilege given to the servant and the minister of Christ is to shepherd the flock of God ( John 21:16; 1 Peter 5:2). 