No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old is better.
The saying belongs to a parable teaching that Christ's teachings cannot be attached to the old religious maxims and customs as a mere addition. It states the principle that people accustomed to old teaching and practice do not immediately desire new truth because they judge the old to be better. False teaching and cherished traditions dull both the desire for truth and the ability to recognize it.
The scribes and Pharisees illustrated this by clinging to lifeless forms and rejecting Christ's teaching, even though that teaching displayed in fresh beauty the truth already given through the patriarchs and prophets. To receive Christ's teaching, people must abandon human commandments taught as doctrine and the traditions and customs that leave no room for living truth. His religion instead requires an entirely renewed character, wholehearted obedience, self-denial and self-sacrifice under a higher and holier standard.
The saying belongs to a parable teaching that Christ's teachings cannot be attached to the old religious maxims and customs as a mere addition. It states the principle that people accustomed to old teaching and practice do not immediately desire new truth because they judge the old to be better. False teaching and cherished traditions dull both the desire for truth and the ability to recognize it.
The scribes and Pharisees illustrated this by clinging to lifeless forms and rejecting Christ's teaching, even though that teaching displayed in fresh beauty the truth already given through the patriarchs and prophets. To receive Christ's teaching, people must abandon human commandments taught as doctrine and the traditions and customs that leave no room for living truth. His religion instead requires an entirely renewed character, wholehearted obedience, self-denial and self-sacrifice under a higher and holier standard.