In Jesus’ parable of the ten virgins, all ten young women took lamps and went out to meet a bridegroom. Five of them also brought oil in their vessels, and five did not. When the bridegroom was delayed, that difference left some of them unprepared for his arrival.
I think we can miss what Jesus is teaching if we begin by assigning a meaning to the oil without looking at what happened. Scripture uses oil in several settings. Oil was applied to priests when they were set apart for God’s service, a practice called anointing, and lamps needed oil as fuel. Those uses can help us understand the language, but they do not mean that every mention of oil is saying exactly the same thing.
To see how those distinctions help us, let’s begin with the worship God gave Israel. There we can see why anointing oil was treated as holy and why keeping a lamp supplied with oil was a responsibility someone had to carry out.
Oil Sets Apart What Belongs to God
After God brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt, He gave their leader, Moses, instructions for a tabernacle. This was a portable sanctuary, a place of worship that could be carried as the people traveled. God specified its arrangement and appointed priests to serve there. The people were learning how to approach the holy God who would dwell among them.
Aaron was Moses’ brother, and God appointed him and his sons to the priesthood. They belonged to the tribe of Levi, one of the tribes that made up Israel. Their duties included service at the altar and within the sanctuary, and they were to carry out those duties according to God’s commands. Their appointment included being anointed with the holy oil He had prescribed.
And you shall anoint Aaron and his sons, and consecrate them, that they may minister to Me as priests.
Exodus 30:30, NKJV
To consecrate someone is to set him apart for God’s service. The oil marked Aaron and his sons as men appointed to that work. Exodus 28:41 also uses the Hebrew expression “fill the hand” for their ordination, their installation as priests. They were being entrusted with a responsibility, and the way they fulfilled it was to be governed by the One who appointed them.
God also commanded that the tabernacle and its furnishings be anointed. The ark of the Testimony, the sacred chest associated with God’s covenant with Israel, stood in the innermost room behind a veil. In the outer room, called the Holy Place, stood the table, the lampstand, and the altar where incense was burned. Outside in the courtyard were the altar for burnt offerings and the laver, a basin where the priests washed.
Each of those objects had a place and a use God had determined. Exodus 30:26–29 names them as furnishings to be anointed, and then God explains how they are to be regarded.
You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy; whatever touches them must be holy.
Exodus 30:29, NKJV
Because those furnishings belonged to God’s service, Israel had to treat them accordingly. They could not take a sanctuary object home and use it as ordinary household equipment. Nor could they decide that a different arrangement would suit their preferences better. Holiness meant being set apart to God, so His word determined what could be done with what belonged to Him.
The oil marked that consecration, but its ingredients did not make disobedience acceptable. God had specified a mixture of olive oil and fragrant spices, and He also prohibited making the same blend for ordinary personal use. Treating it as a perfume anyone could manufacture for himself would disregard the purpose God had given it. To profane something holy is to treat what He has set apart as though it were common.
I do not understand those commands to mean that Christians should reproduce Israel’s tabernacle service or try to obtain God’s power by purchasing the right blend of oil. The authority was God’s, and the appointment came from Him. A seller cannot put that authority into a bottle and transfer it to whoever pays for it.
It also helps to remember that oil had ordinary uses. In the parable of the good Samaritan in Luke 10, the man who stopped to help an injured traveler poured oil and wine on his wounds. In Luke 7, Jesus referred to oil as part of the welcome His host had not given Him. Scripture also connects oil with gladness and the enjoyment of God’s provision. Those passages are not describing the ordination of priests. We have to let the particular setting tell us what the oil is doing.
Although Christians are not being installed in Aaron’s priesthood, belonging to God still has consequences for how we live. In 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is addressing believers who needed to understand why sexual immorality could not be treated as an acceptable use of their bodies. He tells them that the Holy Spirit dwells in them, and then he explains why they no longer have the right to treat themselves as their own possession.
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20, NKJV
Christ purchased us with His blood. If I say that I belong to Him, I cannot then insist that what I do with my body is none of His concern. His authority reaches into the choices I make when no one at church is watching. Reverence for God involves responding to the good Lord who rescued me, and that response continues after a worship service has ended.
The Anointed One and the Spirit’s Work
Priests were not the only people anointed for an appointed responsibility. Samuel, a prophet who spoke God’s word to Israel, anointed Saul as king. Later, Saul disobeyed God’s command concerning the Amalekites, a people against whom God had sent him in judgment. Saul kept their king alive, and the people kept animals that God had commanded them to destroy. When Samuel confronted him, Saul tried to justify keeping the animals by saying they would be offered in sacrifice.
Samuel told him that obedience was better than sacrifice, and that God had rejected him as king because he had rejected God’s word. Having been anointed did not place Saul above correction. God then sent Samuel to the family of Jesse in Bethlehem to anoint the man He had chosen to succeed Saul.
Jesse brought his sons before Samuel, but God had not chosen any of the seven who first appeared. The youngest, David, was still out caring for the sheep. Samuel asked for him to be brought in, and when David arrived, God identified him as the one to anoint.
Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward. So Samuel arose and went to Ramah.
1 Samuel 16:13, NKJV
Samuel applied the oil, and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David for the work God was giving him. The passage lets us see both the outward appointment and God’s enabling presence. The oil itself was not the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is God, a divine Person who speaks and acts, and we cannot possess Him or direct Him through a substance.
David also remained accountable to the Lord who had appointed him. Years later, he took the wife of Uriah, a man serving in his army, and arranged for Uriah to be killed. God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David over what he had done. David confessed his sin, and although God forgave him, Nathan also announced consequences for it. The anointing had never given David permission to disregard God’s commands.
Those appointed men help us understand the title given to Jesus, while their failures also show why we need the One who obeyed perfectly. The Hebrew word mashiach and the Greek word christos mean anointed. They give us the titles Messiah and Christ. When I say Jesus Christ, I am identifying Him as the promised Anointed One, the King and Priest who perfectly fulfills His Father’s will.
Acts 10 records Peter explaining Jesus’ ministry in the home of Cornelius, a Roman military officer who was a Gentile, meaning that he was not Jewish. Peter described what Jesus had done, and he went on to tell those listening about His death and bodily resurrection. Forgiveness was offered to everyone who believed in Him. Within that message, Peter said this about Jesus’ anointing.
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.
Acts 10:38, NKJV
Jesus did not become God at the moment He was anointed. He is the eternal Son who became truly human without ceasing to be divine. That is what we mean by the incarnation: the Son took on human nature and lived among us as a man. His perfect obedience to the Father does not mean that He was less than God.
Nor are Father, Son, and Holy Spirit simply three names for one Person taking different roles. They are distinct divine Persons who are the one true God. Peter’s words describe the Son’s ministry in the power of the Spirit and in fellowship with the Father. We should preserve those distinctions while receiving what Scripture tells us about the unity of God.
The Anointed One went to the cross as the sinless Substitute for sinners. Jesus voluntarily gave Himself to be slain as the perfect sacrifice for our sins. Wicked people tortured and crucified Him, and He willingly shed His blood and died to redeem us. He completed that saving sacrifice through His blood and death before His burial and bodily resurrection.
Father and Son acted in unity in that work. I do not understand the cross as the Father punishing, cursing, abandoning, striking, bruising, or pouring wrath on Jesus. The Son willingly offered Himself in obedience to the Father. Our salvation rests on His perfection and on the sacrifice He gave for us.
Through Christ, believers have entered the New Covenant, the relationship with God established through His saving work. The Spirit now dwells within everyone who truly belongs to Him. So when we read about the Spirit coming upon David for kingship, we should not assume that only a few specially appointed Christians receive His indwelling presence today.
Now He who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
2 Corinthians 1:21-22, NKJV
Paul includes the believers to whom he is writing when he speaks of what God has done. God establishes them in Christ, anoints them, and gives them the Spirit in their hearts as a guarantee. Ephesians 1:13–14 explains that those who heard the gospel and believed were sealed with the Holy Spirit. That seal assures them that they belong to God, and the Spirit is the guarantee of the inheritance He has promised.
A believer does not need a leader’s special approval or a particular oil before the Spirit can dwell within him. Romans 8:9 says that someone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. His presence is part of belonging to Christ, not a privilege sold to a smaller group within the church.
For that reason, I reject the claim that an anointed leader cannot be corrected, and I also reject the idea that money can purchase more of God’s presence. At the same time, I do not believe that miraculous spiritual gifts have ceased. The Spirit gives gifts according to His will, as 1 Corinthians 12 explains, and He works to make Christ’s people holy. Claims made in His name still have to be tested by Scripture. An impressive experience does not make someone’s teaching exempt from examination.
Oil for Light and a Faithful Witness
With that distinction between the Spirit and the oil in mind, we can return to the lamp in the tabernacle. Its fuel was different from the fragrant anointing mixture. God commanded pure oil from pressed olives so that there would be light for the priests serving within the Holy Place.
“And you shall command the children of Israel that they bring you pure oil of pressed olives for the light, to cause the lamp to burn continually. In the tabernacle of meeting, outside the veil which is before the Testimony, Aaron and his sons shall tend it from evening until morning before the LORD.”
Exodus 27:20-21, NKJV
The veil mentioned here separated the Holy Place from the innermost room where the ark stood. The lamp was outside that veil, in the room where the priests carried out their regular service. Israel was responsible to bring the oil, and Aaron and his sons were responsible to tend the light from evening until morning.
Keeping it burning continually involved an ongoing supply and regular attention. The command did not describe a lamp that could be filled once and then left untended. God gave people particular work to do so that the light would be there as He had commanded.
Jesus later used the ordinary purpose of a lamp to explain what His disciples’ lives should be like before others. A household lamp was placed where its light would help the people in the room. Covering it would prevent it from serving that purpose.
“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house.”
Matthew 5:14-15, NKJV
In the next verse, Jesus explains that people should see His disciples’ good works and glorify their Father in heaven. I think that tells us where the attention is supposed to go. If I know the right theological words but treat people dishonestly, I may impress someone with my knowledge while giving him reason to dishonor the God I claim to serve. My conduct should help people see the goodness of the One I belong to.
That kind of witness involves continuing to hear and obey God’s word. Ephesians 4 warns believers not to grieve the Holy Spirit by whom they have been sealed for the day of redemption. Around that warning, Paul addresses lying and stealing, harmful speech, and the need to forgive. The Spirit’s presence does not make those choices unimportant. Because He dwells in us, our response to His word matters in the ordinary way we treat people.
We find another use of lamp imagery in Revelation. John sees the risen Christ among seven golden lampstands, and Revelation 1:20 identifies those lampstands as seven churches. Christ knows what is happening in each congregation. The symbol therefore leads into His words of encouragement and correction to real churches.
In Revelation 2:2–5, Jesus commends the church at Ephesus for its labor and perseverance. Its people had tested those who falsely claimed to be apostles and had found them to be liars. Yet He also tells the church that it has left its first love. He commands it to remember, repent, and return to its earlier works, warning that He will remove its lampstand if it refuses.
A history of sound discernment did not mean that Ephesus could stop listening when Christ corrected it. I need to hear that too. Being able to identify another person’s false teaching does not settle whether I am responding to the Lord faithfully myself. His word must be allowed to expose what is wrong in my own life.
Prayer and obedience express our dependence on Him. They do not earn the Holy Spirit or purchase our place among God’s people. The church’s need for correction must be understood alongside the promises God gives to those He has saved, rather than turned into a claim that His Spirit is fuel a believer gradually uses up.
That also helps us distinguish the warning in Matthew 5 from the one Jesus gives in Matthew 25. A disciple may need correction because he is hiding the light that should be visible in his life. Someone whose connection to Christianity is only outward needs the new life that he has never received. Both need to hear Christ, but those are not the same condition.
The Ten Virgins and Real Readiness
Matthew 25 brings us back to the young women waiting for the bridegroom. Jesus told this parable while teaching His disciples on the Mount of Olives, the hillside overlooking Jerusalem. That teaching is often called the Olivet Discourse. He had been speaking about His coming and warning them against treating a delay as a reason to become careless.
The parable describes ten young women who took their lamps and went out to meet the man arriving for his wedding. Jesus calls five wise and five foolish, and He immediately explains the difference between their preparations.
“Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.”
Matthew 25:3-4, NKJV
All ten carried lamps and expected to meet the bridegroom. The wise also brought oil in containers along with their lamps. When the bridegroom did not arrive as soon as they expected, all of them grew drowsy and slept. Pay attention to that detail: the wise slept too. Jesus does not identify sleep as the thing that made the foolish women unready.
At midnight, a cry announced that the bridegroom was coming. The women rose and attended to their lamps. That was when the foolish asked the wise to share their oil, because their own lamps were going out. Whatever light they had when they began, they had not brought the supply they now needed.
The wise answered that there might not be enough for both groups, and they told the others to buy oil for themselves. Until that point, the women had been waiting together. But being beside someone who had prepared did not provide what the foolish themselves lacked.
Watching for Christ Without Panic
The foolish women went away to buy oil, and while they were gone, the bridegroom arrived. Their absence at that moment determined what happened next.
And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
Matthew 25:10, NKJV
When the other women returned, they called for the door to be opened. They addressed the bridegroom as Lord, but he answered that he did not know them. The door had closed, and they were outside. Jesus brings the parable to that outcome so that the appearance of readiness will not be mistaken for readiness itself.
I understand the foolish women to represent people who profess faith without having been born again. To be born again is to receive new life from God through faith in Christ. These women had stood among the others and had carried the same kind of equipment, but the bridegroom’s answer showed that being part of the group was not enough.
Because oil accompanies God’s appointment and enabling in other passages, I understand the supply here to point to the life He gives. That is my understanding of the illustration. Jesus does not directly identify the oil as the Holy Spirit, and He does not give us a separate doctrine for every container or wick. He tells us what the women did, what they lacked, and what happened when the bridegroom came.
The refusal to share the oil also belongs to that warning about readiness. It is not an instruction for Christians to be selfish. In the parable, the preparation could not be transferred at the moment it was needed. In our own lives, a husband cannot believe in Christ for a wife who refuses Him, and parents cannot repent in place of their children. A Christian household can teach and encourage someone, but living in that household does not give him the faith of the people around him.
The same is true of work within a church. Someone can know the language and take part in the activities without having personally received the Savior. I cannot settle that question merely by pointing to the Christians I know or the things I have done alongside them.
Nor should the instruction to buy oil be made into a teaching that salvation can be purchased. Buying supplies belongs to the ordinary setting of the parable. Money and good works cannot obtain the new birth. I also do not understand the foolish women to be genuine believers who had used up the Spirit and lost their salvation. The bridegroom says that he does not know them; Jesus does not describe him rejecting people he acknowledges as his own.
Christ died for the whole world, and God’s invitation to repent and believe is genuine for every person. People can resist His grace and finally reject Him, but everyone who trusts in Jesus is forgiven and born again. The Holy Spirit comes to dwell within that believer and seals him for the promised inheritance. This is salvation by grace through faith, with good works growing out of the new life God has given. Those works neither earn salvation nor keep the believer saved.
A genuine believer is eternally secure because Christ saves completely. That assurance does not make lawlessness acceptable. It does mean that I can receive correction, confess sin, and grow without treating every failure as proof that Christ has abandoned me. Regeneration means genuine new birth. An empty claim to be a Christian is different from the real faith of a believer who still needs to mature.
Jesus ends the parable by telling His hearers how they should respond to the warning.
“Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.”
Matthew 25:13, NKJV
Watching cannot mean never physically sleeping, because all ten women slept. It also does not mean that I must maintain a constant state of alarm to persuade Christ that I am ready. Jesus calls us to be ready for His arrival, and that readiness concerns belonging to Him before He comes. Familiarity with Christianity cannot take the place of receiving Him.
I expect the Son of Man, Jesus Himself, to return bodily. I also apply His call to readiness as I wait for Him to gather His church. In 1 Thessalonians 4, Paul describes the dead in Christ rising and living believers being caught up with them to meet the Lord. I believe that gathering will take place before the coming Tribulation, the future period of judgment upon the world. That is what I mean by the pre-Tribulation position.
No required sequence of signs must be completed before Christ gathers His church. For that reason, I expect Him without trying to turn current events into a calendar that gives me His arrival date. The call to be ready gives me reason to remain faithful in the work He has already put before me. It does not require me to spend my days guessing how the latest news will fit into a prediction.
If Scripture exposes sin that I need to confess, I should respond to what it says now. If fear has caused me to conceal my allegiance to Christ, I need to obey Him in the circumstances where that fear has kept me silent. For someone who has never received Him, the warning is to turn to the Savior while the opportunity remains. For those who belong to Him, waiting should be lived out in confidence and obedience under His word.
My Final Thoughts
The oil used to consecrate Israel’s priests marked them as belonging to God’s service, while the oil supplied to the lamp made its light possible. Those uses have helped us see why we must read each passage in its setting. In the parable, the women who carried lamps without the needed supply were not ready when the bridegroom came. Their place among the others could not make up for what they lacked.
I take that warning seriously because outward religion cannot give anyone the life that comes from Christ. At the same time, I do not have to turn the Spirit into a supply a true believer can exhaust in order to hear what Jesus is saying. God gives His Spirit to those He saves, and His presence assures us that we belong to Him. The Savior who calls us to obey is also the One who keeps us.
If I belong to Him, I want my life to show it in the choices I make and in the way I treat people. When He corrects me, I can respond honestly instead of hiding behind past service or religious knowledge. And if someone has only stood among Christians without receiving Christ, the closed door gives him reason to respond now. Being ready begins with the Savior Himself, and I can wait for Him with confidence while continuing to obey His word.