Matthew 25:10

25:1-13 The circumstances of the parable of the ten virgins were taken from the marriage customs among the Jews, and explain the great day of Christ's coming. See the nature of Christianity. As Christians we profess to attend upon Christ, to honour him, also to be waiting for his coming. Sincere Christians are the wise virgins, and hypocrites the foolish ones. Those are the truly wise or foolish that are so in the affairs of their souls. Many have a lamp of profession in their hands, but have not, in their hearts, sound knowledge and settled resolution, which are needed to carry them through the services and trials of the present state. Their hearts are not stored with holy dispositions, by the new-creating Spirit of God. Our light must shine before men in good works; but this is not likely to be long done, unless there is a fixed, active principle in the heart, of faith in Christ, and love to God and our brethren. They all slumbered and slept. The delay represents the space between the real or apparent conversion of these professors, and the coming of Christ, to take them away by death, or to judge the world. But though Christ tarry past our time, he will not tarry past the due time. The wise virgins kept their lamps burning, but they did not keep themselves awake. Too many real Christians grow remiss, and one degree of carelessness makes way for another.

Matthew 25:10-12 . While they went to buy — While they made some unsuccessful efforts to obtain oil, and light their lamps; the bridegroom came, and they that were ready — They who had put on the wedding- garment, who had an interest in Christ’s obedience unto death, and were renewed by his Spirit, who had recovered the divine likeness, the whole image of God stamped upon their soul; who had done and suffered the whole will of God unto the end, while they had kept themselves unspotted from the world: they, (to speak in the language of Christ,) whose loins were girded, and their lamps burning, and themselves like unto men waiting for their Lord, went in with him to the marriage — For blessed are the dead that die in the Lord, they rest from their labours, and their works follow them: and those that are found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless, in whatever way he comes to them, shall enter into the joy of their Lord, and sit down at the marriage-feast with patriarchs and prophets, and all the company of heaven. And the door was shut — The door of salvation, of pardoning mercy, and divine acceptance; the door of repentance, faith, and holiness; of grace and glory. This is always shut at death. It is universally acknowledged among Protestants, that as death leaves us judgment finds us. And surely then it is shut, when the final sentence is passed at the great day, and the eternal Judge has fixed the states of mankind for ever.

Then all entrance into the heavenly city will be for ever precluded, and he that is filthy must remain filthy still. Afterward came also the other virgins — After the door was shut and bolted against them by the irreversible decree of Heaven, they came to enter, that is, they came too late, and therefore when they would have inherited the blessing, they were rejected, and found no place for repentance. For he answered, &c. — He was heard answering from within, I know you not — Ye pretended to be my friends, and to do me honour: but you have not acted as friends, nor do I acknowledge you as such.

Matthew 25:10 . ἀπερχομένων , etc. The foolish took the advice and went to buy, and in so doing acted in character ; foolish in that as in not having a good supply of oil. They should have gone on without oil , the great matter being to be in time. By reckoning this as a point in their folly we bring the foolish virgins into analogy with the foolish builder in chap. Matthew 7:26 . Vide notes there, and also The Parabolic Teaching of Christ , p. 505 f. Of course, on this view the oil has no significance in the spiritual sphere. It plays a great part in the history of interpretation. For Chrys. and Euthy., the lamp = virginity, and the oil = pity, and the moral is: continence without charity worthless; a good lesson. “Nothing,” says the former, “is blinder than virginity without pity; thus the people are used to call the merciless dark ( σκοτεινούς ),” Hom. lxxviii.— ἐκλείσθη ἡ θύρα , the door was shut, because all the guests were supposed to be within; no hint given by the wise virgins that more were coming. This improbable in the natural sphere.

10. And while they went to buy, the Bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut—They are sensible of their past folly; they have taken good advice: they are in the act of getting what alone they lacked: a very little more, and they also are ready. But the Bridegroom comes; the ready are admitted; "the door is shut," and they are undone. How graphic and appalling this picture of one almost saved—but lost!

(10) While they went to buy. —The words imply that had they gone earlier, as the wise virgins, by hypothesis, had done, all would have been well. The mistake lay in their not having gone before. It is too late, in other words, to have recourse to the ordinary means of grace for the formation of character, to ordinances, sacraments, rules of life, at the moment of the crisis in personal or national life, which answers to the coming of the bridegroom. The door is then shut, and is no longer opened even to those who knock.

Matthew 25:10 . Ἀπερχομένων δὲ αὐτῶν , but whilst they were going ) Their danger arose from the circumstance on which they asked advice.[1087]— ΑἹ ἝΤΟΙΜΑΙ , they that were ready ) The prudent were ready.[1088] [1087] They came short of entering by but a little, yet they did come short.—V. g. [1088] Ἐκλείσθη , was shut ) Hardly any one, whilst the door is still open, can realise by thought, how great will be the lamentation of those who shall stand outside when the doors are once shut . How often a mere trifle, as we should think, forms the boundary between wisdom and folly: and yet the decision we come to is of the utmost importance to us. There are—1) those who enjoy an abundant entrance into the eternal kingdom of joy: 2) those who, as it were rescued from shipwreck, are brought to shore: 3) those who are openly hurried along on the broad way to destruction: 4) those who, though having been very close to the obtaining of salvation, yet suffer themselves to lose it. The condition of these last is lamentable above that of all others.—V. g.

Matthew 25:10 f. While they were going away, came (not: advenerat , Fritzsche). εἰσῆλθον μετʼ αὐτοῦ ] namely, into the house of the bride, whither the bridegroom was on his way, and to which the maids were conducting him, with a view to the celebration of the marriage. The idea of the bridegroom’s house being that referred to (see on Matthew 25:1 ) is precluded by the correlation in which ἦλθν ὁ νυμθίος and εἰσῆλθον μετʼ αὐτοῦ stand to each other. κύριε , κύριε ] expressive of most urgent and anxious entreaty. Comp. Matthew 7:21 .