In Part 1 we learned that the Lord’s perfect Bride must be comprised of perfect people and that this “perfection” is defined as being fully spiritually mature.

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THE PARABLE OF THE TEN VIRGINS [MATTHEW 25]

This is a story about hopeful brides-to-be. There is a bridegroom which means there will be a wedding. There will also be a wedding feast.  The Lord mentions ten hopeful young ladies who are already very well prepared because each are chaste virgins. This illustrates their purity.

Each of these young ladies has an oil lamp. In Scripture, oil represents spiritual anointing. Also, the oil lamps allow for light which represents the Light of the Lord which every believer must possess in order to access and remain on the spiritual path and travel it properly. Yet the lamps are no good without oil. In the Book of Acts, the early believers were filled with the Holy Spirit. After one’s glorious initial infilling there had to be additional refreshings of the Spirit of God at ongoing intervals to remain strong and effective in and for the Lord.

Now, though each of the ten virgins had the required oil lamp, only five of them were prudent enough to consider possible future implications and made the wise decision to bring additional oil in flasks. For the sake of the story, the additional oil they brought would not only be necessary but sufficient. This indicates that the Lord’s people must be ever prudent and always allow for additional oil as required throughout their lives. Sure enough, as it happened, the bridegroom was delayed. Instead of arriving at the expected customary hour he would not arrive until later on in the middle of the night. While waiting the ten young ladies grew drowsy and then fell asleep.

We know what happens next. There was suddenly a shout: “Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” Upon waking up amid all the hurried excitement the foolish virgins saw that their lamps were running very low on oil and were about to fail! “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” “No, there will not be enough for us and you too.” “Sorry!” They had no choice but to rush off to the oil dealer.

Though well-prepared in spiritual purity they were ill-prepared in spiritual maturity.

While the foolish virgins were gone the prudent virgins finished trimming their lamps and began using the additional oil in their flasks. The long delay outside the wedding venue was finally over. The five wise virgins were overjoyed! The bridegroom! He is here! And those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast. It was the beginning of great celebration and joy.

And then the door was shut. There would be no further admittance.  

The saddest part of this entire parable was what the bridegroom said when the foolish virgins returned and saw the closed door. They began fearfully calling out to the bridegroom to let them in. “Lord, lord, open up for us.” Remember, they had spent their entire young lives making the disciplined choices to remain pure and ready in preparation for this day. They had originally brought full oil lamps. They had done so many things right. Yet in the end it was all for naught.

“Truly I say to you, I do not know you.”

 © 2025 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved. [To Be Continued…]

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