In many cases, the spiritual meaning of "own," both as a verb and as an adjective, is relatively literal. When people are described as the "Lord's own," however, it specifically means those people who know Him and have His Word. This has taken various forms since the dawn of humanity; in the prehistoric church known as the "Most Ancient Church" the Lord's truth -- the direct expression of His love -- flowed into people directly. In the Ancient Church the Lord's Word was recognized in nature and in the form of deeply representative stories, some of which were passed on to us in the early chapters of Genesis. Among the Children of Israel the Lord's Word was expressed through the Ten Commandments, the laws of Moses, the very history of the nation of Israel and the various psalms and prophecies. The early Christians had those stories along with the teaching and inspiration of Jesus himself. We now have the whole Bible, including the teachings of Jesus, and can understand the Bible's true meaning. Each of these churches, then, was at some point the Lord's own.

6441. 'Is a wolf' means an eagerness to rescue and deliver the good. This is clear from the meaning of 'a wolf' as one who seizes and scatters; and since natural desires are meant in the Word by 'beasts', 'a wolf' means an eagerness to seize, as is also clear from places in the Word where 'a wolf' is mentioned, as in Matthew,

Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. Matthew 7:15.

In John,

The hireling who is not the shepherd, whose sheep are not his own, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees; and the wolf seizes them, and scatters them. John 10:12.

Similar references to the wolf occur in other places, such as Luke 10:3; Jeremiah 5:6; Ezekiel 22:27; Zephaniah 3:3. From all these places it is evident that 'a wolf' means those who seize, but here one who rescues from hell those who have been seized. How it is with the meaning of the wolf is much the same as it is with that of the lion, which is also a rapacious creature. The lion too is said to seize the prey, collect the spoil, and gather the plunder, as the wolf here is said to do; but in the good sense 'lion' means truth when empowered by good, see 6367. Something similar applies also to other ravenous creatures, such as leopards or eagles.