God's kingdom is like a king who threw a wedding banquet for his son. He sent out servants to call in the invited guests and they wouldn't come!
What?? Who would turn down a wedding banquet?
The king sent out more servants who told the guests everything is ready and they only shrugged their shoulders and went off to do unimportant things.
The king then sent out the servants a third time - this time he told them to go into he busiest places and invite anyone they could find.
The room was filled with people. The king noticed one of them not dressed properly and he had him kicked out.
Wait. What? What does that mean? It was all going so well!
Going back to the kingdom of God analogy, the guests who accepted the invitation to come to the banquet were accepting the Son. When we accept Jesus, we become clothed in His forgiveness. We are washed as white as snow. The man who was not properly dressed was not clothed in God's righteousness. He didn't accept the Son. He tried to blend in with the crowd - do the right things and be with the right people, but the king saw that he wasn't dressed with the forgiveness of Jesus. The man was simply playing the part, hoping not to be found out.
Playing the part will not get you into God's kingdom. Accepting the invitation to be clothed in Jesus, to be forgiven by His shed blood and to have Him dress us in garments white, that is the only way to enjoy the banquet that the King of kings and Lord of lords has awaiting us in His kingdom!
Just a couple of highlights from the rest of the chapter:
God is "I am not I was." Amen!
The first commandment: Love God with all your heart (passion), soul (prayer), and mind (intelligence). The second commandment: Love others as well as you love yourself. These two commands are pegs - everything in God's Law and the Prophets hangs on them.