If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
On the night He was betrayed at His last supper with the disciples, their Lord though equal with God laid aside His garment and as a servant washed their feet, even the feet of His betrayer. By saying they ought to do the same He gave a literal command and example to be believed and lived out, not as mere form, for no servant is greater than his Lord and those who know this are happy if they do it. He thereby established foot washing as a continuing sacred ordinance of humility for His church in every country through all time, to be observed with the Lord's Supper as its preparation. In its observance Christ is sacredly present by His Holy Spirit to convict of sin, sweep away selfishness, soften and unite hearts, and bring mutual confession, forgiveness, reconciliation and unity before communion. It pledges believers to a life of humble loving ministry to one another and to all in need, including the erring and difficult, counting others better than self and serving without seeking honor or place.
Historical Setting
The command was given at the last Passover supper in the upper chamber on the last evening before death, on the night of betrayal, in the final week as preparation for coming suffering and separation, at the final gathering before the crucifixion. It belonged to the last hours before the offering of Himself as a sacrifice for the world. It was instruction for the trial ahead.
The disciples came to that supper with selfish hearts heated by contention over who should be greatest, quarreling over honor and rank and position in the promised kingdom. Their whisperings were heard and their flushed faces seen, for they were stirred by Satan and argued even as the final lesson was given. This lesson in humility and loving service was among the last given to them while they disputed who would be greatest.
Without a word the Lord laid aside His outer garment and girded Himself with a towel as a servant and washed their feet to rebuke their strife and pride. The act opened their eyes and filled them with bitter shame and humiliation, showed them themselves in a new light, and left a memory kept as long as life lasted. Even Judas was washed and tenderly included, though he had already twice pledged to betray Him, and the feet that had been washed then went out to carry out the betrayal after refusal of that final appeal of love.
Words and Command
Though truly Master and Lord, One equal with God, He stooped to perform this menial lowly service for His disciples. His exalted position did not diminish His dignity but gave grace and significance to the lowly act. By it He makes Himself one with people of every rank and condition, showing that no one is too exalted to perform humble service. The words ye also ought make His act a literal example and command to do just as He did to them. It is to be believed and lived out, and is part of God's plainly outlined will for ministers to believe and live before fellow ministers. It is not to be treated in a mechanical way or as a mere form, but as an ordinance whose real object is to teach humility. Because He did this, followers ought to wash one another's feet, bringing His words to remembrance on every such occasion. The teaching in John 13-17 requires careful study and earnest practice, for neglecting it fails to honor God and Christ and withholds witness of His love.
No servant is greater than his Lord, so servants are called to do as He did. Those who know these things are happy if they do them, and doing what He taught brings happiness. That happiness comes with the felt presence of the Lord in holy solemnity, melting the heart with gratitude and love. The simple rite carries a meaning that may not be readily seen or appreciated. It was more than ordinary hospitality and more than the customary washing of dusty feet for guests and travelers. It was more than a single outward act of cleansing, teaching how followers are to treat one another and to be like Christ in their dealings with each other.
Ordinance and Communion
John 13:14 establishes foot washing as a continuing sacred ordinance of humility and unselfish ministry for all who believe, to be repeated by followers in every country and through all time as a standing ordinance for the whole church. It is to be kept in as exact following of the Lord's example as possible in obedience to the command to do as He did, to keep His people humble and separate from the world and from backsliding. The duty applies without exception and is not to be deferred because someone is counted unworthy, for even Judas was washed and given a place at the table.
The ordinance comes before the partaking of the emblems of Christ's death and is connected with the supper as preparation for commemorating His sufferings and death. It is to be kept together with the sacramental service of bread and cup, practiced frequently among believers, at the quarterly meeting and in Sabbath afternoon worship recalling the circumstances of its institution. A congregation follows the example by washing one another's feet before partaking of the Lord's supper.
Joined with the supper it takes the place of the national Passover festival as a memorial service. As Christ ate the Passover with His disciples He ended the sacrifices offered for four thousand years by presenting Himself, the pure spotless Lamb of God, as a sin offering. It discharges believers from the cares and burdens of the ancient Jewish rites and ceremonies, which no longer possess any virtue because type meets antitype in Christ Himself as the authority and foundation of those ordinances and the great and only efficacious offering for the sins of the world, so that to continue them after the reception of the Gospel is without force and an insult to Jehovah.
It was Christ's last established ordinance in connection with the last supper, left because the disciples needed it for the heart and the moral and spiritual nature rather than the intellect. It was ordained for a purpose to keep the humiliation of Christ and His example of humility before His followers, to call the Lord Jesus to mind and not be a mere form. Keeping the ordinance pleases God, rebukes pride, and teaches and honors simplicity and humility in His children, encouraging humility and keeping hearts humble and tender toward one another.
Christ delegated His power for it to His ministers, who are to superintend its observance to the close of time. At His own appointments He meets with His people by His personal presence and energizes them. He works on human hearts there even when the hearts and hands administering the ordinance are unsanctified.
Presence and Spiritual Work
God is sacredly near on every such occasion of foot-washing, and those who come are to bring His words to remembrance. Christ is present by His Holy Spirit, with messengers from the throne listening to confession and forgiveness, while unseen witnesses including watching angels are present and the atmosphere of heaven surrounds the believers with holy solemnity to impress hearts. Doing this service puts believers in Christ's place and brings them into close relationship with the Lord, who is present on the occasion as witness.
The Holy Spirit is present to witness to and seal the ordinance, impress hearts and sweep away selfishness, so that striving for the highest place appears insignificant. He quickens the sensibilities of those who obey, turns their thoughts into spiritual channels, brings conviction to hearts and remembrance of committed sins with new distinctness, breaks up the fountains of the soul, energizes the mind, and breaks down every barrier of disunion and alienation. He convicts and softens hearts, unites believers, helps clear away what separates them, reveals the character of God the Father, awakens to the lessons symbolized, leads each participant to feel the pulse of conscience and bring penitential offerings, and guides every willing soul into all truth.
In the ordinance believers in spirit pass through the garden consecrated by the agony of Him who bore the sins of the world and witness the struggle by which reconciliation with God was obtained. The washing becomes a prayer that the feet washed may run in the way of God's commandments the whole length of the Christian road to stand on Mount Zion and walk the streets of gold. The washing is followed by partaking of communion in remembrance of the sufferings of the Saviour who paid a dear price to ransom sinners from the power of Satan and hopeless misery.
When rightly celebrated the service brings God's children into holy relationship to help and bless each other, and its meaning goes beyond the single outward act of cleansing to make the entire life one of humble, faithful ministry like Christ in dealing with one another. Eating His body and drinking His blood belongs not merely to the sacramental service but to daily partaking of the bread of life that alone satisfies soul-hunger, by receiving His Word and doing His will.
Reconciliation Before Communion
The observance before the supper is a time to quiet controversy and controversies, to forgive injuries, to settle difficulties, and to put away malice and hatred and cherish neither. It clears away misunderstandings and breaks down every barrier of disunion and alienation, calling away from self-importance and pursuit of status toward service that brings humility and reconciliation. It was instituted for reconciliation one with another, so that those who gather at the communion table meet as equals, whatever their status or learning, as people purchased by Christ's blood.
It is a test of humility and faithfulness and of loyalty, not merely customary washing of dusty feet for guests or travelers, and a season of self-examination to learn the true feelings of the heart toward God and one another. In engaging in the humble duty pride and selfishness and hatred are brought to light and exposed. It confronts the disposition to esteem self more highly than brother, to work and serve for self, to seek the highest place, and to harbor evil surmisings and bitterness of spirit over trifles, bringing man out of selfishness and down from self-exaltation into humility of spirit that will wash a brother's feet.
It is designed to bring mutual confessions and confession, increased forbearance and patience, forgiveness of one another's errors, and true love after the pattern of the love that died for disciples. Its purpose is to teach humility and to bring believers together in unity by assimilating their hearts in oneness with Christ and fellowship with Him. Remembering the humiliation leads to self-examination, confession, forgiveness, and unity among believers.
By recalling that humiliation, striving for the highest place and offense at brethren seeking it appear insignificant, and disputing gives way to shame. Each is corrected from desire for honor and rank and learns to regard the others as better than himself and to count others better than self. So those who come together do so as equals purchased by Christ's blood, with pride, rivalry, and estrangement removed so the heart can enter fellowship with Him and receive the communion.
Neglect of its lesson leaves pride and self-sufficiency, evil thinking and speaking, contention and strife, scheming, faultfinding and criticizing. Continued gossip, accusation, unkind talk, passing judgment, and self-assured conversation hurt souls and spoil God's work, and until cleansing by the Holy Spirit comes such counsels prove a detriment, becoming a savor of death unto death instead of a savor of life unto life, a handling of strange fire. Neglect fails to honor God and withholds from the world a witness to His love, while the teaching lived out in practical life is the remedy and cure for dissension that fosters unity with one another and with Christ. Receiving its lesson softens and subdues the heart by grace, renews and sanctifies the energies, cleanses defilement, and turns believers from evil work against their brethren to good work for them in love.
Humble Service to Others
Because their Lord and Master stooped to wash their feet, His followers ought to wash one another's feet in the same humble loving spirit, serving one another rather than quarreling over honor or position and counting others better than themselves. His act is more than a single outward cleansing, for it teaches how they are to treat one another, bringing them into holy relationship to help and bless each other through His grace and making the whole life one of humble faithful ministry. The command counters the selfishness dwelling in the natural heart, and when rightly understood and practiced it calls each person to be willing to help others.
That example rebukes pride, selfishness, self-importance and self-exaltation, and disputes over who is greatest and desire for honor and the highest place. Those who serve as leaders must not seek to be first, but should walk humbly before God remembering what He has done through His Son, being pure, clean and consecrated in thought, spirit and practice. Wealth and status are no reason to be ashamed of serving, for One equal with God did not consider the lowly service beneath Him.
The rite pledges those who take part to unselfish ministry, not only to fellow believers but to all who need help, following a life spent in helping and saving the needy and sinful. True discipleship is not established by profession alone, for humble loving service kindles love in the heart and helps people understand His teaching, and doing what is known of this lesson brings happiness.
That service includes patient care for those at fault, the erring and sinful, and people who seem especially difficult and perverse, rather than rejection or discouragement. Jesus washed the feet of Judas even though He knew Judas had already twice pledged to betray Him, tenderly including him and bearing with him as a final appeal of love offering the sinner opportunity to repent and be cleansed. Those feet then went out to carry out the betrayal, and refusal of that appeal left his case decided. Followers must not carelessly withdraw from someone in error and leave that person exposed to temptation, for the disciples' need for correction did not prevent Christ from serving them, and all but Judas were brought to repentance. The duty applies without exception and must not be deferred because someone is considered unworthy, since human beings cannot read hearts or distinguish tares from wheat.
The ordinance thus keeps fresh in remembrance that redemption is received upon conditions of humility and continual obedience, testing humility and faithfulness and pleasing God while teaching and honoring simplicity and humility.
Faithful Observance in Practice
The washing of feet and the sharing of bread and cup belong together apart by themselves among believers alone, separate from unbelievers and the wicked, lest reproach come upon the cause of God. Shepherds are to keep both ordinances carefully and understandingly after the pattern of Christ taking His disciples away by themselves. Even in private observance a Judas may at times appear and eat and drink to his own damnation, until God quickly makes him manifest and purges him out.
No one professing to be a Christian is to be excluded as unworthy, nor is the duty to be deferred on that ground, for Christ washed the feet of Judas and left him a place at the table knowing he would betray Him. Human beings cannot read the secrets of the soul nor distinguish tares from wheat, so all are to take part in the shared act. Unseen witnesses, including heavenly angels, are present at the service.
Men and women observe separately, for a woman's feet are to be washed by a sister and a man has no business washing a woman's feet. Insisting on doing so by claimed divine direction is rejected. Sisters washing the feet of brethren is according to gospel order, glorifying God and humbling the doer when God lays that cross upon them, while for brethren to wash sisters' feet there is no biblical example.
The duty is to be performed judiciously, understandingly and thoughtfully, never made a tedious ceremony nor treated mechanically or as mere form, since its real object is to teach humility. It is to be introduced into new places with carefulness and wisdom at a proper time and manner where people are uninformed about the Lord's example and teaching or are prejudiced against it through former teachers, lest messengers bring confusion. Participation in feet washing was not treated as a required condition for partaking of communion. It is a standing ordinance for the whole church in large numbers, including youth and those just beginning to follow, belonging with solemn seasons of seeking the Lord and revival, where large united participation brings impressive influence, shows humility and intelligence, and marks right character and settling firmly into the work.
It is part of God's plainly outlined will for ministers to believe its teaching and live it out before fellow ministers, and especially gospel ministers ought to follow the servant example of their Lord and Master. The teaching of John 13-17 requires careful study and earnest practice, for neglecting it fails to honor God and Christ and withholds from the world a witness to God's love. That instruction is presented as the remedy and cure for dissension, fostering unity with one another and with Christ.
Washing the saints' feet is joined with the salutation of the saints, which those who have not believed in it should come into and practice.
Practicing this mutual service marks the faithful as people loved by God, a sealed perfectly united people in a happy holy state whose mutual love is shown also in the holy kiss. When the wicked rage to imprison them and fall helpless, this fellowship is the evidence by which opposers know that God has loved them. Knowing and doing it brings happiness with new power and the felt presence of the Lord with holy solemnity, melting the heart and overflowing it with gratitude and love, renewing awareness of the Saviour, turning distress to peace and rejoicing, and bringing deep gratification. It gives humility and shared spiritual fellowship before God, advances spiritual work, and becomes a prayer that the feet washed may run in the way of God's commandments the whole length of the Christian road to stand on Mount Zion and walk the streets of gold, followed by communion in remembrance of the dear price paid to ransom sinners from Satan and hopeless misery.
On the night He was betrayed at His last supper with the disciples, their Lord though equal with God laid aside His garment and as a servant washed their feet, even the feet of His betrayer. By saying they ought to do the same He gave a literal command and example to be believed and lived out, not as mere form, for no servant is greater than his Lord and those who know this are happy if they do it. He thereby established foot washing as a continuing sacred ordinance of humility for His church in every country through all time, to be observed with the Lord's Supper as its preparation. In its observance Christ is sacredly present by His Holy Spirit to convict of sin, sweep away selfishness, soften and unite hearts, and bring mutual confession, forgiveness, reconciliation and unity before communion. It pledges believers to a life of humble loving ministry to one another and to all in need, including the erring and difficult, counting others better than self and serving without seeking honor or place.
Historical Setting
The command was given at the last Passover supper in the upper chamber on the last evening before death, on the night of betrayal, in the final week as preparation for coming suffering and separation, at the final gathering before the crucifixion. It belonged to the last hours before the offering of Himself as a sacrifice for the world. It was instruction for the trial ahead.
The disciples came to that supper with selfish hearts heated by contention over who should be greatest, quarreling over honor and rank and position in the promised kingdom. Their whisperings were heard and their flushed faces seen, for they were stirred by Satan and argued even as the final lesson was given. This lesson in humility and loving service was among the last given to them while they disputed who would be greatest.
Without a word the Lord laid aside His outer garment and girded Himself with a towel as a servant and washed their feet to rebuke their strife and pride. The act opened their eyes and filled them with bitter shame and humiliation, showed them themselves in a new light, and left a memory kept as long as life lasted. Even Judas was washed and tenderly included, though he had already twice pledged to betray Him, and the feet that had been washed then went out to carry out the betrayal after refusal of that final appeal of love.
Words and Command
Though truly Master and Lord, One equal with God, He stooped to perform this menial lowly service for His disciples. His exalted position did not diminish His dignity but gave grace and significance to the lowly act. By it He makes Himself one with people of every rank and condition, showing that no one is too exalted to perform humble service. The words ye also ought make His act a literal example and command to do just as He did to them. It is to be believed and lived out, and is part of God's plainly outlined will for ministers to believe and live before fellow ministers. It is not to be treated in a mechanical way or as a mere form, but as an ordinance whose real object is to teach humility. Because He did this, followers ought to wash one another's feet, bringing His words to remembrance on every such occasion. The teaching in John 13-17 requires careful study and earnest practice, for neglecting it fails to honor God and Christ and withholds witness of His love.
No servant is greater than his Lord, so servants are called to do as He did. Those who know these things are happy if they do them, and doing what He taught brings happiness. That happiness comes with the felt presence of the Lord in holy solemnity, melting the heart with gratitude and love. The simple rite carries a meaning that may not be readily seen or appreciated. It was more than ordinary hospitality and more than the customary washing of dusty feet for guests and travelers. It was more than a single outward act of cleansing, teaching how followers are to treat one another and to be like Christ in their dealings with each other.
Ordinance and Communion
John 13:14 establishes foot washing as a continuing sacred ordinance of humility and unselfish ministry for all who believe, to be repeated by followers in every country and through all time as a standing ordinance for the whole church. It is to be kept in as exact following of the Lord's example as possible in obedience to the command to do as He did, to keep His people humble and separate from the world and from backsliding. The duty applies without exception and is not to be deferred because someone is counted unworthy, for even Judas was washed and given a place at the table.
The ordinance comes before the partaking of the emblems of Christ's death and is connected with the supper as preparation for commemorating His sufferings and death. It is to be kept together with the sacramental service of bread and cup, practiced frequently among believers, at the quarterly meeting and in Sabbath afternoon worship recalling the circumstances of its institution. A congregation follows the example by washing one another's feet before partaking of the Lord's supper.
Joined with the supper it takes the place of the national Passover festival as a memorial service. As Christ ate the Passover with His disciples He ended the sacrifices offered for four thousand years by presenting Himself, the pure spotless Lamb of God, as a sin offering. It discharges believers from the cares and burdens of the ancient Jewish rites and ceremonies, which no longer possess any virtue because type meets antitype in Christ Himself as the authority and foundation of those ordinances and the great and only efficacious offering for the sins of the world, so that to continue them after the reception of the Gospel is without force and an insult to Jehovah.
It was Christ's last established ordinance in connection with the last supper, left because the disciples needed it for the heart and the moral and spiritual nature rather than the intellect. It was ordained for a purpose to keep the humiliation of Christ and His example of humility before His followers, to call the Lord Jesus to mind and not be a mere form. Keeping the ordinance pleases God, rebukes pride, and teaches and honors simplicity and humility in His children, encouraging humility and keeping hearts humble and tender toward one another.
Christ delegated His power for it to His ministers, who are to superintend its observance to the close of time. At His own appointments He meets with His people by His personal presence and energizes them. He works on human hearts there even when the hearts and hands administering the ordinance are unsanctified.
Presence and Spiritual Work
God is sacredly near on every such occasion of foot-washing, and those who come are to bring His words to remembrance. Christ is present by His Holy Spirit, with messengers from the throne listening to confession and forgiveness, while unseen witnesses including watching angels are present and the atmosphere of heaven surrounds the believers with holy solemnity to impress hearts. Doing this service puts believers in Christ's place and brings them into close relationship with the Lord, who is present on the occasion as witness.
The Holy Spirit is present to witness to and seal the ordinance, impress hearts and sweep away selfishness, so that striving for the highest place appears insignificant. He quickens the sensibilities of those who obey, turns their thoughts into spiritual channels, brings conviction to hearts and remembrance of committed sins with new distinctness, breaks up the fountains of the soul, energizes the mind, and breaks down every barrier of disunion and alienation. He convicts and softens hearts, unites believers, helps clear away what separates them, reveals the character of God the Father, awakens to the lessons symbolized, leads each participant to feel the pulse of conscience and bring penitential offerings, and guides every willing soul into all truth.
In the ordinance believers in spirit pass through the garden consecrated by the agony of Him who bore the sins of the world and witness the struggle by which reconciliation with God was obtained. The washing becomes a prayer that the feet washed may run in the way of God's commandments the whole length of the Christian road to stand on Mount Zion and walk the streets of gold. The washing is followed by partaking of communion in remembrance of the sufferings of the Saviour who paid a dear price to ransom sinners from the power of Satan and hopeless misery.
When rightly celebrated the service brings God's children into holy relationship to help and bless each other, and its meaning goes beyond the single outward act of cleansing to make the entire life one of humble, faithful ministry like Christ in dealing with one another. Eating His body and drinking His blood belongs not merely to the sacramental service but to daily partaking of the bread of life that alone satisfies soul-hunger, by receiving His Word and doing His will.
Reconciliation Before Communion
The observance before the supper is a time to quiet controversy and controversies, to forgive injuries, to settle difficulties, and to put away malice and hatred and cherish neither. It clears away misunderstandings and breaks down every barrier of disunion and alienation, calling away from self-importance and pursuit of status toward service that brings humility and reconciliation. It was instituted for reconciliation one with another, so that those who gather at the communion table meet as equals, whatever their status or learning, as people purchased by Christ's blood.
It is a test of humility and faithfulness and of loyalty, not merely customary washing of dusty feet for guests or travelers, and a season of self-examination to learn the true feelings of the heart toward God and one another. In engaging in the humble duty pride and selfishness and hatred are brought to light and exposed. It confronts the disposition to esteem self more highly than brother, to work and serve for self, to seek the highest place, and to harbor evil surmisings and bitterness of spirit over trifles, bringing man out of selfishness and down from self-exaltation into humility of spirit that will wash a brother's feet.
It is designed to bring mutual confessions and confession, increased forbearance and patience, forgiveness of one another's errors, and true love after the pattern of the love that died for disciples. Its purpose is to teach humility and to bring believers together in unity by assimilating their hearts in oneness with Christ and fellowship with Him. Remembering the humiliation leads to self-examination, confession, forgiveness, and unity among believers.
By recalling that humiliation, striving for the highest place and offense at brethren seeking it appear insignificant, and disputing gives way to shame. Each is corrected from desire for honor and rank and learns to regard the others as better than himself and to count others better than self. So those who come together do so as equals purchased by Christ's blood, with pride, rivalry, and estrangement removed so the heart can enter fellowship with Him and receive the communion.
Neglect of its lesson leaves pride and self-sufficiency, evil thinking and speaking, contention and strife, scheming, faultfinding and criticizing. Continued gossip, accusation, unkind talk, passing judgment, and self-assured conversation hurt souls and spoil God's work, and until cleansing by the Holy Spirit comes such counsels prove a detriment, becoming a savor of death unto death instead of a savor of life unto life, a handling of strange fire. Neglect fails to honor God and withholds from the world a witness to His love, while the teaching lived out in practical life is the remedy and cure for dissension that fosters unity with one another and with Christ. Receiving its lesson softens and subdues the heart by grace, renews and sanctifies the energies, cleanses defilement, and turns believers from evil work against their brethren to good work for them in love.
Humble Service to Others
Because their Lord and Master stooped to wash their feet, His followers ought to wash one another's feet in the same humble loving spirit, serving one another rather than quarreling over honor or position and counting others better than themselves. His act is more than a single outward cleansing, for it teaches how they are to treat one another, bringing them into holy relationship to help and bless each other through His grace and making the whole life one of humble faithful ministry. The command counters the selfishness dwelling in the natural heart, and when rightly understood and practiced it calls each person to be willing to help others.
That example rebukes pride, selfishness, self-importance and self-exaltation, and disputes over who is greatest and desire for honor and the highest place. Those who serve as leaders must not seek to be first, but should walk humbly before God remembering what He has done through His Son, being pure, clean and consecrated in thought, spirit and practice. Wealth and status are no reason to be ashamed of serving, for One equal with God did not consider the lowly service beneath Him.
The rite pledges those who take part to unselfish ministry, not only to fellow believers but to all who need help, following a life spent in helping and saving the needy and sinful. True discipleship is not established by profession alone, for humble loving service kindles love in the heart and helps people understand His teaching, and doing what is known of this lesson brings happiness.
That service includes patient care for those at fault, the erring and sinful, and people who seem especially difficult and perverse, rather than rejection or discouragement. Jesus washed the feet of Judas even though He knew Judas had already twice pledged to betray Him, tenderly including him and bearing with him as a final appeal of love offering the sinner opportunity to repent and be cleansed. Those feet then went out to carry out the betrayal, and refusal of that appeal left his case decided. Followers must not carelessly withdraw from someone in error and leave that person exposed to temptation, for the disciples' need for correction did not prevent Christ from serving them, and all but Judas were brought to repentance. The duty applies without exception and must not be deferred because someone is considered unworthy, since human beings cannot read hearts or distinguish tares from wheat.
The ordinance thus keeps fresh in remembrance that redemption is received upon conditions of humility and continual obedience, testing humility and faithfulness and pleasing God while teaching and honoring simplicity and humility.
Faithful Observance in Practice
The washing of feet and the sharing of bread and cup belong together apart by themselves among believers alone, separate from unbelievers and the wicked, lest reproach come upon the cause of God. Shepherds are to keep both ordinances carefully and understandingly after the pattern of Christ taking His disciples away by themselves. Even in private observance a Judas may at times appear and eat and drink to his own damnation, until God quickly makes him manifest and purges him out.
No one professing to be a Christian is to be excluded as unworthy, nor is the duty to be deferred on that ground, for Christ washed the feet of Judas and left him a place at the table knowing he would betray Him. Human beings cannot read the secrets of the soul nor distinguish tares from wheat, so all are to take part in the shared act. Unseen witnesses, including heavenly angels, are present at the service.
Men and women observe separately, for a woman's feet are to be washed by a sister and a man has no business washing a woman's feet. Insisting on doing so by claimed divine direction is rejected. Sisters washing the feet of brethren is according to gospel order, glorifying God and humbling the doer when God lays that cross upon them, while for brethren to wash sisters' feet there is no biblical example.
The duty is to be performed judiciously, understandingly and thoughtfully, never made a tedious ceremony nor treated mechanically or as mere form, since its real object is to teach humility. It is to be introduced into new places with carefulness and wisdom at a proper time and manner where people are uninformed about the Lord's example and teaching or are prejudiced against it through former teachers, lest messengers bring confusion. Participation in feet washing was not treated as a required condition for partaking of communion. It is a standing ordinance for the whole church in large numbers, including youth and those just beginning to follow, belonging with solemn seasons of seeking the Lord and revival, where large united participation brings impressive influence, shows humility and intelligence, and marks right character and settling firmly into the work.
It is part of God's plainly outlined will for ministers to believe its teaching and live it out before fellow ministers, and especially gospel ministers ought to follow the servant example of their Lord and Master. The teaching of John 13-17 requires careful study and earnest practice, for neglecting it fails to honor God and Christ and withholds from the world a witness to God's love. That instruction is presented as the remedy and cure for dissension, fostering unity with one another and with Christ.
Washing the saints' feet is joined with the salutation of the saints, which those who have not believed in it should come into and practice.
Practicing this mutual service marks the faithful as people loved by God, a sealed perfectly united people in a happy holy state whose mutual love is shown also in the holy kiss. When the wicked rage to imprison them and fall helpless, this fellowship is the evidence by which opposers know that God has loved them. Knowing and doing it brings happiness with new power and the felt presence of the Lord with holy solemnity, melting the heart and overflowing it with gratitude and love, renewing awareness of the Saviour, turning distress to peace and rejoicing, and bringing deep gratification. It gives humility and shared spiritual fellowship before God, advances spiritual work, and becomes a prayer that the feet washed may run in the way of God's commandments the whole length of the Christian road to stand on Mount Zion and walk the streets of gold, followed by communion in remembrance of the dear price paid to ransom sinners from Satan and hopeless misery.