5 Bible Verses about Spiritual Allegories

"I tell you, any man who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs over at some other place, is a thief and robber. But the man who enters by the door is the shepherd of the flock. The watchman opens the door to him, and the sheep obey his voice, and he calls to his own sheep and leads them out.read more.
When he gets his own flock all out, he goes in front of them, and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger but will run away from him, because they do not know the voices of strangers." This was the figure Jesus used in speaking to them, but they did not understand what he meant by it. So Jesus said again, "I tell you, I am the door of the sheepfold. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep would not obey them. I am the door. Whoever enters through me will be saved, and will pass in and out and find pasture. A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come to let them have life, and to let them have it in abundance. I am the good shepherd. A good shepherd will give his life for his sheep. A hired man who is not a shepherd and does not own the sheep, when he sees a wolf coming, will leave the sheep and run away, and the wolf will carry them off and scatter the flock. For he is only a hired man, and does not care about the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father, and I am giving my life for my sheep. I have other sheep too that do not belong to this fold. I must lead them too, and they will obey my voice, and they will all become one flock, with one shepherd.

Tell me this, you who want to be subject to law: Will you not listen to the Law? For the Scripture says that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave-girl, and one by the free woman. But the child of the slave-girl was born in the ordinary course of nature, while the child of the free woman was born in fulfilment of the promise.read more.
This is an allegorical utterance. For the women are two agreements, one coming from Mount Sinai, bearing children that are to be slaves; that is, Hagar (and Hagar means Mount Sinai, in Arabia), and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. For the Scripture says, "Rejoice, childless woman, who bear no children, Break into shouting, you who have no birth pains! For the desolate woman has more children than the married one!" Now we, brothers, are like Isaac, children born in fulfilment of the promise. But just as then the child born in the ordinary course of nature persecuted the one born through the influence of the Spirit, so it is today. Yet what does the Scripture say? "Drive the slave-girl and her son away, for the slave-girl's son shall not share the inheritance with the son of the free woman." So, brothers, we are children not of a slave but of one who is free.

For if their rejection has meant the reconciling of the world, what can the acceptance of them mean but life from the dead? If the first handful of dough is consecrated, the whole mass is, and if the root of a tree is consecrated, so are its branches. If some of the branches have been broken off, and you who were only a wild olive shoot have been grafted in, in place of them, and made to share the richness of the olive's root,read more.
you must not look down upon the branches. If you do, remember that you do not support the root; the root supports you. "But," you will say, "branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in!" That is true; but it was for their want of faith that they were broken off, and it is through your faith that you stand where you do. You ought not to feel proud; you ought to be afraid, for if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you. Observe then the goodness and the severity of God??everity to those who have fallen, but goodness to you, provided you abide by his goodness, for otherwise, you in your turn will be pruned away. Those others too, if they do not cling to their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from a wild olive and unnaturally grafted upon a cultivated one, how much easier it will be to graft them upon the olive to which they properly belong!

You married women must subordinate yourselves to your husbands, as you do to the Lord, for a husband is the head of his wife, just as Christ is the head of the church, which is his body, and is saved by him. Just as the church is in subjection to Christ, so married women must be, in everything, to their husbands.read more.
You who are husbands must love your wives, just as Christ loves the church and gave himself for her, to consecrate her, after cleansing her with the bath in water through her confession of him, in order to bring the church to himself in all her beauty, without a flaw or a wrinkle or anything of the kind, but to be consecrated and faultless. That is the way husbands ought to love their wives??s if they were their own bodies; a man who loves his wife is really loving himself, for no one ever hates his own person, but he feeds it and takes care of it, just as Christ does with the church, for we are parts of his body. Therefore a man must leave his father and mother and attach himself to his wife, and they must become one. This is a great secret, but I understand it of Christ and the church. But each one of you must love his wife just as he loves himself, and the wife, too, must respect her husband.

You must put on God's armor, so as to be able to stand up against the devil's stratagems. For we have to struggle, not with enemies of flesh and blood, but with the hierarchies, the authorities, the master-spirits of this dark world, the spirit-forces of evil on high. So you must take God's armor, so that when the evil day comes you will be able to make a stand, and when it is all over to hold your ground.read more.
Stand your ground, then, with the belt of truth around your waist, and put on uprightness as your coat of mail, and on your feet put the readiness the good news of peace brings. Besides all these, take faith for your shield, for with it you will be able to put out all the flaming missiles of the evil one, and take salvation for your helmet, and for your sword the Spirit, which is the voice of God.