Is Your Lamp Empty or Full?

What Is It Full Of?

Jesus’ Parable of the Ten Virgins

Matthew 25:1-13:

1 ‘I will tell you again what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. There were ten young women who were going to a marriage. They took their lamps with them, and they went to meet the bridegroom.

2 Five of these young women were silly. They were not careful about what they were doing. Five of these young women understood well. They were careful about what they were doing.

3 The silly young women took their lamps with them, but they did not take any extra oil with them.

4 The other five young women took jars of oil with them. These young women were careful about what they were doing.

5 The bridegroom did not come for a long time. So, all the young women became tired, and they went to sleep.

6 In the middle of the night, someone shouted out, “The bridegroom is coming. Come out to meet him.”

7 The ten young women woke up. Then they got up and they looked at their lamps. They tried to make their lamps work well.

8 The five young women who had not brought extra oil said to the other five young women, “Give us some of your oil, because our lamps are not burning well.”

9 The careful young women who had extra oil replied, “If we did that, then there would not be enough oil for all of us. You must go instead to the people who sell oil. You must buy some oil for your lamps.”

10 ‘So these five women went to buy some oil. While they were away, the bridegroom arrived. He would soon marry. The five women who understood well were ready. They went with him into the house. Here the servants had prepared the meal for the marriage. Then the servants shut the door.

11 Later, the five silly women also came to the house. They said, “Sir, Sir, please open the door for us.”

12 But he replied, “What I say is true. I do not know you.” ’

13 Then Jesus said, ‘So you must watch well. You do not know on what day or at what time I will come.’

Those who have read the Bible, professed belief, but then have not accepted the Word as written are like the 5 foolish virgins. They chose not to stick to the pure lamp oil contained in God’s word and didn’t fill their spiritual lamps with it.

Contrarily, they chose to reject this pure “oil” in preference for oil that could not keep their lamps burning during the final hours of this system of things before the Lord’s arrival.

Indeed at the start, they possessed at little oil. Like most who profess love for God and Christ, they began full of conviction and determination to follow and do God’s will according to His word. They read the Bible and believed.

Take note that all ten received the same invitation to the marriage feast. They all started with the same prospect in front of them. They all received a portion of the holy spirit.

But somewhere, at some time, that faith and conviction waned. They bought less and less of the refined oil and began to fill their spiritual reservoirs with something else. Something that didn’t originate with God that was of human origin.

They did the very thing the apostle Paul foretold of and warned against:

Romans 1:25

“They refused to believe the true things about God. Instead, they chose to believe something that is not true. They worshiped things that God has made. They became servants of those things. But they refused to worship God, who made all things. He is the God that everyone ought to worship. Everyone should say how very great he is always! This is true”.

Instead of relying on and referring to the Word of God, they began to worship and obey the words of men as if they were gods. When those men they worshiped words did not agree with the pure lamp oil God’s word provided, they rejected the Bible, and their oil reservoirs became more and more depleted.

Instead of acknowledging their error, they doubled down and have continued to preach and teach unbiblical doctrines despite the fact that they have been proven false.

And now that the hour we live in has become apparent to almost all sensible people, these foolish virgins are madly scrambling to set matters right before the Lord’s arrival in all the wrong ways.
They look for shortcuts to get right with God and his Christ. There are none.

First, there has to be acknowledgment of guilt. Pridefully, they refuse to do so. That pride will bear the ultimate cost in the end.

Zephaniah 3:11:

11 In that day shalt thou not be ashamed for all thy doings, wherein thou hast transgressed against me: for then I will take away out of the midst of thee them that rejoice in thy pride, and thou shalt no more be haughty because of my holy mountain.

After acknowledgment of their wrong course, then there is the need to repent and turn back. A person isn’t doing that if they sweep error under the rug so to speak, by just not further believing and teaching unbiblical teachings. What about all those they have already stumbled? They owe it to them to set matters straight.

Neither can such foolish virgins simply asked the prudent virgins to give them some of their lamp oil or in some other way perhaps ‘attach’ themselves to those who have filled themselves with the pure knowledge they possess gained by putting total faith in the Bible, God’s written Word.

These “foolish virgins” would need to first empty their spiritual reservoirs of the tainted lamp oil they possess (they need to repent), ask for forgiveness from God, and then return to Source of truth so as to buy pure oil for their lamps.

But as Jesus parable ends, there is no time left because the distance and effort is so great and He is so near.

Is your lamp full of the pure lamp oil only God’s word can provide?

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