Parable of the Ten Virgins - Matt 25

The kingdom of heaven. Here, as elsewhere, that kingdom is the visible Church. But the present parable seems to relate to a part only of the kingdom, a portion of the Church. There may possibly be no spiritual significance in the word “virgins.” Like the number ten, perhaps a common number at such times, it may belong merely to the structure, the imagery of the parable; young unmarried women were and are usually attendants of the bride (comp. Ps 45:14). But these virgins all alike took their lamps; all alike went forth to meet the Bridegroom; all too had oil in their lamps, though not all had a store of oil in their vessels also. Then all were something more than nominal Christians; all had, in some sense, come out of the world, and had gone to meet the Bridegroom. There are no hypocrites in the parable, no openly wicked and disobedient men. This consideration gives it a very awful meaning; it is not enough to have been once awakened, there is need of constant persevering watchfulness. The parable embodies and enforces the lesson of the last chapter, “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.” The virgins all had lamps; the lamp seems to represent the outward Christian life of worship and obedience which is seen by the eye of men. They all had oil in their lamps; the oil is the Holy Spirit of God. They all went forth to meet the Bridegroom. The Bridegroom, of course, is Christ; he had come from heaven to fetch home his bride the Church. Lange well remarks, in his commentary, “As it respects the relations of the virgins to the bride, we must bear in mind the analogy of the marriage supper of the king's son and his guests. The Church, in her aggregate and ideal unity, is the bride; the members of the Church, as individually called, are guests; in their separation from the world, and expectation of Christ's coming, they are his virgins.” The bride is not mentioned in this parable. It describes not the Church as a whole, but its individual members; not all its members, but those only who have been once awakened, who have at least begun to come after Christ, and have made some progress, more or less, in the way of godliness. In the visible Church the evil are ever mingled with the good, and among those who seem to be good there are always some whose “goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.” So among these virgins who all went forth to meet the Bridegroom, there were five wise, but the remaining five were foolish.

The differences which exist among its citizens. All the virgins took their lamps; all the lamps were burning as they went forth. Outwardly there was no observable difference among them; but the foolish took no oil with them; the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. It is not enough to have been “once enlightened;” we may not dare put our trust in the grace once given in holy baptism, or in what may seem to have been the change of repentance and conversion. The foolish virgins went forth to meet the Bridegroom. They had their lamps; and the lamps were not empty or dark, they were burning, they had oil in them. Then even the foolish were using the means of grace, they had been made “partakers of the Holy Ghost” (Heb 6:4), they seemed to be living Christian lives, they had made some real progress. But they took no oil with them; they acted as if the lamps, once lighted, would burn on forever; they had no store of oil for future use. They had “the washing of regeneration;” they delighted in their past experience, and trusted in it as if they had all that was needed for their spiritual life. They had not “the renewing of the Holy Ghost.” Their lamps burned brightly for a time; all seemed well, but they had not brought their vessels, flasks of oil, to supply their lamps. Perhaps the vessels were cumbrous, heavy to carry; plain, too, not striking in appearance; they made no show like the burning lamp. These virgins were like the seed that was sown upon the rock. They heard the Word, and at once received it with joy, but they had no root. They were wanting in perseverance, in watchfulness. They did not keep in their minds the thought that, though the Bridegroom might come at any moment, yet he might long delay; that there was need of daily preparation, of constant watchfulness, for his coming. The wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. They knew that it was not safe to trust to the grace of their baptism, to a flush of excitement, to past experience, however precious; they counted not themselves to have apprehended; they forgot what was behind, and ever reached forth unto those things which were before; they sought in persevering prayer and daily self-denials, and the constant faithful use of the appointed means of grace for “the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” The Spirit is the holy oil, the oil with which the Lord himself was anointed (“God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost,” Act 10:38), the “unction from the Holy One,” which is given to all his faithful servants; that anointing abideth in them, and teacheth them (1 Jn 2:27) because they “stir up the Gift of God that is in them,” not quenching the Spirit, as careless slothful Christians do, but treasuring in their hearts that sacred Gift, striving always to grow in grace, to walk in the Spirit, to mind the things of the Spirit, to be filled with the Spirit, to increase in the Holy Spirit more and more. We must treasure the sacred oil, the Divine anointing; we must seek for its daily renewing. We shall not seek in vain if we seek in persevering prayer. “My Father will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him.”

Pulpit commentary on Matt 25.