RESURRECTION AND REWARDS: SECOND TAKE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qETfaJXx22g
Before we move on, let's discuss a couple points not mentioned last time about the good and evil servants.
First, we need to keep in kind that our salvation and any rewards are due to our actions in reaction to Jesus' direction. We alone determine if we are living FOR the Resurrection or for ourselves, but we can tell easily if our lifestyle resembles the fallen.
So stop and look at your lifestyle. Teaching this remains hard for me because I have to start tossing out things I have treasured for a long time simply because they don't aid me in being close to Jesus. Things that bother me and reduce my connection with Christ are things which may seem trivial to you. Likewise, your vulnerability may seem like a flea to me. Keep an ear in your tongue and the way your mind leads while doing anything from watching a TV show to reading a book to merely strolling down the street. Ask the Spirit to make clear to you what is hindering you and then pay attention. Sometimes the Spirit whispers because a yell might damage your life somehow, but it will,if you don't listen the first couple times, actually yell. Or God may, as he did with that evil servant, turn you over to your vices to have them as your home until such time as you abandon them for His leadership or He comes and lets you work things out in a more difficult circumstance.
Second, this evil servant may or may not have been indwelt with the Spirit. Clearly he may have accepted Christ but may not have had the empowering of the Spirit. So that example could show how a belief in salvation without the proper reverence to God can lead to a place in the Tribulation.
On that account, the second parable is vastly more troubling:
Mt 25:1 Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, the friends of the bride, who took their lights, and went out with the purpose of meeting the husband.
2 And five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
3 For the foolish, when they took their lights, took no oil with them.
4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lights.
5 Now the husband was a long time in coming, and they all went to sleep.
6 But in the middle of the night there is a cry, The husband comes! Go out to him.
7 Then all those virgins got up, and made ready their lights.
8 And the foolish said to the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lights are going out.
9 But the wise made answer, saying, There may not be enough for us and you; it would be better for you to go to the traders and get oil for yourselves.
10 And while they went to get oil, the master came; and those who were ready went in with him to the feast: and the door was shut.
11 After that the other virgins came, saying, Lord, Lord, let us in.
12 But he made answer and said, Truly I say to you, I have no knowledge of you.
13 Keep watch, then, because you are not certain of the day or of the hour.
(BBE)
So we deal first with the symbolism and then with the apparent message.
Symbols abound.
The virgins represent Christians. We are washed clean of our sin by Jesus' sacrifice and are virgins in His eyes. Suitable to be his bride. But notice these are "friends of the bride". We fond the possible reference to who these friends are in John 3:29. John the Baptists speaks to his disciples about Jesus:
John 3:28 You yourselves give witness that I said, I am not the Christ. What I said was, I am sent before the Christ.
29 He who has the bride is the husband: but the husband's friend, whose place is by his side and whose ears are open to him, is full of joy because of the husband's voice: such is my joy, and it is complete.
(BBE)
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers:
(29) He that hath the bride is the bridegroom.--This is the only instance in this Gospel where the familiar imagery of an Eastern marriage meets us. (See Note on Matthew 9:15, where we have the same imagery in the answer of our Lord to these same disciples of John, then taking sides with the Pharisees, on the question of fasting.) The "friend of the bridegroom"--called by the Hebrews "Sh?shb?n," and by the Greeks "Paranymph"--was charged with the preliminaries of the marriage. He arranged the contract, acted for the bridegroom during the betrothal, and arranged for, and presided at, the festivities of the wedding-day itself. It was a position of honour, in proportion to the position of the bridegroom himself, and was given to his chief friend. That friend then joyed in his joy, and there was none brighter on that day than he. This in John's thought is an illustration of his own position. The bridegroom is the Messiah; the bride is the Kingdom of God--the church, consisting of all who with pure hearts are willing to receive Him; the friend who has arranged the betrothal, who has prepared these hearts, is John himself. He now stands and hears the Bridegroom. Some of those who had been prepared by him for the Bridegroom would have come, it may be, and told him of his words. He is now near at hand. Throngs crowd to Him. The bride is approaching. Do they see in all this matter for envy? It is to him the consummation of all hopes. The life-work has not been in vain. The cup runs over. The joy is fulfilled.
The virgins proclaimed Christ in their lives. They were about the business of the Church. they didn't live a fallen life style or trail after false teaching.
Meanwhile, the oil represents the Holy Spirit.
https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/8517/Oil-as-Symbol-Gods-Holy-Spirit.htm
Oil is a widely understood symbol of the Holy Spirit and thus does not require a detailed explanation, but one scripture will suffice to link the Holy Spirit and oil directly:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. . . . (Luke 4:18)
"The Spirit of the Lord" and the oil of anointing are directly linked. The oil of anointing stands as a physical representation of Jesus being given the Spirit to perform these functions for God in His service to man.
Acts 10:38 reveals another aspect of this symbolism: ". . . how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." Again, reference is made to anointing—an act normally done with oil—with the Holy Spirit, and Peter adds "with power," a characteristic not included in Luke 4:18.
Though Jesus was bruised in service, He never lacked power. By contrast, we are rarely bruised, broken, or ground in service, but we are usually powerless. The truth is, the greatest zeal and knowledge are useless without God's Holy Spirit providing the right perspective, attitude, and intention for any service we perform.
John W. Ritenbaugh
But let Ray Stedmen expand in his commentary on these verses.
Ray Stedman believed in biblical exposition. As pastor of Peninsula Bible Church, Palo Alto, California, for forty years, he was committed to preaching through entire books of the Bible, or at least major passages from them. He believed that by presenting the whole counsel of God in this way, his congregation would receive truth in balance and grow into mature saints, as God intended.
https://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/matthew/the-wise-and-the-foolish
The background is an eastern wedding in which the bridgroom, rather than the bride, is the center of attention. In Oriental weddings it is the bridegroom who bears all the expense of the wedding (which seems a bit fairer than our system where the poor father of the bride has to foot the bill for giving up his daughter to another man!) and thus has the prime spot. Weddings were always held at night and it was customary for the bridegroom to go to the house of the bride and take her to the wedding. As they walked through the streets they would be joined by guests at various places along the route. Our Lord's story of the ten maidens is the story of such a group, waiting for the bridegroom.
There are five movements in this story as the Lord tells it. Let us remember that it was intended for those who live in the intervening time between our Lord's first coming and his second. It will be of value to us only as we permit it to be autobiographical, if we recognize ourselves somewhere in the story. It is clearly intended to describe an element of watching that is vital and essential. If we miss the point of it we shall be unable to watch for his coming as he desires.
The First movement is common expectation...
These maidens were waiting for the coming of the bridegroom. In terms of the Lord's ultimate message, they were waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ. These maidens represent, therefore, those who are convinced that the end of the age will come just as Jesus describes it. They are not deluded by highly colored dreams of an earthly utopia which will be brought about by man's wisdom and skill. They believe in a golden age, but they do not believe that age will ever come by the efforts of men. They are persuaded that only the return of Jesus Christ can accomplish that end, and they are hopeful that his coming will be very soon.
(Again, these would be viewed as the best of the best in the Church. They have been preparing others for the way. W)
(The Fourth movement brings crisis)
(Read again. We can quench the fire of the Spirit in our lives but we CANNOT quench the fire of Hell. We have the power to seek and keep salvation burning. We cannot rescue ourselves or others from the fire of damnation. We can bail out the boat we ride in or we can let the water sink it and never see the boat float again. W.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qETfaJXx22g
Before we move on, let's discuss a couple points not mentioned last time about the good and evil servants.
First, we need to keep in kind that our salvation and any rewards are due to our actions in reaction to Jesus' direction. We alone determine if we are living FOR the Resurrection or for ourselves, but we can tell easily if our lifestyle resembles the fallen.
So stop and look at your lifestyle. Teaching this remains hard for me because I have to start tossing out things I have treasured for a long time simply because they don't aid me in being close to Jesus. Things that bother me and reduce my connection with Christ are things which may seem trivial to you. Likewise, your vulnerability may seem like a flea to me. Keep an ear in your tongue and the way your mind leads while doing anything from watching a TV show to reading a book to merely strolling down the street. Ask the Spirit to make clear to you what is hindering you and then pay attention. Sometimes the Spirit whispers because a yell might damage your life somehow, but it will,if you don't listen the first couple times, actually yell. Or God may, as he did with that evil servant, turn you over to your vices to have them as your home until such time as you abandon them for His leadership or He comes and lets you work things out in a more difficult circumstance.
Second, this evil servant may or may not have been indwelt with the Spirit. Clearly he may have accepted Christ but may not have had the empowering of the Spirit. So that example could show how a belief in salvation without the proper reverence to God can lead to a place in the Tribulation.
On that account, the second parable is vastly more troubling:
Mt 25:1 Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins, the friends of the bride, who took their lights, and went out with the purpose of meeting the husband.
2 And five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
3 For the foolish, when they took their lights, took no oil with them.
4 But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lights.
5 Now the husband was a long time in coming, and they all went to sleep.
6 But in the middle of the night there is a cry, The husband comes! Go out to him.
7 Then all those virgins got up, and made ready their lights.
8 And the foolish said to the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lights are going out.
9 But the wise made answer, saying, There may not be enough for us and you; it would be better for you to go to the traders and get oil for yourselves.
10 And while they went to get oil, the master came; and those who were ready went in with him to the feast: and the door was shut.
11 After that the other virgins came, saying, Lord, Lord, let us in.
12 But he made answer and said, Truly I say to you, I have no knowledge of you.
13 Keep watch, then, because you are not certain of the day or of the hour.
(BBE)
So we deal first with the symbolism and then with the apparent message.
Symbols abound.
The virgins represent Christians. We are washed clean of our sin by Jesus' sacrifice and are virgins in His eyes. Suitable to be his bride. But notice these are "friends of the bride". We fond the possible reference to who these friends are in John 3:29. John the Baptists speaks to his disciples about Jesus:
John 3:28 You yourselves give witness that I said, I am not the Christ. What I said was, I am sent before the Christ.
29 He who has the bride is the husband: but the husband's friend, whose place is by his side and whose ears are open to him, is full of joy because of the husband's voice: such is my joy, and it is complete.
(BBE)
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers:
(29) He that hath the bride is the bridegroom.--This is the only instance in this Gospel where the familiar imagery of an Eastern marriage meets us. (See Note on Matthew 9:15, where we have the same imagery in the answer of our Lord to these same disciples of John, then taking sides with the Pharisees, on the question of fasting.) The "friend of the bridegroom"--called by the Hebrews "Sh?shb?n," and by the Greeks "Paranymph"--was charged with the preliminaries of the marriage. He arranged the contract, acted for the bridegroom during the betrothal, and arranged for, and presided at, the festivities of the wedding-day itself. It was a position of honour, in proportion to the position of the bridegroom himself, and was given to his chief friend. That friend then joyed in his joy, and there was none brighter on that day than he. This in John's thought is an illustration of his own position. The bridegroom is the Messiah; the bride is the Kingdom of God--the church, consisting of all who with pure hearts are willing to receive Him; the friend who has arranged the betrothal, who has prepared these hearts, is John himself. He now stands and hears the Bridegroom. Some of those who had been prepared by him for the Bridegroom would have come, it may be, and told him of his words. He is now near at hand. Throngs crowd to Him. The bride is approaching. Do they see in all this matter for envy? It is to him the consummation of all hopes. The life-work has not been in vain. The cup runs over. The joy is fulfilled.
The virgins proclaimed Christ in their lives. They were about the business of the Church. they didn't live a fallen life style or trail after false teaching.
Meanwhile, the oil represents the Holy Spirit.
https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Topical.show/RTD/cgg/ID/8517/Oil-as-Symbol-Gods-Holy-Spirit.htm
Oil is a widely understood symbol of the Holy Spirit and thus does not require a detailed explanation, but one scripture will suffice to link the Holy Spirit and oil directly:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. . . . (Luke 4:18)
"The Spirit of the Lord" and the oil of anointing are directly linked. The oil of anointing stands as a physical representation of Jesus being given the Spirit to perform these functions for God in His service to man.
Acts 10:38 reveals another aspect of this symbolism: ". . . how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." Again, reference is made to anointing—an act normally done with oil—with the Holy Spirit, and Peter adds "with power," a characteristic not included in Luke 4:18.
Though Jesus was bruised in service, He never lacked power. By contrast, we are rarely bruised, broken, or ground in service, but we are usually powerless. The truth is, the greatest zeal and knowledge are useless without God's Holy Spirit providing the right perspective, attitude, and intention for any service we perform.
John W. Ritenbaugh
But let Ray Stedmen expand in his commentary on these verses.
Ray Stedman believed in biblical exposition. As pastor of Peninsula Bible Church, Palo Alto, California, for forty years, he was committed to preaching through entire books of the Bible, or at least major passages from them. He believed that by presenting the whole counsel of God in this way, his congregation would receive truth in balance and grow into mature saints, as God intended.
https://www.raystedman.org/new-testament/matthew/the-wise-and-the-foolish
The background is an eastern wedding in which the bridgroom, rather than the bride, is the center of attention. In Oriental weddings it is the bridegroom who bears all the expense of the wedding (which seems a bit fairer than our system where the poor father of the bride has to foot the bill for giving up his daughter to another man!) and thus has the prime spot. Weddings were always held at night and it was customary for the bridegroom to go to the house of the bride and take her to the wedding. As they walked through the streets they would be joined by guests at various places along the route. Our Lord's story of the ten maidens is the story of such a group, waiting for the bridegroom.
There are five movements in this story as the Lord tells it. Let us remember that it was intended for those who live in the intervening time between our Lord's first coming and his second. It will be of value to us only as we permit it to be autobiographical, if we recognize ourselves somewhere in the story. It is clearly intended to describe an element of watching that is vital and essential. If we miss the point of it we shall be unable to watch for his coming as he desires.
The First movement is common expectation...
These maidens were waiting for the coming of the bridegroom. In terms of the Lord's ultimate message, they were waiting for the coming of Jesus Christ. These maidens represent, therefore, those who are convinced that the end of the age will come just as Jesus describes it. They are not deluded by highly colored dreams of an earthly utopia which will be brought about by man's wisdom and skill. They believe in a golden age, but they do not believe that age will ever come by the efforts of men. They are persuaded that only the return of Jesus Christ can accomplish that end, and they are hopeful that his coming will be very soon.
(Again, these would be viewed as the best of the best in the Church. They have been preparing others for the way. W)
But the second movement of this parable is one of division, of a divided procedure:
"Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps."
Though this group is united in its expectation it is quite divided in the way it conducts its waiting. Five maidens have brought along extra oil, and five have not. This does not represent a division between good and bad, but, as Jesus says, between the wise and the foolish. Someone has said there are only two kinds of people in this world: the righteous and the unrighteous; but the classifying is always done by the righteous! That is all too humanly true. But here there is no moral division intended. In their expectation of the coming bridegroom they are all equally sincere and devoted. The only difference is, five of them felt it would be wise to provide some extra oil.
This proves ultimately to be the most significant part of this story. Yet, to the five foolish maidens, it represented only a trivial difference which was as nothing compared with the fact that they were unitedly waiting for the bridegroom's coming. They were all agreed on the importance of oil and were all using it for its proper purpose-the giving of light. The only slight difference was that some felt more was needed than others.
What the oil represents we shall see in a moment, but it is certainly evident that the wise and the foolish are still with us. Despite our agreement in desiring the bridegroom to come, and our conviction that history will end as Jesus describes it, nevertheless, there are doubtless some reading this who will prove in the end to be wise, and others will be revealed to be foolish, lacking the essential for waiting till the Lord returns. If this parable has any message at all for us, it is that we determine what that essential is.
(Again, it is not the state if knowledge nir commitment that varies. W)
But the third movement of the story introduces an element of delay:
"As the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, 'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.'"
No explanation is given for what delayed the bridegroom. This seems to be another hint from the Lord that his absence would be long extended, as has certainly proved to be the case. It was this protracted delay of the bridegroom which constituted an unexpected demand on the part of the ten maidens for more oil. At any rate, the story describes how all ten grew weary of waiting and fell fast asleep.
There are many interpreters who view this as suggesting negligence on the part of the maidens. But there is no hint of rebuke or disapproval suggested by the Lord for this sleeping. And the wise slept as well as the foolish! It was, therefore, a perfectly natural and right thing to do, under the circumstances. It was night and therefore it was impossible to do any work. It was also a festive occasion, and their only purpose for being there was to wait for the bridegroom. So when his coming was delayed they grew drowsy and it was only natural that they would drop off to sleep .
But this is highly suggestive, for it indicates the awareness of Jesus that watching does not mean unceasing, conscious anticipation of his return. We are not to be continually peering up into the heavens like an air-raid sentry on duty. Nor are we to be forever meeting and singing, "Is It The Crowning Day?" or discussing the Lord's return. Such meetings are helpful and needed, because of the human tendency to forget, but what our Lord is indicating is that watching also allows time for normal activities. Money must be earned, investments looked into, food must be cooked, babies washed, school lessons studied, weddings held and funerals attended-all the usual activities of life must go on.
While these wise and foolish maidens were sleeping, their thoughts were diverted, for the time being from the coming of the bridegroom. Thus, while we are engaged in the normal activities of life, there is no need to feel guilty because we have not been thinking of the Lord's return. There is nothing at all wrong about this, it is as it should be. We have not failed to watch because we have been busy doing natural and necessary things. These maidens were waiting for the bridegroom's coming, even while they slept. There was a sense of imminence when they went out, yet a perfectly proper activity took their attention for a time.
But suddenly there is a cry of warning, "Behold! the bridegroom! Come out to meet him." It may well be that the ten had even posted a sentry to warn them when the bridgroom came, or it may be that the bridegroom was proceeded by someone sent for that purpose. At any rate the cry is sounded and all ten of the maidens are awakened. Again it is clearly evident that the problem which would soon confront them did not arise out of the fact that they had fallen asleep. They are awake in plenty of time to meet the bridegroom.
Many times we are, like these, called back to an awareness of the Lord's imminent return by events of the day, or some realization that time is short. We are often made aware that the grind and routine of life was never intended to go on that way forever. And certainly one day the awakening will come not through events but the actual cry, it may be, of the returning Lord himself. Paul tells us that when he comes for the church it will be with a shout, and that shout may be these electrifying words, "Behold, the Bridegroom!"
(At this point I must step into the commentary, That voice calling from nearby leads me to think that those of us driven to today tell you the time is near serve as that sentry. We are calling to all the Church to wake up and be ready with their oil full and their eyes upward. The calls began years ago and they echo in writings years old and only new today because we newer author repeat them. This is why the Scriptures in Daniel were sealed for so long, because there would need to be that wake up call. So close to His arrival, the voice needs to be raised to waken the virgins. W)(The Fourth movement brings crisis)
To the consternation of the foolish, they find their lamps are flickering, guttering, about to go out. The long delay has used up the oil and they have no more. They make their appeal to the wise: "Give us some of your oil." The reply of the wise indicates that oil is not something that can be borrowed or loaned. Whatever it may represent, it is an individual matter. We have all felt something of this in some crisis hour when we have found our resources unequal to the demand. We see someone else who is going through the same thing, and he appears unmoved and calm, well able to take the pressure. We may long to borrow some of his strength, but it is impossible. In such an hour each has what he has and nothing more.
So it is with these five foolish maidens. Their oil is gone and to their dismay they discover their need and there is a panicky rush to get more. But our Lord moves right on into the story, and the final movement is one of denial:
"And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast; and the door was shut. Afterward the other maidens came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open to us.' But he replied, 'Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.' Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour."
When the foolish finally arrived, the door was shut. Are we not surprised at that? Many will probably feel that these five were unjustly treated. Why should they not be allowed into the wedding, even if they were a few moments late? But there is no vindictiveness in this shut door. We must be careful that we do not impose our faulty judgments into this matter. What the Lord did was right, and we must be careful to look diligently for those clues that will help us learn why he takes such action as this. There is even a note of sorrow in these words, "I do not know you." Our Lord's words are a faithful, honest revelation of something that had been true all along. Weddings are no place for strangers. Only the friends of the family are permitted to come. So to these five foolish maidens the door is shut for the Lord says, "Truly, I say to you, I do not know you."
"Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts" (Zechariah 4:6). The oil symbolized the Spirit of God by which the light of testimony could be maintained in the hour of darkness.
Some ministry of the Spirit is then in view. The supreme ministry of the Spirit is to impart to men the knowledge of Jesus Christ. In John 16:13,14, Jesus said of him: "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his authority, but...will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you."
The Spirit's task then is to take the Word of God, and through it reveal Jesus Christ. But there are levels of such revelation. There is even a Spirit-born ministry of the word to those who are not true Christians. Jesus revealed this too. "When he comes, he will convince the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment" (John 16:8). Here is a ministry of the Holy Spirit available to anyone who will seek in the Scriptures to know the truth. But it is designed to take them deeper, into a fuller and permanent relationship that will involve the imparting of divine life.
Halfway is Not Enough
The great danger is that in exposure to the truth of Scripture, in the knowledge of its teaching, we should become satisfied with an intellectual portrait of Christ instead of a living Lord. It is possible to know much doctrine but never to know the Lord. This is the problem with the foolish maidens, who represent those who gladly take enough of the oil of the Spirit to give them immediate help in their problems, or some release from fear or guilt, but who never go on to a surrender of the will to the authority of Jesus Christ.
The foolish, then, are those who reckon no deeper than a superficial knowledge of scriptural truth. They look for moral enlightenment or for comfort in some hour of uncertainty and doubt. They read to gain reassurance when life seems to be a senseless tangle of threads without apparent purpose. They believe in the Bible but not in the Lord of the Bible. But faith must go deeper than doctrine. Orthodox knowledge is worthless unless it leads to the surrender of self. God freely lights a lamp of knowledge for all who want to know the truth of revelation, but what Jesus indicates here is that there is a deeper level of commitment to the Spirit which is essential to meet the unexpected demands life will thrust at us.
The wise have found that deeper level. They have an extra reservoir of oil which continually feeds the flame of life, never letting it falter or gutter out in darkness, undergirding them in every hour of stress, of pressure or disaster, keeping them firm and steady in the midst of the buffeting pressures of life. They have found a friend who sticks closer than a brother. They have a hidden supply of the mystic oil that lights the flame of life despite the circumstances, and the greater the pressure the brighter the light shines.
(See below for a further analysis. W.)
Perhaps a personal experience will illustrate this. I called on man in the hospital once, a Christian of many years' standing. I found him unable to talk, sitting up in bed, his body wasted away to a skeleton. He was unable to move a muscle, even to lift his arms or turn his head. The best he could do in the way of talking was to utter a few guttural sounds. I asked him if he would like me to read the Scripture to him and he nodded his head. As I read, I watched his eyes. As the marvelous words from passages in Isaiah began to sink into his ears, there came a flame into his eyes, a light such as never shone on land or sea. Before we finished, I could see in that emaciated body the glory of a flame burning, unquenchable, inexhaustible, fed by the oil of the Spirit, a flame that could never be put out.
I swear to you I never heard of Ray Stedmen except perhaps somewhere in a text I forgot, yet the Spirit (via Google) lead to to read this passage and find exactly what i would have written, thiough in shorter and less precise form. I reprint the ending here:
Perhaps you are saying, "I'll get along as long as I have my friends and my church." But what if they are taken away? What if you are shipped out to some remote post somewhere, surrounded by 20th century pagans who have committed themselves to seek nothing but the satisfaction of their immediate lusts? What will happen to you then? What if you are transferred to another city and you cannot find a church that ministers to your needs? What if you are confined to bed with a long-term illness, and you must lie there day after unyielding day with little opportunity to speak with others about the things of faith? Or, what is even more likely, what if imperceptibly, despite the eagerness you show now and the earnestness with which you read Scrpture or go to church, you begin to drift and gradually are drawn back into the great cold indifference of the deluded masses?
If something like that happens it will do no good to say to another, "Give me of your oil." That cannot be done. Every impartation of the Spirit's power to an individual is marked "Nontransferable." He cannot share it with anyone else. It has been said that there are only two ways to take a thing seriously: either to renounce it or to risk everything upon it. Is this not what Jesus meant when he said, "Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 16:25)?
There are some who want a third choice, who are continually seeking to make a partial commitment, who try to find a compromise arrangement with God in which they may subscribe to the truth of Scripture but refuse to let it change their activities or their attitudes. That third alternative simply does not exist. That is what Jesus is saying here. That is why he says plainly to the foolish maidens, "Truly, I say to you, I do not know you." The end shows them for what they are. The door is shut, both to the unbeliever who never tried to get in and to the foolish person who never took God seriously.
Prayer
Lord, how many of us are burning the candle of our life on the shallow reservoir of Scriptural knowledge but have never struck deeper? How many of us, Lord, are holding you at arm's length concerning specific matters and yet priding ourselves upon our orthodoxy and our Christian faith? Save us from this folly. Bring us into that wonderful experience of finding a flame that can never be put out. In your name, Amen.
This is a test for you alone to perform on yourself. Ask the Lord to fill you with His Spirit. Feel that Spirit rise ion you and complete what your reading and your hopes have only touched on. Then do nothing to "quench the Spirit". And I think that is what Jesus refers to here:
Question: "What does it mean to grieve / quench the Holy Spirit?"
Answer: When the word “quench” is used in Scripture, it is speaking of suppressing fire. When believers put on the shield of faith, as part of their armor of God (Ephesians 6:16), they are extinguishing the power of the fiery darts from Satan. Christ described hell as a place where the fire would not be “quenched” (Mark 9:44, 46, 48). Likewise, the Holy Spirit is a fire dwelling in each believer. He wants to express Himself in our actions and attitudes. When believers do not allow the Spirit to be seen in our actions, when we do what we know is wrong, we suppress or quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). We do not allow the Spirit to reveal Himself the way that He wants to.
To understand what it means to grieve the Spirit, we must first understand that this indicates the Spirit possesses personality. Only a person can be grieved; therefore, the Spirit must be a divine person in order to have this emotion. Once we understand this, we can better understand how He is grieved, mainly because we too are grieved. Ephesians 4:30 tells us that we should not grieve the Spirit. We grieve the Spirit by living like the pagans (4:17-19), by lying (4:25), by being angry (4:26-27), by stealing (4:28), by cursing (4:29), by being bitter (4:31), by being unforgiving (4:32), and by being sexually immoral (5:3-5). To grieve the Spirit is to act out in a sinful manner, whether it is in thought only or in both thought and deed.
Both quenching and grieving the Spirit are similar in their effects. Both hinder a godly lifestyle. Both happen when a believer sins against God and follows his or her own worldly desires. The only correct road to follow is the road that leads the believer closer to God and purity, and farther away from the world and sin. Just as we do not like to be grieved, and just as we do not seek to quench what is good—so we should not grieve or quench the Holy Spirit by refusing to follow His leading.
Jesus' message is clear. We are all at risk of missing the Rapture. We can be left to the good graces of the Antichrist and the False Prophet or we can turn from all the seductions to the source of the flame in our lives. We can feed the New Man of Jesus in us or the Old Man of Adam.
While all these analyses are true, , please note that it seems, at one time, the foolish actually HAD that knowledge. They seem more to be as some of those described in this parable:
Mt 13:3 And he gave them teaching in the form of a story, saying, A man went out to put seed in the earth;
4 And while he did so, some seeds were dropped by the wayside, and the birds came and took them for food:
5 And some of the seed went among the stones, where it had not much earth, and straight away it came up because the earth was not deep:
6 And when the sun was high, it was burned; and because it had no root it became dry and dead.
7 And some seeds went among thorns, and the thorns came up and they had no room for growth:
8 And some, falling on good earth, gave fruit, some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times as much.
9 He who has ears, let him give ear.
10 And the disciples came and said to him, Why do you say things to them in the form of stories?
11 And he said to them in answer, To you is given the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given.
12 Because whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have more; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.
13 For this reason I put things into the form of stories; because they see without seeing, and give ear without hearing, and the sense is not clear to them.
14 And for them the words of Isaiah have come true, Though you give ear, you will not get knowledge; and seeing, you will see, but the sense will not be clear to you:
15 For the heart of this people has become fat and their ears are slow in hearing and their eyes are shut; for fear that they might see with their eyes and give hearing with their ears and become wise in their hearts and be turned again to me, so that I might make them well.
16 But a blessing be on your eyes, because they see; and on your ears, because they are open.
17 For truly, I say to you that prophets and upright men had a desire to see the things which you see, and saw them not; and to have knowledge of the words which have come to your ears, and they had it not.
18 Give ear, then, to the story of the man who put the seed in the earth.
19 When the word of the kingdom comes to anyone, and the sense of it is not clear to him, then the Evil One comes, and quickly takes away that which was put in his heart. He is the seed dropped by the wayside.
20 And that which went on the stones, this is he who, hearing the word, straight away takes it with joy;
21 But having no root in himself, he goes on for a time; and when trouble comes or pain, because of the word, he quickly becomes full of doubts.
22 And that which was dropped among the thorns, this is he who has the word; and the cares of this life, and the deceits of wealth, put a stop to the growth of the word and it gives no fruit.
23 And the seed which was put in good earth, this is he who gives ear to the word, and gets the sense of it; who gives fruit, some a hundred, some sixty, some thirty times as much.
(BBE)
If we pay attention to this parable we see the first evil servant was like the seed that was burned and returned to the world and that the second was the seed with weak roots, growing up but stunted because it got little food.
But that third group that He mentioned in Matt. 13 and in 25 begs discussion next time because they seem to be a group both convinced of Jesus purpose and yet deceived by that purpose.
No comments:
Post a Comment