When the Lord Jesus returns, all the dead saints will be resurrected, and those who are ready will enjoy the marriage feast. In other words, as the Lord's crop (1 Cor. 3:9, lit.), they are matured and ripe, so they are ready to enter into the marriage feast of the Lamb. The marriage feast is simply the one thousand years of the millennium. The wedding day of the Lord Jesus will be one thousand years long. Your wedding day only lasted one day, but the wedding day of the Lord will last a thousand years. To the Lord a thousand years are just as one day (2 Pet. 3:8). The millennium will be the wedding day to the Lord, and that day will be the marriage feast. If you are ready, if you are ripened, if you are victorious, the Lord will invite you into that marriage feast. That marriage feast is also the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens.

Suppose you are not ripened and victorious, yet you die before the Lord Jesus comes back. When He comes back you will be resurrected, and the Lord will tell you to go and buy the oil. You will not be ready to enjoy the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. You will not be ready to go into the marriage feast, so you will have to pay the price and suffer something. Why did the Lord tell them that He did not know them? In Matthew 25:12 the Greek word is translated into "know," but in Romans 7:15 the same Greek word is translated into "allow." If you translate this word into "allow" in Matthew 25 it will be easy to understand. It means "I never allowed you." It means the Lord never approved. The Lord did not approve of what they had been doing after they were saved. For the Lord to say that He did not know them means He did not allow them. They did many things, but it was not the Lord who allowed them to do so. What then shall the foolish virgins do? They will have to pay the price to gain the other portion of oil, to become ripened and matured.

Suppose a person believes in the Lord, but after he has believed in the Lord and been saved, he does not seek the Lord and love the Lord. Rather, he lives just like a worldly person. After twenty years he dies, without being ripened, without being matured. When the Lord Jesus comes back surely He will deal with that person. Do you think that he is ready to meet the Lord? The Apostle Paul is ready, but that person is not. The Apostle Paul is matured and ripe, but he is not. In principle, surely the Lord has to do something to make that person ripe and mature. In principle, he must pay some price to become ripe. Although the Lord does not give us the details, we can see in principle that the defeated Christians will not be ready to enjoy the manifestation of the kingdom of the heavens. They will have to pay something and suffer some loss in order to be matured.