Spring 2004
Becoming Wise
Stephen L Bennett

“Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened to ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the Bridegroom.” Matthew 25:1

Of these, five were wise and spiritual; the other five were saved, but worldly.

A heart cry was heard at the midnight hour, announcing the sudden appearance of the Bridegroom. All ten virgins went out to meet Him. The five wise virgins had rightly understood the imperative of ever acquiring fresh oil for their lamps.

However, the foolish had abandoned their life’s building project – growing into spiritual maturity. They left off the “construction” process of being changed into His image and likeness – where, in a secret history of sitting in serenity at the blessed feet of their wise and beneficent Master and gazing on His beautiful face in focused adoration, were being transfigured by His transcending touch, and being enabled and empowered with holy love for Him.

They had believed their building supply of wood, hay, and stubble, to be sufficient and superior to His magnificent material. Without an adequate supply of oil in their lamps, their spirits did not burn with the spiritual acuity to see the sanity of this supreme Sight. In their hapless hearts, they had thought that they could not afford the time to come apart into the presence of the kindly King of heaven, and share with Him the fellowship He desired.

Because they were distracted by good, they became distant from God in their excusatory affections. Now, night had fully fallen, and they begged the wise to give to them that which no one, nor anything in all creation, could have imparted to them – a certain and particular quality of intimacy, as His Bride, received only in the secret place of His presence, as a gift of His glory. Instead, the door was shut to them ... as the five wise virgins entered into their Eternal Reward.

More than activity, the Heavenly Bridegroom desires the expression of our love and affection; more than work, the Master Builder desires worship; more than ideology, the Invincible Innovator desires intimacy.

Give Him this, and all else will fall into its proper place in prosperous proportion. It is then, not I, but Christ in me, Who builds His church, cherishing and nourishing His Bride, fascinating and accelerating our heart to seek and to save the lost.