ESJ

This is the one great application Christ makes of this parable – which does not mean there are not other lessons to be learned from it. “Watch” means to be spiritually prepared. In the parable all ten virgins went to sleep and were unconscious for a while, but five of them were still prepared for the announcement of the bridegroom's coming. It is God's Spirit in the heart who makes Christians prepared. Without Him all following of any religion, and all effort to be good, and all trying to meet Christ the Bridegroom will be in vain. It is foolish in the extreme to try to make a Christian life without the one absolute essential for the Christian life – Christ's Spirit.

“Satan”– note at 1 Chron 21:1. The name means “opponent” or “adversary”. Here Peter was opposing Christ in trying to keep Him from the cross. So Jesus justly rebuked him. He never used harsher language in speaking to any disciple. Peter was thinking in merely human ways. Men want ease, comfort, safety, prosperity for themselves and for those they love. They do not understand God's ways and plans. To mind the things of men may put us in opposition to the things of God. Let us learn from God rather than try to teach Him what He should do. If Christ had listened to Peter there would have been no sacrifice for sin, no resurrection, no gospel, no hope for anyone.