A shepherd (poimen) looks after a flock of sheep, protecting them, nourishing them, and keeping them safe.
A bishop (episkopos) is an overseer, someone with a responsibility to look after a group of people.
So it’s not surprising that Peter uses both of these terms to describe the Savior:
Ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
1 Peter 2:25
Alma assured us, “The good shepherd doth call after you; and if you will hearken unto his voice, he will bring you into his fold, and ye are his sheep” (Alma 5:60).
Peter emphasized that church leaders must follow the Savior’s example as they shepherd others:
Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind;
Neither as being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples to the flock.
And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.
1 Peter 5:4
Alma’s father received similar guidance: “Thou art my servant…and thou shalt serve me and go forth in my name, and shalt gather together my sheep” (Mosiah 26:20).
President Russell M. Nelson quoted the following verse from the hymn “Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd:’
Make us thy true under-shepherds;
“Dear to the Heart of the Shepherd,” Hymns, 221
Give us a love that is deep.
Send us out into the desert,
Seeking thy wandering sheep.”
President Nelson added:
The Good Shepherd lovingly cares for all sheep of His fold, and we are His true undershepherds. Our privilege is to bear His love and to add our own love to friends and neighbors—feeding, tending, and nurturing them—as the Savior would have us do.
“Shepherds, Lambs, and Home Teachers,” Ensign, August 1994, quoted by Elder Juan A. Uceda in “The Lord Jesus Christ Teaches Us to Minister,” General Conference, April 2023
Today, I will strive to be a “true undershepherd” to those I serve. I will be grateful for the example I have to follow, the Shepherd and Bishop of my soul.