A New Way Of Life

Today, I’m going to give you a lesson from Jesus Christ on how He answered a question on fasting. Most of you are probably familiar with the passage of Scripture given below, but I think it demonstrates the profound way Christ answers His critics. We’ll simply entitle it: “A New Way of Life”.

Luke 5:33 “And they said unto Him, Why do the disciples of John fast often, and make prayers, and likewise the disciples of the Pharisees; but thine eat and drink not? 34 And He said unto them, can ye make the children of the bridechamber fast, while the bridegroom is with them? 35 But the days will come, when the bridegroom shall be taken away from them, and then shall they fast in those days.”  But then He adds a parable, to answer their question.

Some of us may enjoy making wine for our household use; we’ve learned about the fermentation process taking place in NEW WINE causing a gaseous expansion of the liquid. If you bottled the wine during this process, it could burst the “bottle”.

  1. A better translation of the word “bottle” used here is, in the Gr. “wineskin”. After an initial use the “skin” becomes brittle; if you attempt to put new wine, in an old wineskin, the expansion of the gasses would rend it.

  2. The same lesson is demonstrated in the account of “patching” a tear in a new garment; an older piece of cloth would tear more easily and produce a larger tear in the new, that we read in Verse 36

  3. In other words, the “new” cloth and the “new” wine symbolize the “new way of life”, a new Christian convert must live, after his “calling and receiving the Holy Spirit.”

  4. We must change our total method of fasting, prayer, obedience, etc. (Rom. 12:2)

  5. John’s disciples and the Pharisees thought the “old way” of fasting was better. People tend to believe the “old time religion” that they’ve been taught all their lives is better than some “new religious ideas” that you may hear in God’s true Church. All of us need to, “Test” or “check out” what we’ve been taught!  God may be calling you to “A NEW WAY OF LIFE” which is “THE TRUE WAY OF LIFE”!

 
The Church of God, New World Ministries P.O. Box 5536 Sevierville, TN 37864