Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
As someone said, the point seems to be to be ready at all times. While the second coming may still be days, years, even Millennia away, the time of reckoning for each of us is, at most, only some years away. I would suggest that the point of the parable is not to support loss of salvation, or cause disputes over unstated doctrines, but to imply that there is a cost —of unspecified nature — to not being ready. Everything else is to over-milk the metaphors/parable.
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I agree with this. Obviously it's in our nature to want to play down any possible punishment. But the opposite error is to overplay those possibilities, to the point of obsession with them.
We think if we can nail down the exact consequences, then we can control them. So we try to figure out what missing the marriage feast means. Is it for the whole 1000 years? Is for only part? In a perverse way it can become trying to figure out what we can get away with.
In the end, though, I think any displeasure from the Lord is going to be the worst thing we can experience. So we should seek to please him--not to
earn our way into anything, but simply to be faithful. And if we truly love him, we should naturally seek to be faithful.
Suffice to know that he means it when he tells us to be obedient. Take care of that and you'll have no problem, I should think.