"And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.
And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.
But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.
No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better."
Luke 5:36-39
I was thinking about this today, and I think that God was talking about what he was trying to do... create something new. Thus we have a new church and a new law rather than just a continuation of the old one. The line about "the old is better" reminds me of what some people would say on my mission... that they had been baptized already, as though it was all the same, and it didn't matter. But it did matter, even for people in Christ's day who had been long time worshippers of the true God. It was a new covenant, and a new way to live, and they couldn't rely on what they already had.
We can't rely on what we already have either, or on promises that our parents and ancestors made. We have to individually make a committment and develop our own relationship with God, learning of his ways and walking his path. We have to become new people, living a new way, becoming new through baptism and a covenant with God. And even after that, we have to work on staying "new" through repentance and recommitment to those promises each week, plus the every day effort to put God first in our lives, to read the scriptures and pray and make sure that we're not reverting to old habits, old ways, and old selves. :)
Today, let's be new, and love and live God's law with the excitement of a new discovery, which it can be if we live in that newness, keeping the spirit with us, and taking God's commandments and suggestions to heart.
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