Matthew 25 and the previous chapter, Matthew 24, are the only two chapters in the four gospels for which Swedenborg offered verse by verse explanations. It's great that we have these, because we get some assurance that the methods that he used in his exegesis of Genesis, Exodus, and Revelation can also be applied to the gospels.

The commentary on Matthew 25 is divided into chunks associated with explanations of chapters in Genesis, in the middle of "Arcana Coelestia". For chapter 25, it starts in Arcana Coelestia 4635-4638. Here's an excerpt from no. 4636:

* * * *

"The Lord used this parable to describe His own coming. This is clear from every detail in it as well as from the final sentence where He says, 'Watch therefore, for you do not know the day, nor the hour, in which the Son of Man will be coming' - words similar to those used in Chapter 24.... It has been shown already that His coming is the close of the age or the final period of the Church."

Next, in Arcana Coelestia 4637, there's a strong clear attestation to the power and importance of the internal sense of the Word:

"Consequently anyone who does not know this cannot make anything else out of the Lord's parables than ordinary comparisons which hold nothing deeper within them, as with this particular parable concerning the ten virgins. He makes nothing more out of it if he does not know what 'virgins' means in the internal sense, and also what ten, five, lamps, vessels, oil, those who sell, a wedding feast, and every other detail mean. And the same is true with all other parables. As has been stated, the details mentioned by the Lord in them look, in the outward form they take, like ordinary comparisons, but in their internal form their nature is such that they fill the whole of heaven. This is because the internal sense is contained within every detail, and that sense is such that its spiritual and celestial content spreads like light and flame throughout the heavens in all directions. That sense is utterly superior to the sense of the letter, flowing from every phrase and every word, indeed from every tiny letter."

* * * *

(Swedenborg's exegesis of the chapter continues in 4662-4664, 4807-4810, 4954-4959, and 5063-5071. It's well worth the read!)

Also, we'll append the commentary on this chapter that Rev. John Clowes wrote back in the 1850's:

Verses 1, 2, 3, 4. That in the last time of the old church and the first of the now, they who are of the church will receive spiritual truths, and some will be in truths wherein is the good of love and charity, and some in truths wherein is no good of love and charity.

Verse 5. That by reason of delay, they will be sluggish in the things of the church, and will cherish doubt.

Verse 6. But that at the last time of the old church and the first of the new, there will be a change, for then will be the judgement, namely, acceptance and rejection.

Verses 7, 8. And then all will prepare themselves, and they who are in truths without the good of love and charity will be willing to have good communicated from others to their empty truths.

Verse 9. But this is impossible, since no good can then be communicated but the good of merit.

Verse 10. Wherefore the application is preposterous, because none can be received into heaven but those who are principled in good and thence in truth.

Verse 11. Nevertheless, they who are in truths without good, are willing to enter from faith alone without charity, and from works in which is no life of the Lord, but only the life of self.

Verse 12. But they are rejected, because they are not in any charity towards their neighbour, nor by it in conjunction with the Lord.

Verse 13. Therefore the life ought to be regulated according to the precepts of faith, because the time of acceptance, and the state, is unknown to man.

Verses 14, 15. For the Lord gives to all who are in the church the knowledges of truth and good from the Word, with the faculty of perceiving them.

Verses 16, 17, 18. And by these knowledges and this faculty, some procure to themselves much intelligence and wisdom, and others procure some, and others none.

Verses 19-23. Wherefore at the Lord's coming, they who had procured much intelligence and wisdom, and they who had procured some, are accepted of the Lord, and gifted by Him with dominion over all evils and falsities, and admitted to conjunction of life with Himsel

Verses 24-31. But they who had procured none are then deprived of the truths which they had possessed in the memory only, and not in the life, and become principled in mere falsities separated from all good and truth.

Verses 24, 25. For not having joined charity to faith, they think harshly of the Divine Mercy, and act from mere natural fear, which obscures the knowledges of heavenly truth.

Verses 26, 27. Whereas they ought rather, by those knowledges, to have procured to themselves charity, and thus have attained conjunction of life with the Lord.

Verses 28, 29. Therefore those knowledges are taken away from them, and conferred on those who apply them to the reformation of their lives.

Verse 30. And they who have lived in faith alone without charity, are deprived of all the truths of faith, and all the goods of charity, having their lot with those who are in mere evils and falsities.

Verse 31. For when Divine Truth shall appear in its light, through the angelic heaven, then shall be the judgement.

Verse 32. And then shall the goods and evils of all be made manifest in the Light Divine, and there shall be a separation of what is good from what is evil, or of those who are in charity and thence in faith, from those who are in faith alone, and not in charity.

Verse 33. And this separation will be according to truths derived from good with the good, and according to falsities derived from evil with the evil, thus every one will be arranged according to his life.

Verse 34. Then shall they who are in charity and thence in faith be received amongst those in heaven who are in truth; derived from good.

Verses 35, 36. Since they are in the affection of good and truth, because proceeding from the Lord, and are averse from what is evil and false, because proceeding from themselves, and thus are in humiliation grounded in self-acknowledgment, and thence in all the offices of charity.

Verses 37, 38, 39. And yet if they had seen the Lord Himself in all the offices of charity, every one would have done them, but not from love to Him, but from fear, nor for the sake of Him, but for the sake of themselves.

Verse 40. Nevertheless the truth is that the Lord is present with those who are in the good of love and charity because He is in that good itself.

Verse 41. But they who are in faith and not in charity, will then avert themselves from all good and truth, and convert themselves to what is evil and false, and remain in the craving of infernal evil.

Verses 42, 43. Since they have never been in the affection of good and truth because proceeding from the Lord, nor averse from what is evil and false because proceeding from themselves, nor in humiliation grounded in self-acknowledgement, nor in any offices of charity thence derived.

Verse 44. And yet in the external form they have done those offices, but not from a principle of love to the Lord, but from fear, thus not for the sake of Him, but of themselves.

Verse 45. For they who are not in the affection of good and truth from the Lord, are not influenced by love to the Lord, but by self-love.

Verse 46. All such therefore will be everlastingly tormented by the concupiscences of evil, but they who are in the good of charity, will have life from that good, because it is from the Lord, who is the life itself.

9865. 'A ruby, a topaz, a carbuncle' means the celestial love of good. This is clear from the meaning of these stones as the good of celestial love, celestial love being love to the Lord, received from the Lord. Those stones mean that love on account of their red and flaming colour; for 'red' means love, 3300, and so does 'flaming', 3222, 6832, 7620-7622, 9570. But here celestial love is meant because those stones are in the first row; and those in the first row correspond to the realities that exist in the inmost heaven, where celestial love, which is love to the Lord, reigns. Since the twelve stones in the breastplate represented all the truths that spring from good they also represented the whole of heaven; for heaven is heaven by virtue of the Divine Truth emanating from the Lord's Divine Good, the angels there who constitute heaven being recipients of that Truth. So it is that the three stones which are in the first row represent the inmost heaven, consequently the love that reigns there, which is called the celestial love of good and celestial love of truth. The stones in the first row represent the celestial love of good, those in the second row the celestial love of truth. These stones represent that love, as has been stated, on account of their colour; for what precious stones represent is determined by their colours.

[2] In heaven colours of indescribable beauty appear; for they are modifications of heavenly light, and heavenly light is Divine Truth emanating from the Lord. From this it is evident that colours present themselves there in accord with variations of goodness and truth; thus they are modifications of the light emanating from the Lord, through the angels. The light emanating from the Lord appears in the inmost heaven as a flame; therefore the colours resulting from it are red and flashing. But the same light appears in the middle heaven as a brilliantly white light; therefore the colours resulting from it are brilliant, and to the extent that they have good within them they are gleaming. This explains why there are two basic colours to which all others are related, namely the colour red and the colour white; and the colour red is representative of good, while the colour white is representative of truth, see 9467.

[3] From all this it is now clear why it was that stones of so many colours were set in rows in the breastplate, namely in order that they might represent all the forms of good and the truths that exist in heaven in their proper order, and consequently represent the whole of heaven. The reason why the stones in the first row - a ruby, a topaz, and a carbuncle - represented the celestial love of good is that they are different hues of red. Furthermore the noun used in the original language for 'a ruby', the first in the row, is derived from a word that means 'redness'; and that for 'a carbuncle', the third in the row, is derived from a word meaning 'flashing', as if from fire. But as for the derivation of 'a topaz', the middle one in the row, this is unknown, though it very probably comes from something describing a red and flaming colour. This may be why in Job something similar is said of a topaz as is said of gold,

With wisdom the topaz of Ethiopia will not compete, it cannot be valued in pure gold. Job 28:19.

'Gold' too means the good of love, 113, 1551, 1552, 5658, 6914, 6917, 8932, 9490, 9510.