31. I consider this verse as immediately following chapter 24:31. All that is between these two verses does not belong to the history of events; it is a practical and hortative application of the truths to the consciences of the disciples. Neither is it the Church properly so-called. They are those to whom the testimony has been entrusted, who await the Bridegroom, who consequently look towards heaven, having received this testimony, and who go out to meet the Bridegroom, and that before the cry which was heard at midnight. They are those who labored, or who ought to have labored during the absence of the Master.
All this is true of the Church, inasmuch as she is placed upon the earth, but it is not in regard to the Church that this is said, but in regard to the servant. As to the ten virgins—the similitude of the kingdom of the heavens—it is not simply servants, but what is found, in general, in the kingdom and characterizes it. It is the activity, not the service, which is rewarded—but who goes out, who leaves the state of things, who awaits the Bridegroom, and who goes out towards Him. I do not at all say there will not be anything like it when there will be no further question of the Church properly speaking; I believe there will be persons in that state, who will be in advance of the state of things in which they find themselves, but who are not the Church, and who perhaps are called "Saints of the heavenlies." But the kingdom of the heavens will have this character, of having "gone forth to meet the Bridegroom." The parable of chapter 24 supposes the two cases; and the return of the Master does not apply to the rapture of the Church, but to the judgment executed, whether upon the professing Church or upon those who have labored when the Church shall have been taken away; in both cases they would be, according to their circumstances, established on all that they have done. In general, they are instructions for the interval until the Son of Man comes in His glory. The distinction between the Church and another testimony is not touched. Two of the parables speak of the service during this time—the other, of the activity which precedes the establishment of the kingdom, going forth to meet the Bridegroom. The Master who takes account of the conduct of the servants, always refers (we have often had it) to the time of His manifestation as to result.