The meaning of this parable is expressed in the final words: "Watch." But all ten virgins became drowsy! So the point is not simply to avoid drowsiness. Each of us has periods of spiritual relaxation and lack of gatheredness, for not everyone is able to burn in spirit all the time. Rather, the point is that, besides the burning lamp of faith, a person needs to have a certain "reserve of strength," a kind of spiritual resource that will help him, if needed, get up from his knees and trim the fading lamp.

This is not about some special strength, genius, or vigor. All these are gifts that only God can give. But there is something that depends chiefly on us: faithfulness, honesty before ourselves and God, and the desire to be with Him no matter what.

Continuing the conversation about the life of the Kingdom, Paul draws attention to its most important feature: those called to such a life must always preserve a state of sanctification (v. 7; in the Synodal translation sanctification is usually called "holiness"). Here the apostle is obviously continuing the tradition formed back in the times when the second part of the Book of Leviticus was written (Lev 19-27): it is precisely here that the call first sounded not simply to purity, which had sounded before, but to a sanctified life (Lev 1-2).

Paul also calls the addressees of his letter to a sanctified life (vv. 3-7). In such a case, it would seem, there is nothing fundamentally new in the apostle's appeals. But the matter is still not quite so simple: the appeal really has remained the same, but the circumstances have changed fundamentally. Before, the call to a sanctified life sounded precisely as a call and a wish; now it sounds like a requirement. There is nothing surprising in such a change, for before the issue was righteousness in this present, still untransformed world; now the issue is the Kingdom, to which Paul calls his listeners and readers. In the untransformed world, the question of a sanctified life is above all a question of righteousness in all its fullness: sanctification presupposes the transformation of human nature, without which it is not capable of righteous life, if, of course, righteousness is understood not as formal adherence to some moral code, but as the acquisition of the inner Torah.

However, the Torah never demanded such righteousness from a person; it only offered it as an ideal toward which it called people to strive. But the ideal and the exceptional cases of our still untransformed world are, as we can see, the norm for the Kingdom, so that the apostle, following the Savior Himself, calls the faithful to a sanctified life not as to something exceptional, but as to the norm without which it is impossible to become a resident of the Kingdom. And that means it is impossible to be a Christian.

The vigilance to which Christ calls His disciples is constant readiness to meet the One who comes in the name of the Lord. The "wise virgins," whom the Lord sets before us as an example, prepared for a long wait and so could remain in the appointed place as long as the Bridegroom pleased. That is why they are ready for this meeting at any moment, even if the Bridegroom "was delayed." The "foolish" virgins, however, at the hour when the Bridegroom's arrival caught them, turned out to be occupied not with waiting to meet Him, but with getting ready.

The Lord is saying, then, that we do not have the option of being occupied with ourselves and with our own affairs and problems. The coming of the Kingdom is possible at any moment. From the beginning this thought inspired Christ's disciples to live in righteousness "already today," without putting off the cleansing of the heart until "later." At the same time, it is curious that when the Lord speaks about waiting for the coming of the Kingdom, He still hints to us that the Bridegroom "was delayed," thereby warning us against an excessive fascination with eschatology.