The Ten Virgins

The parable of the ten virgins is a very revealing truth regarding the reality that some of God’s people will do what is required to be saved, and some will not. To first understand the parable, we need to note that it is part of the same sermon that Jesus taught in Matthew 24 regarding the end time before his second coming. There is no pause or change of subject between the last verses of chapter 24 and the beginning of chapter 25, where the parable appears. In the original text of the scriptures there were no chapters and verses, but these were added by the translators at a later time. So with these things in mind, let’s take a look at the parable: “Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of them were wise, and five were foolish (Mat. 25:1,2). The very first word in this parable is very significant because it lets us know that whatever Jesus is talking about is something that will take place in the end time before his second coming, following suit with the first part of the same sermon that is recorded in chapter 24. The next important note is that the kingdom of heaven, which is the same thing as the kingdom of God, is made up of those who have obtained "righteousness, and peace, and joy, in the holy Ghost,” as is defined in Romans 14:17. So all ten virgins were people who had been “baptized by one Spirit… into one body,” the only way that anyone can truly have Jesus Christ in his life (I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27; II Cor. 3:17; Rom. 8:9).

So all ten of these virgins had this one big thing in common: They had all been born again by being baptized with the holy Ghost into Christ, which of course means that they all had received the accompanying sign of the experience as well, which is “speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance” (Acts 2:4). “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (II Cor. 5:17). That scriptural reality sets the tone for us to understand the sobering truth conveyed by this parable. Without understanding that the original Spirit baptism is the new birth experience, there can be no real understanding of this parable. "They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps" (Mat. 25:3,4). So we see that all ten of these virgins had lamps, and they all took their lamps with them as they went forth to meet the bridegroom. The lamps represent the one thing that they all had in common, namely that they had experienced the new birth, which is the Spirit baptism that had put all of them into the one body of Christ (I Cor. 12:13- Again; Eph. 4:4). But the wise took something else with them for the journey that the foolish did not deem necessary to take, that being the oil. So what was the oil for, and why did the wise take oil, and the foolish did not? Let’s go further with the parable and find the answer: "And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out" (Mat. 25:8). The oil in the parable was obviously what kept the lamps of the wise burning as they endured in the journey, and this is why the lamps of the foolish were going dim, ready to be extinguished.

The oil represents (wisdom, as in wise). Wisdom is defined in the scriptures as the fear of the Lord (Prov. 9:10; Job 28:28). The difference between the wise and the foolish was that the wise understood that "without holiness no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14). And the wise understood that it takes more than merely receiving the Spirit; but that it also takes "working out [our] salvation with fear and trembling" (Philip. 2:12). The foolish were counting on the fact that they had experienced the new birth, but they did not fear God enough to understand that they would still be lost if they did not continue to "purify [themselves] even as he is pure” (I Jn. 3:2,3). And they did not have the wisdom to realize that they had to continue to “keep [their] hearts [from sin] with all diligence” in order to be saved (I Jn. 3:3; Prov. 4:23). They believed, as many today believe, that they already had their salvation. But they were rudely awakened upon the completion of their journey: “And they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut. Afterward came also the other [foolish] virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not" (Mat. 25:10-12). They expected to be saved, but found out differently at the end. These foolish virgins are the same people that Jesus had spoken of earlier in the sermon, saying, "And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.” The wise were those that he referred to immediately afterward: “But he that shall endure the end, the same shall be saved" (Mat. 24:12,13). No wonder Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, "Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man" (Eccl. 12:13). Amen.