Matthew · New Testament · Matthew 25:1–13
The Ten Virgins
The Story
esus told the story of ten young women who took their lamps and went out to meet a bridegroom who was expected but whose arrival was delayed well into the night. Five of them were wise and thought ahead, bringing extra flasks of oil along with their lamps, while the other five were foolish and brought their lamps but no extra oil to keep them burning. When the cry rang out at midnight that the bridegroom was coming, all ten women got up to trim their lamps — but the foolish five discovered their oil had run out and desperately asked the wise ones to share, only to be told there would not be enough for all of them and that they should go and buy their own. While the foolish five were away purchasing oil the bridegroom arrived, the wise women went in with him to the wedding banquet, and the door was shut firmly behind them. When the foolish five returned and pleaded to be let in, the bridegroom answered with the most chilling words imaginable — that he did not know them — and Jesus closed the parable with a direct and urgent warning that His followers must keep watch because no one knows the day or the hour of His return.
The Message
Spiritual readiness cannot be borrowed from someone else at the last moment — it must be personally cultivated and maintained every day, because when the door finally closes it will be too late to prepare.