Gospel

A New Patch and New Wineskins

by Roland Crim
02/14/18
Free to Share
Author requests article critique

  Message Writer
  Hire Writer

Tweet

Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?” Jesus answered, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; then they will fast. “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do people pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.” Matthew 9:14-17 NIV

New patches, and old. New wine skins and old. What is Jesus teaching us here? The old garment and old wineskin can be compared to our old life, before we became believers in Christ. Once we follow Christ, we are at odds with our old self, the self that was focused on me, myself, and I. We are now the servant of all, as directed by our Lord. We cannot mix our old way of being with the way we now live. This is as it was with old garments and a new patch, or old and new wineskins. You cannot pour new wine (the teachings of Christ) into old wineskins (our old self). New wine is poured into new wine skins (our reborn life).

Now that we have been blessed with the new wine, we must be “dressed” as believers in the Lord, in new garments. Let go of the old attire, and drink the new wine with which you have been blessed.