Scripture Reading: Matthew 25: 1-13
The three parables in this chapter teach great lessons. They are based on the promise of Christ’s return. He is surely coming again, when, no one can know. But we should live always so as to be ready for His most sudden coming any moment.
The ten virgins were alike in some ways. An onlooker in the early evening could not have told which were the wise and which the foolish. Each had her lamp. In any Christian congregation the members may all seem alike true friends of Christ as they sit in their pews in common worship or at the Lord’s Table. The testing comes in other ways.
All the virgins slept while the bridegroom tarried. There was nothing wrong in this. We all have to sleep some time. We should be sure that we are safe against any surprise while we are asleep, that no duty has been omitted before we slept which is essential to a complete life. The wise virgins were ready for the coming of the wedding party at any hour, however long the delay might be. We are not required to wake and watch every moment for the coming of Christ; we are to be ready for the event so that we cannot be surprised. For example, we are not to think every moment of death, but we are so to live always that whenever death may come, however suddenly, it will not find us unprepared. “Not what death finds us doing, but how death finds us furnished, is the important question.”
The lamps of the foolish virgins were filled, but they did not hold much oil and would soon burn out, and these maidens had no oil in reserve to refill their lamps when they became empty. This was their folly. The difference in the other virgins was that besides having their lamps filled, they had oil in reserve with which they could quickly refill them when they had burned out.
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