Foolish Faith (Part I)
In the twenty-fifth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus had a burden in his heart that a host of members of His spiritual body would be lost for all of eternity. Through sheer negligence, many from within the church, Jesus declared, shall ultimately fail to enter into heaven. Matthew 25:1-4, “ At that time (the second coming of Jesus, the end of the age) the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.”
The kingdom of heaven, in this parable, is the church. The wise virgins are those church members prepared for heaven and the foolish virgins are those church members unprepared for heaven. Jesus is saying that in His church there will be wise and foolish side by side; ready and unready side by side; saved and lost side by side.
The foolish virgins are the Lord’s own example of supposedly “saved” persons who at the end fail to enter heaven. This warns against spiritual complacency and neglect, but it should not discourage. Those foolish bridesmaids had lamps (or faith) but did not provide oil (or righteousness), even though they could have done so. What was required of them was nothing extraordinary or especially difficult, but it did require concern and attention which they failed to give.
“Five of them were foolish...” A favorite term in scripture for the unrighteous (unsaved) is fool or foolish. It is the “fool” who says in his heart there is no God. (Psalm 14:1). The man who built his house on sand is described not as vicious but as “foolish” (Matthew 7:26). The rich man who mistook his body for his soul, the Lord declared, “thou fool!” (Luke 12:20).
Those unfortunate bridesmaids of this parable were in no sense evil or immoral, but “foolish.” One sees their counterpart in those persons with exquisite tastes, cultural excellence, and social acceptability; but they have no oil in their lamps. They are spiritually superficial.