I. Who are ready? All are not ready. This parable shows that all who make a profession of being Christ's are not ready. The foolish virgins appeared to be ready. They had their robe, their lamp, their wick and flame; yet they were not ready. (1) Those who have the wedding garment. The wedding garment is the righteousness of God the skirt of Jesus cast over the soul the imputed righteousness. This is the first part of readiness to meet the Heavenly Bridegroom. Do not mistake. It is not (a) a knowledge of this righteousness; (b) a desire to have this righteousness; (c) the having it once put over us, and then something else afterwards; (a) this fine linen must be granted unto us for ever. (2) Those who have the new heart. Can two walk together except they be agreed? It is impossible that two souls can be happy together if they love opposite things. (3) Those whose lamps are trimmed. While the wise virgins slept they were not ready. True, they had the wedding garment and the oil in their vessels; but their lamp was dim, their eyes were closed; but when they heard the cry they arose and trimmed their lamps, and now they are ready to meet and enter with the Bridegroom.
II. The reward of those who were ready. "They went in with Him to the marriage." (1) Christ will own them. Christ will take them in before His Father and say: "Behold, I and the children whom Thou hast given Me." (2) Saints shall be with Christ. "Went in with Him."
III. The fate of hypocrites "the door was shut." The door of Christ stands wide open a long time, but shuts at last. When Christ comes the door will be shut. Enter in at the strait gate.
R. M. McCheyne, Additional Remains,p. 470.
The Foolish Virgins excluded.
I. In the words, "the door was shut," considered in reference to those persons who are represented by the "foolish virgins," we have the intimation of a most solemn truth: that to all whose hearts are not truly given to God to all who are not united to Christ by a living, saving faith there comes a period after which change is impossible. In some cases, of course, that period is death. In other cases, again (though these, we trust, are exceedingly few), there seems too much reason to believe that the day of hopeless, irretrievable hardness comes before the termination of the natural life. But there is a third period, after which all spiritual change becomes impossible; and that is the Second Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. To this period especially the parable refers. As the Lord finds us, so we remain for ever. "Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh."
II. Note, in the next place, not only the fruitless appeal of the virgins "Lord, Lord, open to us," but also the reason assigned for their utter rejection, "Verily, I say unto you, I know you not." It is not, then, merely that they have come a moment or two too late, but it is that their coming in late proves that there is an estrangement of heart which separates them from the Saviour. It might seem somewhat hard that the difference of a few minutes more, or a few minutes less, should make all the tremendous difference between an eternity of bliss and an eternity of woe. But the fact is, that in the approach of the foolish virgins after the door was shut, we have a sure indication that that preparation of the heart is lacking in them, which alone could fit them for the enjoyment of the presence of the Lord. They cry, "Lord, Lord, open to us." But why? Not because their hearts are at one with their Master, and they cannot be happy if they are separated from Him whom they love. No; but because they shrink from the outer darkness of the exclusion, and the reproach of conscience to which they find themselves condemned. It is the cry of those who wish to be delivered from the punishment of sin; but who have no sense of its pollution no longing to be liberated from its burden no desire to be set free from its power.
G. Calthrop, Pulpit Recollections,p. 261.
References: Matthew 25:11. Christian World Pulpit,vol. vi., p. 254.Matthew 25:13. R. W. Forrest, Ibid.,vol. i., p. 81; New Manual of Sunday School Addresses,p. 204.