Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of man cometh.
Watch therefore; for ye know neither the day nor the hour [wherein the Son of man cometh.] This, the moral or practical lesson of the whole parable, needs no comment. [The evidence against the genuineness, in this verse, of the words enclosed in brackets is decisive. They seem to have been first copied, exactly as they stand in Matthew 24:44, into what are called Lectionaries, or portions of Scripture transcribed to be read as Church Lessons-in all of which these words are found-in order to avoid the apparent abruptness with which the verse otherwise closes, and then to have found their way into a tolerable number of manuscripts and versions. But the abruptness is more apparent than real; and the event itself being supposed, the uncertainty ascribed simply to "the day and the hour" has something striking and emphatic in it.]
Remarks:
(1) So essential a feature of the Christian character, according to the New Testament, is looking for Christ's Second Appearing, that both real and apparent disciples are here described as "going forth to meet Him." And so everywhere. It is "to them that look for Him" that "He will appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation" (Hebrews 9:28); it is to "them that love His appearing" that "He will give a crown of righteousness at that day" (2 Timothy 4:8); to His servants, His parting word, on "going to the far country," is, "Occupy until I come" (Luke 19:13); communicants at His table, "as often as they eat this bread and drink this cup, do show forth the Lord's death until He come" (1 Corinthians 11:26); and when the Thessalonians turned to God from idols, it was, on the one hand, "to serve the living God, and," on the other, "to wait for His Son from heaven" (1 Thessalonians 1:9-10). No expectation of the latter-day glory-no, nor preparedness to die, ought to take the place, or is fitted to produce the effects, of this love of Christ's appearing and waiting for Him from heaven, which lifts the soul into its highest attitude and dress for heaven, carrying every other scriptural expectation along with it. But, (2) It should be carefully observed that it was not the lack of expectation that the Bridegroom would come that constituted the folly of "the foolish," but their not having any provision for meeting him in case he should tarry. The burning lamp represents the state of readiness. But whereas the lamps of the foolish, though burning at the first, went out before the Bridegroom came, this is to signify that the class intended are such as have no real preparedness to meet Christ at all. On the other hand, lively expectation of Christ's coming, up to the time of His arrival, is so far from being the distinguishing mark of the wise, that even these wise virgins, as well as the foolish, first sank into a lethargic state, and then yielded themselves up to sleep. Were they shut out, then? Nay. At the time of deepest sleep, a warning cry was kindly sent them, loud enough to rouse the foolish and the wise alike; both now set themselves to meet the Bridegroom; and then did it become manifest that the wisdom of the wise and the folly of the foolish lay, not in the one expecting the coming which the other did not, but in the one having from the very outset a provision for meeting the Bridegroom, however long he might tarry, while the provision of the other was but temporary, and so failed in the time of need.
We make these observations because those who expect the Second Coming of Christ before the millennium have made a use of this parable, against such as think this expectation unscriptural, which appears to us to distort its proper teaching. The love of their Lord's appearing is certainly not confined to those who take the former of these views; and perhaps they might do well to consider whether it be not possible to substitute this expectation for that enduring principle of spiritual life in Christ Jesus which is the grand and never-wanting preparation for meeting Him, however long He may tarry. But we deprecate controversy here among the loving expectants of a common Lord. Our sole object is to get at the actual teaching of our blessed Master, and gently to brush away what we think has been obtruded upon it.
(3) How appalling it is to think of the nearness to final salvation and heaven's fruition in the presence of Christ to which some may attain, and yet miss it! But see the notes at Matthew 7:13-29, Remark 5, at the close of that section.
(4) The way to secure ourselves against being found wrong at the last is to get right at the first. The wisdom of the wise virgins lay in their taking along with their lamps, from the time they first went forth to meet the Bridegroom, a supply of oil that should keep their lamps burning however long he might tarry: the foolish virgins, by their not doing so, showed that they began with inadequate preparation against the future. They never were right, and the issue only brought out what was their radical mistake all along.
(5) Nothing will avail for meeting Christ in peace except that unction from the Holy One, of which it is said, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Romans 8:9): "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him" (1 John 2:27).
(6) We have here a lively illustration of the great truth, that what is saving cannot be imparted by one man to another (Matthew 25:9). "The just shall live by his (own) faith" (Habakkuk 2:4). "If thou be wise," says the wisest of men, "thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it" (Proverbs 9:12). "Let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself, and not in another: for every man shall bear his own burden" (Galatians 6:4-5).
(7) Though such as love their Lord's appearing-when through His long tarrying they have sunk into a lethargic state, and oven surrendered themselves to sleep-may have only to "trim their lamps" when the cry of His coming is heard, there being a supply of oil within them sufficient to brighten them up, it is a sad and shameful thing they should have this to do. As these slumbers are dishonouring to the heavenly Bridegroom, so they are the bane of the soul, paralyzing it for all good. "Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober; putting on the breastplate of faith and hope, and for an helmet the hope of salvation." And as for others, when they shall be saying, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape.
This parable, while closely resembling it, is yet a different one from that of THE POUNDS, in Luke 19:11-27; though Calvin, Olshausen, Meyer, etc., identify them-but not DeWette and Neander. For the difference between the two parables, see the opening remarks on that of The Pounds. While-as Trench observes with his usual felicity-`the virgins were represented as waiting for their Lord, we have the servants working for Him: there the inward spiritual life of the faithful was described; here his external activity. It is not, therefore, without good reason that they appear in their actual order-that of the Virgins first, and of the Talents following-since it is the sole condition of a profitable outward activity for the Kingdom of God, that the life of God be diligently maintained within the heart.'