Oil for Your Lamp

February 25

”Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you; and over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity,” Colossians 3:12-15.

God has chosen you. As a believer in Christ, you have stepped forward and allowed yourself to be counted among the people who have heard His call and recognized His Lordship over you. As Jesus concluded in His parable of the wedding feast (see Matthew 22:1-14), many are called but few are chosen.

God’s Word, that cannot fail and cannot lie, tells us it is God’s will for all people to be saved, I Timothy 2:4. Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross was freely made for all, without discrimination. But we learn a lesson from the parable of the wedding feast.

In reading Jesus’ words, we discover that many do not take His invitation seriously. Ten virgins are called to the feast, but only five of them thought to bring additional oil for their lamps. While waiting for the arrival of the bridegroom, the ten whose lamps had run out of oil had to scamper off to find more oil. While they were gone the bridegroom arrived and they were left behind. (See Matthew 25:1-13.)

In much the same way, we are waiting for the arrival of Christ. We are to be shining the light of His truth as we wait for Him, but the Bible tells us that many among us will be scoffers who allow our light to go out. We will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? Since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

While we wait, the fervor of our faith will diminish, the light of our witness will falter and fail. When He bursts the eastern sky with His presence, we will vainly strive to renew our faith, but it will be too late, for those who remained prepared will already have arisen to “meet Him in the air,” I Thessalonians 4:17.

Let us value the light that we have within us and let us allow the oil of faith to keep it aflame so kindness and mercy and truth and gentleness and patience and forgiveness and love might shine brightly through us; so the living epistle of our lives may be clearly read of all men, II Corinthians 3:2, 3.

So our faith won’t be extinguished by doubt or impatience or trials or delays but we will be ablaze with the truth of Christ’s salvation; so we will be ready when He comes! It is God's will, after all, that "none should perish, that all should be found in faith," II Peter 3:9.