New Wineskins

"Nor do they put new wine into old wineskins, or else the wineskins break, the wine is spilled, and the wineskins are ruined. But they put new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." (Matthew 9:17)

Wineskins, in Palestine, were usually made of tanned goatskins. New wine would be stored in new wineskins. The weight of the wine and the process of fermentation would stretch the skin to its maximum elasticity. The collagen in the wineskin would break down during this process. As the wine and wineskin aged together the wineskin became stiffer and stiffer. Putting new wine in an old wineskin would risk the loss of the new wine as the old wineskin would break.

In a way we are like those wineskins. We need to remain pliable before God. When you think you've figured it all out where God is concerned you have become an old wineskin. The Christian life is an ongoing process of growth and change that should continue until we die. Don't become an old stiff wineskin. When you read something in God's Word that challenges you don't try to explain it away. Be willing to submit to what God has said! When you are tested with something from the Bible that seems out of synch with your particular group don't fall back on the group and say "we don't believe that." I know ministers that will only teach passages of the Bible that line up with their beliefs. They refuse to even deal with passages that will cause them difficulty.

Let the Word of God challenge you! Let it test you! Dare to wrestle with it instead of trying to neatly package it in some palatable form. In doing so you will remain anew wineskin that God can pour into!