1Pet 2:24-25 (AKJV/PCE)
(2:24) Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed. (2:25) For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
Peter calls his audience sheep (that title belongs exclusively to Israel, God's flock).
Ezek 34:30-31 (AKJV/PCE)
(34:30) Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God [am] with them, and [that] they, [even] the house of Israel, [are] my people, saith the Lord GOD. (34:31) And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, [are] men, [and] I [am] your God, saith the Lord GOD.
Note again that Peter is writing to
NON-GENTILES:
1Pet 2:11-12 (AKJV/PCE)
(2:11) Dearly beloved, I beseech [you] as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; (2:12) Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by [your] good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
On the other hand...
Rom 8:36-37 (AKJV/PCE)
(8:36) As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. (8:37) Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
Paul says
NO, we (the body of Christ) as
NOT sheep.
In thirteen Pauline epistles, that is the ONLY mention that Paul makes of "sheep".