Why do people deceive themselves? How do they manage this? The parable gives us an answer, and the answer is good for us whether we are deluded worshippers or complete outsiders. Why will we need to be shut out? Because we are thoughtless about life, and do not come to the only one who can bring us to heaven. What is life? I don’t know. Where am I going? I don’t think about that. Like the foolish bridesmaids we are not plugged into what is happening.
It would be a great mistake to think that Christ is teaching that any natural gift could determine who will be admitted to the kingdom and who will be shut out; that is not the lesson at all. But the Lord here takes foolishness in the natural realm and makes it stand for foolishness in the spiritual realm. Natural foolishness may well make us fail to obtain the advantages of this life, but it has nothing to do with whether or not we gain an entrance into heaven for that is not at all a matter of natural gifts, but of the gift of God. Indeed, Scripture says to us that, ‘God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence’ (1 Corinthians 1:27-29). Anyone who thinks that human gifts, skills or abilities will earn salvation for them is far from the kingdom of heaven. There is a wisdom that comes from God, but it is not something that any of us are born with. It comes from God, and he gives it to those who confess themselves to be utterly without any wisdom, and to have only guilt and sin that disqualify them for any good thing from the Lord. He gives it freely to those who ask but who have nothing to commend their asking.