<p>13:25<i> When the master of the house- </i>The &ldquo;master of the house&rdquo; is representative of Jesus; and yet we are to be the &ldquo;master of the house&rdquo; in spiritually feeding our brethren (Mt. 24:43,45 RV). It is through us that He ministers to His household.</p><p><i>Is risen and has shut the door, and you begin to stand without and to knock at the door, saying- </i>This continues the allusion to the men of Sodom outside the locked door; see on :24. We are Christ to our brethren. Knocking is sometimes used as a figure for prayer (Mt. 7:7; Lk. 11:7). The basis for these foolish virgins is surely in Prov. 1:28,29: &quot;Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer... they shall not find me: for that hated knowledge&quot;. The foolish virgins realize the need for prayer all too late; they knocked on the door with great zeal, asking for it to be opened; seeking but not finding. They were so convinced they knew the day and hour that prayer for the Lord&rsquo;s return, and prayer to Him generally, somehow was overlooked or felt to be unnecessary.</p><p><i>Lord-</i> The Lord had warned that saying &ldquo;Lord, Lord&rdquo; would not guarantee &ldquo;entry&rdquo; into the Kingdom (Mt. 7:21). And here He is speaking about exactly such &ldquo;entry&rdquo;- the same word is used here. The category in view are those who considered themselves believers, who thought that externally correct forms of address would impress the Lord Jesus. The &ldquo;Lord, Lord&rdquo; contingent indeed had &ldquo;done many wonderful works&rdquo; (Mt. 7:22), but they had never known and loved&nbsp;<i>Him</i>. Whilst organized church life is a necessary part of our present experience and the Lord&rsquo;s intention, the danger is that it can exalt such &ldquo;works&rdquo; and public appearances to the point that personal relationship with the Lord is totally eclipsed.</p><p>Rom. 2:13 alludes here. Paul saw the &quot;Lord, Lord&quot; people of the parable as the Jews of the first century who initially responded enthusiastically to the Gospel. The contrast is between saying &quot;Lord, Lord&quot; in this life, and then in the future not entering into the Kingdom. The contrast is between merely&nbsp;<i>saying</i>&nbsp;and actually&nbsp;<i>doing</i>. The Lord repeats the idea in His mini parable of the two sons; the one who 'said' he would be obedient, and the other who 'did' the will of his father (Mt. 21:30,31). The acceptance of Christ as Lord means that we are as His servants and slaves; it is for us to 'do' His will and work. This fits with the context of the preceding verses- that if He is really our Lord, we will inevitably&nbsp;<i>do</i>&nbsp;His will, and that doing will be actual, practical and visible. It is the false prophets who merely say but don't&nbsp;<i>do</i>, just as they claim to be good trees but don't have good fruit.</p><p>1 Cor. 13:2 also alludes here. To say &quot;Lord, Lord&quot; without really&nbsp;<i>knowing</i>&nbsp;Christ is living without love. Thus Paul saw an association between a lack of true love and an external show of appreciation of Christ's Lordship. Not doing what Christ says is a lack of love, in Paul's mind. If we appreciate this, we will see that those who are ignorant of Christ's words cannot show true love. Biblically ignorant Christians need to think through the implications of this. Those who insincerely say &quot;Lord, Lord&quot; now, will say the same then, at the judgment, with the same lack of reality (Mt. 7:21,22). The repetition of &quot;Lord, Lord&quot; shows that our attitude to Him in this life will be that we have when we meet in the last day. The sensation of working for the Lord can be so self-deceptive. He draws the difference between doing many wonderful works in His name, saying &ldquo;Lord, Lord&rdquo;; and&nbsp;<i>really</i>&nbsp;doing the will of the Father (Mt. 7:21,22). The parallel Lk. 6:46 has that men will say &ldquo;Lord, Lord&rdquo; but not really hear His words. To hear them is to do the will of the Father. Putting all this together, it is perfectly possible to bear His Name, call Him Lord, work hard for Him- and yet never really hear His words, and thereby never really know the will of our Father. From this parallel we can conclude that our attitude to Christ in this life (e.g. &quot;Lord, Lord&quot;) will be our attitude to Him at the judgment seat. If we think He is a hard, unreasonable Lord: that is how He will be. To the froward (in this life), He will show Himself froward. Straight away we are met head on with a major challenge: Our attitude to Christ in this life will be our attitude to Him at the judgment seat. John's letters reason down the same line: &ldquo;If (in this life) our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence (now) toward God... this is the confidence that we have in him... abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence... before him (at the judgment) at His coming&quot; (1 Jn. 3:21; 5:14; 2:28). The confidence we have towards Christ now will be the confidence we have at judgment day. This fact should pull us up out of the spiritual indifference which characterizes so much of our lives. If we see Christ as an abstract theological necessity, a black box in our brain called 'Christ'; if we don't have a dynamic, two- way relationship with Him now- then this too is how we will regard Him then.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p><i>Open to us- he shall answer and say to you: I do not know who you are</i>-&nbsp; There is clear linkage with the parable of the foolish virgins in Mt. 25, who likewise end up outside the door, and their knocking is to no avail. &quot;Lord, Lord, open to us&quot; is met with the response &quot;I know you not&quot;; and this connects with an earlier picture of the rejected at judgment day:&nbsp;&quot;Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not... in thy name done many wonderful works?&nbsp;And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you&quot; (Mt. 7:22,23).&nbsp;Thus there is the implication that when the foolish virgins delay their going to meet Christ, they amass a list of &quot;many wonderful works&quot; which they hope will impress their Lord.&nbsp;This would explain the indignation of the rejected at Christ's rebuke of their lack of suitable works (Mt. 25:41-45). These people would probably not have appeared reprobates in this life; works are so impressive to ones' fellow believers. Jesus did not tell this parable about five hookers and five virgins;&nbsp;<i>all</i>&nbsp;of them were 'virgins' in the parable, having an appearance of purity from being in Christ. By contrast, &quot;the wise&quot;, whose love for Christ makes them respond immediately to the call, are unconscious of their works of faith (Mt. 25:35-40).&nbsp; &quot;Lord, open to us&quot; is therefore to be read as a confident demand by the unworthy for entry into the Kingdom, based upon trust in their &quot;wonderful works&quot;.&nbsp;&quot;I know you not&quot; is paralleled with a lack of oil.&nbsp;The Lord knows His people through their attitude to the oil; whether they have enough or not, or whether they think they do or think they do not, is all so irrelevant. The essence is in wanting the Lord&rsquo;s return.&nbsp;</p>