Today’s Encouragement is Luke 5:39 NLT But no one who drinks the old wine seems to want the new wine. ‘The old is just fine,’ they say.”
The Old Is Just Fine –
Jesus often taught deep truths in simple stories or parables. In verse 36 he speaks of patching an old garment with a new patch. In 37 He speaks of putting new wine old wineskins… both of these are not a good idea. And then He concludes the examples with today’s verse.
Because He is God, we cannot restrict His Truth to only one possible explanation… His Word is too powerful for any limitation! But one truth, perhaps among many, evident in this passage is… the mistaken idea that “the old is just fine.”
We can become very comfortable with our own “old” ideas and beliefs. The religious leaders of the day, to whom Jesus was speaking in this passage, were fiercely loyal to their “old wine”, symbolic of their religious belief system, the animal sacrifices, and obeying every law and rule of their traditions. This “old wine” is what Jesus was referring to.
My friend, what is “the old” for you? What have you become comfortable with, satisfied by, compromised by?
Do you believe that you must be perfect? Obeying God’s laws perfectly? That you need to sacrifice something to get God’s attention? That you need to do and say the right things, and act a certain way? These or other ‘rules or laws’ in order to please God? This is “old wine.”
The “new wine” which Jesus refers to the Gospel, the Good News, which is belief in Jesus as Lord – brings salvation to eternal life, and His forgiveness, and the complete cleansing of all sin!
Not what we do or say… but Whom we believe!
We Still Believe
Kathryn Scott
Today’s Encouragement 