Jesus’ parable of the Ten Virgins seems to ask each one of us, ‘Are we ready to meet God?
The parable states that all ten thought they were ready to meet God, so it is referring to churchgoers or those who thought they were Christians.
But only five were accepted by Jesus!
This article explores this subject…
Table of Contents:
1. Only half of ‘Christians’ are ready to meet God
50% of the church is NOT ready to meet God according to Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins!
(This article is based on Matthew 25:1-13 which is included at the foot of the page)
At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Matthew 25:1-2 NIV
Five of them were foolish and five were wise…”
4. All followers of Jesus Christ will be married to him in the future.
As we have seen all believers are engaged to Christ.
But the solemnising of the marriage is reserved for when Jesus Christ returns to take His bride, the church, back to HIS house, heaven, amidst great celebrations.
Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out,
Revelation 19:6-8 ESV
‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult
and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’ – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”
Notice that the bride of Christ KNOWS that she is the bride and that she has got herself ready.
In Revelation we have an exciting vision of what happens at the end of the world which involves Jesus’ Bride:
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Revelation 21:1-5 & 9-11 ESV
And I saw the holy city new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
‘Behold the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people and God himself will be with them as their God.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.’
And he who was seated on the throne said,
‘Behold, I am making all things new…’
Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying,
‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.’
And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.”
The Bible does not tell us what this marriage relationship will be like in the future, but we can imagine it to be a beautiful, eternal relationship.
5. Where do we stand within the Ten Virgins parable?
As Christians, we wait for the Lord Jesus Christ.
We long for His appearing as our Bridegroom and our chief aim is to be found with a light in our hand, according to the parable.
But what is this in the parable?
Half the virgins are wise and half are foolish.
Or to put it another way, half the church is wise, half is foolish. That is a very high percentage.
To half of them Jesus will say, “‘I tell you the truth, I don′t know you.” (Matthew 25:12 ESV)
So I believe Jesus told the parable in this way to really make us consider OUR position.
It is easy in this situation to start thinking of other people, whether they are the foolish ones or not.
So we ought to pray for them and thank God that He brings many to glory.
But when we look at ourselves, we should be reminded that Jesus said that the gate is small and the road narrow that leads to life and only a few find it!
Jesus is warning us that out of ten people who believe they are ready to meet God, half are not ready!
And let us not deceive ourselves – the foolish ones didn’t get to heaven.
It is that important.
Jesus is now working with His Church, he is preparing her to be his future Bride that “he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:27 ESV).
Christ’s future Bride will not be like physical Israel, who disobeyed and rejected her covenant with God.
6. So what made the foolish virgins so stupid?
Their lamps could only burn for the present time.
It was all a show!
Perhaps they didn’t realise that it was a show.
The strength that they rely upon, comes from their own selves.
A light that burns from their own energies.
7. What was special about the wise virgin’s oil?
The wise virgins had a supply of oil that didn’t come from themselves.
In Zechariah, there is a picture of a golden lampstand being continually supplied with oil.
And the Lord’s interpretation of these things to Zerubbabel, the man of God at that time, was:
(It′s) not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit’ says the Lord Almighty.”
Zechariah 4:6 NIV
Then the Lord told Zerubbabel that the obstacle, that mighty mountain, before him would become level ground, and that he would complete the work on the temple with shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it’.
We might question what relevance there is for us in that picture.
But it holds an important key to understanding the parable of the ten virgins.
The five wise virgins had a supply of oil. This oil is God’s free-flowing grace. The Spirit of Grace.
Grace is God’s power, mercy and love flowing into the believer.
Grace is something given that we don′t deserve.
At the beginning of John’s gospel, we are told that Jesus came from God the Father, full of grace and truth, and from His grace, we have received one blessing after another. (John 1:14-16)
God gave Zerubbabel a task to do.
But he needed to look to God for the power to accomplish the task.
The problems that he would face would be overcome by leaning upon the Lord.
We all need God’s oil for our lamps. We all need God’s Grace.
8. ALL of the Ten Virgins fell asleep!
They all became drowsy and fell asleep because while they waited they grew careless.
It started with becoming drowsy.
If we are driving on a motorway and we become sleepy, we need to do something about it!
If we don’t we will probably smash into something.
We as Christians need to stop ourselves from becoming spiritually lazy.
We need to slap ourselves to stop us from having a spiritual snooze.
It is good to be self-disciplined.
Suddenly the Bridegroom came!
The wise virgins trimmed their lamps: They continued to rely upon the free-flowing grace of God.
But the foolish churchgoers had been relying upon their understanding of God, their abilities, and their strengths.
They had a vain confidence in their readiness for another world.
When the Holy God drew near, the flame of their hope was suddenly extinguished.
The lamp of their testimony proved to be a fake.
And they cried out for oil when it was too late.
Through this parable, Jesus gives us a strong warning to be ready and to keep watching.
Are we prepared to meet the Lord?
9. The complete Parable of the Ten Virgins:
At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Matthew 25:1-13 NIV
Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them.
The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.
The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
At midnight the cry rang out:
‘Here′s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise:
‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived.
The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet.
And the door was shut.
Later the others also came:
‘Sir! Sir!’ they said. ‘Open the door for us!’
But he replied, ‘I tell you the truth, I don′t know you.’
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.”
More detailed articles covering: [1] Does God turn away from us?
[2] How to guard against being deceived?
[3] “Oh no, my life’s falling apart” – How to remain steadfast when the world turns bad
[4] Persecuted: Fighting against the current – What happens in times of persecution.
References and credits – open in new tabs:
Photo Credit: Virginia Humanities Flickr via Compfight cc
Jesus said, “At that time” which means within its context, the ‘end of the world’.
What is the Kingdom of Heaven?
It is the church worldwide, millions of people.
But Jesus brings this number down in the parable to a nice round ten.
We can cope with that. All ten thought they wanted to meet God.
So we are not talking about those who are anti-Christian or those outside of the church.
All thought they were ready to meet Him.
But were they ready to meet Jesus Christ, the bridegroom?
Here is a quick bit of background information:
2. A Jewish wedding is the context of the parable of the Ten Virgins.
- Marriages in Israel first had a formal, and binding engagement ceremony.
- When the evening of the wedding day came, the bridegroom and his friends went in procession, to the home of his bride.
- There she (the bride) and her family would be waiting.
- Then the bridegroom led his bride through the streets which were lined with the guests.
- The bridegroom took her to his own home.
- And then there was a great feast.
3. True Christians are betrothed (engaged) to Jesus Christ.
The Church consists of all who are called by God, those who have His Spirit – who are His children.
Which means they are now betrothed to Jesus.
Many may be church goers but will also include some who have never set foot within a church.
It will include people from any country and that includes the Jews.
To all these, the Holy Spirit says through the apostle Paul:
For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.“
2 Corinthians 11:2 ESV
Here is a unique relationship between all those who believe in Jesus who collectively are called ‘the Church’ and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This Church is betrothed, they are engaged to be married, to him their husband.
Jesus never married while on the earth, but the time will come at His return when He will marry His Bride…
‘Who Is the Bride of Christ?’ By John Foster. ((‘Who Is the Bride of Christ?’ By John Foster. Life, Hope and Truth. ↩
Also, in a limited, physical way, our own personal marriages are to reflect the relationship that Jesus Christ already has with His Church.
Paul told husbands, ‘Love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her’ (Ephesians 5:25).
To the wives he said, ‘Submit to your own husbands as to the Lord… Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything’ (verses 22, 24).”Lamp image: thanks to David Alexander, The Lion Handbook to the Bible. ↩
Vulture image: thanks to Serif ARTGallery CD ↩