At no time in the Gospel accounts does the Lord Jesus raise the question of doctrine when discussing His coming. He deals with the use of talents, how we treat our fellow servants, giving a cup of water, but not doctrine. Religious people stress doctrine because doctrine is important to the religious. God stresses character and our being filled with the Spirit because these are important to God.

God is not nearly as interested in religion as He is in people and their behavior.

"Oil" is important in the Day of Christ. That we are filled with the Spirit of God is critically important.

One time the writer asked the Lord why he would not be allowed to share his "oil" with the needy in the Day of the Lord. The Lord seemed to reply that in that Day one would have only enough oil for himself. Even the righteous are saved with difficulty (I Peter 4:18). A sobering thought!

In the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul reveals to us why "oil" is so important in the Day of Christ.

We Christians possess a physical body that is dead because of the sin that resides in it (Romans 8:10).

God already has placed within us the Spirit of life that, in the Day of Christ, will raise us from the dead:

But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken [make alive] your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (Romans 8:11)

We have a dead body but within us is the Spirit of the resurrection.

If we choose to put to death through the Holy Spirit the deeds of our body, overcoming the lusts of our flesh and our pride and self-will, the resurrection life within us will be powerfully present, awaiting only the trumpet of God to make alive our mortal body.

But if we choose instead to live "in the flesh," thinking and acting according to the desires of our flesh and fleshly mind, the resurrection life within us will decrease in vitality until it is present in minimal amount or not present at all:

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)

We still have our Christian "testimony"—our profession of belief in Christ, but the resurrection life is gone out of us.

When the trumpet of God sounds there will be no response from within us. We shall understand, because of our knowledge of the Word of God, what is taking place. But we will find, to our panic and terror, that there is no eternal life rising up from within us. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth in that hour.

Now Satan will turn against us and mock us because he has been successful in causing us to believe we can be involved in the prosperity of this world's culture and still be a servant of Christ. Satan will gleefully remind us that we have been as faithless as he himself has been.

To be continued.