“Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.” Matthew 24:44
Dear Ones:
How do we know that we are doing what we should do, and living as God would have us live? The answer lies in the meaning and application of the word, “Readiness.” The man or woman who is living for Christ, seeking first His kingdom and righteousness, is that one who is waiting for Him to come. One lives in this perspective, that the King is coming, and one way or the other will meet Him, and stand before Him. There is in that meeting, and expectation, the experience of “fullness of joy.” There is also that awareness, and certainty, of one’s accounting to Christ of that which has been done in His name for His glory during one’s sojourn on this earth. So, what does it mean to be ready?
The first thing we MUST grasp is that God is far more ready than we are, to meet us, to give to us all that a loving Heavenly Father can give. Why? It is because He IS love, and has demonstrated such love in the most blatant, complete, and costly manner possible, in the giving of His Son to save us. This is the first condition for the individual to be ready, realizing and believing in the blessed love and goodness of God, which passes knowledge. This is also the highest motive for seeking to be ready, and actually maintaining a readiness while waiting for Christ’s coming.
The second thing to be grasped, is found in one of Jesus’ parables. It has to do with “oil,” the possession of it in the present moment. In speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Lord Jesus used a parable to communicate to us basic principles and realities of this kingdom. Our lives are like lamps, essential to give light around us. That “light” shining is the reason for the lamp. The oil is the essential element that must be present if the light is to burn. Throughout Scripture, oil has been symbolic of the Holy Spirit. In this case, the presence of the oil in the lamp is the evidence of those who are ready to meet the Lord, as opposed to those who are not. The “oil” is the distinguishing factor among these ten virgins, and its presence is the basic, and most fundamental, requirement for being ready to meet the Lord. It is by the Holy Spirit that the believer is truly “sealed” in Christ, forever to be His. It must be said also concerning this parable, that the five foolish virgins who did not have oil for their lamps, were those who did NOT go to buy that oil from a merchant. They did not “seek” the oil, relying on something else other than the oil, to justify the Bridegroom’s acceptance of them. They were wrong.
The third evidence and illustration of readiness is expressed in another parable of the Lord Jesus. This time, in speaking again of the Kingdom of God, the Lord speaks of three servants, to whom the Master of the house, entrusts talents (amounts of money), “…every man according to his several ability.” (Matt. 24:15) In doing so, the Lord reveals to us that each individual is personally responsible to God for that which God entrusts to him or her. Upon the departure of the Master of the house to go on a journey, the issue of readiness comes immediately to light. The first two servants went immediately and traded with their respective amounts of money, and gained more, even the double. However, the third servant was afraid, went and hid the money of the Master, so as not to suffer loss. Like the five virgins that lacked the necessary oil to be accepted, being ready to meet the bridegroom, so this man lacked something that was essential to readiness. It was true faith. To serve his master faithfully, he of necessity must TRUST him wholly. This he chose not to do.
Dear Father, With hearts that grasp something of Thy love, give us the oil of the Spirit in His fullness, and faith-filled hearts to serve Thee. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad