Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.
At the last Passover supper in the upper chamber Jesus laid aside His garments and as a servant washed the soiled feet of His disciples, and when Peter utterly refused to allow it Jesus warned him that without the washing he would have no share with Him. To have no part with Him means to have no share or fellowship or communion with Christ. The washing was far more than water upon dusty feet, for to accept it was to accept Christ's cleansing of the heart and mind from sin and inward defilement, and to refuse it was to refuse the purification He came to give. Though already cleansed and acknowledged as His, the disciples had been soiled by pride and jealousy and alienation, and must still bring their sin to Christ who alone can make clean in order to be ready for fellowship with Him. By His own act He made foot-washing a lasting sacred ordinance to keep humility and service in mind and to prepare the heart by putting away pride and dissension before communion with Him.
Setting and Occasion
The words belong to the final evening with the disciples in the upper chamber at the last Passover supper, in the last hours before Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for the world. They were spoken during their last week together, when He was preparing them for the coming trial and for separation from Him and for the suffering He would endure after Judas betrayed Him and the people rejected Him. That whole chapter stands as His words of encouragement to them in view of what lay ahead.
They came to that supper with selfish hearts and tempers heated by contention over who should be greatest, even who should be greatest in the promised kingdom. They were yielding to Satan's determined effort to arouse strife, and they argued at their last gathering before the crucifixion. In that wrong frame of mind they missed the great blessing they could have received.
Without a word Jesus laid aside His outer garment and girded Himself with a towel as a servant and performed the office of a servant toward those who called Him Lord. With His precious hands in goodness, humility and love He bathed their soiled feet and wiped them with the towel. Though He was the pure, spotless Lamb of God presenting Himself as a sin-offering, He served in this lowly way. The act opened their eyes and left them too astonished and ashamed to speak, filling them with bitter shame and humiliation and showing them themselves in altogether a new light that they would remember as long as life lasted.
Peter's Refusal and Answer
Simon Peter reacted with astonishment and emphatically and utterly refused to let Jesus wash his feet. He shrank from bringing his soiled feet into touch with the hands of his Lord and Master. Christ’s humble service moved him and filled him with shame that none of the disciples had performed the service. He was gladly willing instead to take the Master’s place and become even a slave for His sake.
Jesus answered Peter as He had answered John when John refused to baptize Him, telling him to allow it now though he did not understand, with fuller comprehension to come later.
Jesus warned that if He did not wash him Peter would have no part with Him. Having no part with Him means having no share, fellowship, or communion with Christ, and having a part with Christ depends on being washed by Him. Peter surrendered his pride when he understood that separation from Christ was unbearable. The warning rebukes pride and teaches the need to walk humbly before God and to recognize what God has done through the gift of His Son, calling His followers to serve one another. By His own act Christ thus established the service of feet-washing as a sacred act and ordinance, and on every such occasion God is sacredly near, so those who come are to bring Christ’s doing and words to remembrance. Its motive is to bring, through remembrance of what Christ did, a state of feeling where no exalting of one above another finds place, and to bring brother to an understanding of the feelings of his brother.
Cleansing Signified by Washing
The washing was not ordinary hospitality for dusty travelers but a service to test and prove loyalty, and it meant far more than the outward application of water to dusty feet. To let Christ wash Peter's feet was to accept His deeper work of cleansing the mind and heart from sin and inward defilement, so to refuse the washing was to refuse the purification He came to give and to have no part with Him. The disciples had already been cleansed from sin and acknowledged as His, and believers have been washed in His blood, yet temptation had brought pride and jealousy and alienation. Contact with evil soils the heart, so they still needed His cleansing grace and had to bring their sin and inward defilement to Him, who alone can make them clean, in order to be ready for fellowship and communion with Him.
The cleansing needed is of the heart from every defilement, from alienation and dissension and jealousy and pride and hatred. That includes cleansing by the Holy Spirit from the defilement of unkind talk and passing judgment and self-assured conversation that hurts souls and spoils God's work. Submitting to the washing demands surrender of pride and self-will and coming into humility and affection in order to receive His teaching, for true humility receives His work with gratitude. A clean heart is of far more consequence than bodily cleansing, and no one cherishing unhappy dissension is in an acceptable state before God. Outward washing without inward cleansing gives no part with Christ, for except in the case of one the washing signified cleansing from sin, and the feet of Judas were washed but his heart remained defiled with sin.
Until the lips are cleansed as by a living coal, counsels do harm and become a savor of death unto death. Those who continue in this rubbish handle strange fire because His words are not heeded. Having part with Him means eating His body and drinking His blood not merely at the sacramental service but by daily partaking of the bread of life that alone satisfies soul-hunger, receiving His Word and doing His will.
Footwashing as Sacred Ordinance
By His own act in washing feet He established footwashing as a consecrated religious ordinance, His appointed preparation for communion. It is a simple, lasting, solemn and impressive religious practice to be administered and kept. It keeps His lessons of humility and service in mind and prepares the heart for fellowship with Him.
As He ate the Passover with His disciples He put an end to the sacrifices that had been offered for four thousand years. In place of the national festival observed by the Jewish people He instituted a memorial service in the ceremony of feet washing and the sacramental supper, to be observed by His followers through all time and in every country, who should ever repeat His act. It discharges His disciples from the cares, burdens, rites and ceremonies of the ancient Jewish obligations, because type was meeting antitype in Himself as the authority and foundation of all those ordinances and the great and only efficacious offering for the sins of the world. To continue them would insult Jehovah.
The washing was not ordinary hospitality for dusty travelers, but a service given to test and prove loyalty. The ceremony was to precede the partaking of the emblems of the Lord's death. Cherished pride, discord, and rivalry prevent readiness to receive the communion of His body and blood, and no one cherishing unhappy dissension is in an acceptable state before God.
The washing of saints' feet with breaking of bread and the communion must be kept private among believers alone, separate entirely from unbelievers and the wicked. Jesus took His disciples away alone, first washed their feet, then gave them broken bread to represent His broken body and juice of the vine to represent His spilled blood. Conducting them among unbelievers brings reproach and dishonor on God's cause.
Footwashing belongs together with breaking bread as a practice for all to engage in heartily, men washing men's feet and women washing women's feet, not men and women together. It is to be observed with the Lord's supper after humble confession. It is a solemn act bringing humility before God, with weeping and rejoicing, bringing gladness and a good work long to be remembered.
On every such occasion God is sacredly near, and Christ Himself is always present to make participants feel the pulse of conscience, understand the lessons symbolized, revive memory, convict of sin, and receive penitential offerings. Through remembrance of what He did it brings a state of feeling where no exalting of one above another finds place. It brings brother to an understanding of his brother's feelings and clears away misunderstandings before the Lord's supper.
It should be practiced with the Lord's Supper to foster humility and keep believers from worldliness and backsliding. It should be carried out carefully and wisely, especially where people are unfamiliar with the practice or prejudiced against it, and without making it a tedious ceremony. It speaks less to intellectual capacity than to the heart, meeting the moral and spiritual nature, and if the disciples had not needed it, it would not have been left as His last established ordinance in connection with the last supper.
Jesus and Judas Iscariot
Even Judas had his feet washed, and his were washed first, though Jesus alone knew his secret purpose to betray Him. No word of rebuke was spoken to him and he was not exposed, but every opportunity was given him in tender ministry as a final appeal of love and a final effort to reach him before his choice was settled. The washing offered even the betrayer the chance to receive Christ, repent and be cleansed for fellowship with Him.
Under that touch his heart thrilled through and through with an impulse to then and there confess his purpose. Pride led him to resist conviction and reject the appeal, and anger that Jesus would stoop to a servant's work proved to him that Jesus would not be made an earthly king. That conclusion, instead of drawing him to love Jesus more, made him more determined to betray Him. He had persisted in excusing his actions and was out of harmony with Christ, yet used his place beside Jesus at the supper to disguise his plans, and after the washing he went out with Satan controlling his heart and mind.
Judas was still allowed a place at the table and to share in the sacrament, though Jesus knew he would leave to betray Him. The ordinance is therefore not to be deferred or withheld because some present are considered unworthy, for human beings cannot read the secrets of the soul to tell who is worthy or to tell the wheat from the tares. No one may refuse to attend because an unworthy one is present, and no man may decide who shall present themselves. Even in private observance a Judas may at times appear to be with believers and eat and drink to his own damnation, until God makes him manifest and purges him out from among Israel. The washing of saints' feet with breaking of bread and the communion must still be kept private among believers alone, separate entirely from unbelievers and the wicked, lest conducting them among unbelievers bring reproach and dishonor, with Jesus' own order followed of first washing the feet and then giving broken bread for His broken body and juice of the vine for His spilled blood.
His treatment of poor, deluded Judas at that hour was a sample of His treatment of them all through His association with them, showing long patience with perverse human nature. The example teaches not to abandon someone believed to be in error or sin, but to act with patience and mercy to give opportunity to receive Him, repent and be cleansed rather than leaving them exposed to temptation. By this service the disciples' faults were met, and all but one were brought to repentance. The scene was witnessed by unseen heavenly beings as well as by those present.
Humility Unity and Discipleship
Christ's lowly service rebukes pride and teaches the need to walk humbly before God and to recognize what God has done through the gift of His Son. It recalls the humility of the Lord and brings a person out of selfishness, self-exaltation, esteeming self above brother, seeking the highest place, and bitterness and evil surmising over trifles, unto washing a brother's feet and clearing away misunderstandings. His followers must not consider themselves superior to even the lowliest believer, but are to serve those in their care without regard to rank or status and to follow His example.
True service calls for unselfish ministry, most forcibly illustrated when He who was the pure, spotless Lamb of God presenting Himself as a sin-offering girded Himself and performed the office of a servant for those who called Him Lord while they were contending for the highest place in the promised kingdom. Those who are Christ's seek to do good to others and to benefit suffering people rather than please themselves, and without doing so they cannot expect to have a part with Him.
The ordinance teaches humility and brings Christ's followers together in unity and oneness with Christ, and the instruction given in John 13 should cure dissension. It prepares hearts by expelling selfishness and fostering the Holy Spirit, love, grace, and peace. In that humble act Christ subdues and cleanses, washes away dissension and hatred, and brings a change of feeling into union of heart, meekness, peaceableness, and love that will concede the highest place to another, making ready to partake of the supper with love for the Master and love for one another.
The lesson is learned at the ordinance by being softened and subdued as the first disciples were, who were ashamed, mortified, conscience-stricken, subdued and broken, with hearts going out to Jesus in deep earnest faith which works by love and purifies the soul. Believers are to closely investigate life and character with true contrition of soul and fellowship with Christ and with brethren, having barriers of pride and self-sufficiency broken down so the love of Jesus abounds. By being cleansed by His efficacy they become humble and clean in heart, purified from all defilement with sins forgiven, and prepared to appreciate holy communion with Christ and with one another. This pictures how often sinful, polluted souls are brought into contact with the heart of Christ, who hates nothing but sin, and how defiling sins grieve His pure, holy Spirit.
The humble act teaches humility especially to gospel ministers, pointing to the penitence and faith learned at the cross and to the sacrifice that redeems humanity. The verse is part of God's will plainly outlined in John 13 through 17 for those who minister in word and doctrine and are acquainted with present truth, teaching the philosophy of genuine missionary work which God means just as He says. Those who minister need conversion to understand it, and it is their privilege to believe every word of it and to live it out before their fellow ministers. Its teaching concerns a duty specified by Christ needing careful study and earnest practice, whose faithful observance bears divine credentials to the world.
Having no part with Him is applied to refusing the surrender, humility, and willingness to endure hardship that marked Christ's life, for those who share His sufferings may share His glory but those who will not do so have no part with Him. Having part depends on cheerfully enduring privation and suffering as He did without murmuring, drinking of His cup and being baptized with His baptism. Only those who follow His life of humility, ministry to others, obedience and submission to the Father can share with Him in His glory in His heavenly kingdom, while those who refuse will have no share with Him.
Peter was impetuous, hasty, and self-confident and often appeared more faulty than Judas, and Jesus reproved him often, yet Peter's later life of service and sacrifice testified to the power of God's grace.
At the last Passover supper in the upper chamber Jesus laid aside His garments and as a servant washed the soiled feet of His disciples, and when Peter utterly refused to allow it Jesus warned him that without the washing he would have no share with Him. To have no part with Him means to have no share or fellowship or communion with Christ. The washing was far more than water upon dusty feet, for to accept it was to accept Christ's cleansing of the heart and mind from sin and inward defilement, and to refuse it was to refuse the purification He came to give. Though already cleansed and acknowledged as His, the disciples had been soiled by pride and jealousy and alienation, and must still bring their sin to Christ who alone can make clean in order to be ready for fellowship with Him. By His own act He made foot-washing a lasting sacred ordinance to keep humility and service in mind and to prepare the heart by putting away pride and dissension before communion with Him.
Setting and Occasion
The words belong to the final evening with the disciples in the upper chamber at the last Passover supper, in the last hours before Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice for the world. They were spoken during their last week together, when He was preparing them for the coming trial and for separation from Him and for the suffering He would endure after Judas betrayed Him and the people rejected Him. That whole chapter stands as His words of encouragement to them in view of what lay ahead.
They came to that supper with selfish hearts and tempers heated by contention over who should be greatest, even who should be greatest in the promised kingdom. They were yielding to Satan's determined effort to arouse strife, and they argued at their last gathering before the crucifixion. In that wrong frame of mind they missed the great blessing they could have received.
Without a word Jesus laid aside His outer garment and girded Himself with a towel as a servant and performed the office of a servant toward those who called Him Lord. With His precious hands in goodness, humility and love He bathed their soiled feet and wiped them with the towel. Though He was the pure, spotless Lamb of God presenting Himself as a sin-offering, He served in this lowly way. The act opened their eyes and left them too astonished and ashamed to speak, filling them with bitter shame and humiliation and showing them themselves in altogether a new light that they would remember as long as life lasted.
Peter's Refusal and Answer
Simon Peter reacted with astonishment and emphatically and utterly refused to let Jesus wash his feet. He shrank from bringing his soiled feet into touch with the hands of his Lord and Master. Christ’s humble service moved him and filled him with shame that none of the disciples had performed the service. He was gladly willing instead to take the Master’s place and become even a slave for His sake.
Jesus answered Peter as He had answered John when John refused to baptize Him, telling him to allow it now though he did not understand, with fuller comprehension to come later.
Jesus warned that if He did not wash him Peter would have no part with Him. Having no part with Him means having no share, fellowship, or communion with Christ, and having a part with Christ depends on being washed by Him. Peter surrendered his pride when he understood that separation from Christ was unbearable. The warning rebukes pride and teaches the need to walk humbly before God and to recognize what God has done through the gift of His Son, calling His followers to serve one another. By His own act Christ thus established the service of feet-washing as a sacred act and ordinance, and on every such occasion God is sacredly near, so those who come are to bring Christ’s doing and words to remembrance. Its motive is to bring, through remembrance of what Christ did, a state of feeling where no exalting of one above another finds place, and to bring brother to an understanding of the feelings of his brother.
Cleansing Signified by Washing
The washing was not ordinary hospitality for dusty travelers but a service to test and prove loyalty, and it meant far more than the outward application of water to dusty feet. To let Christ wash Peter's feet was to accept His deeper work of cleansing the mind and heart from sin and inward defilement, so to refuse the washing was to refuse the purification He came to give and to have no part with Him. The disciples had already been cleansed from sin and acknowledged as His, and believers have been washed in His blood, yet temptation had brought pride and jealousy and alienation. Contact with evil soils the heart, so they still needed His cleansing grace and had to bring their sin and inward defilement to Him, who alone can make them clean, in order to be ready for fellowship and communion with Him.
The cleansing needed is of the heart from every defilement, from alienation and dissension and jealousy and pride and hatred. That includes cleansing by the Holy Spirit from the defilement of unkind talk and passing judgment and self-assured conversation that hurts souls and spoils God's work. Submitting to the washing demands surrender of pride and self-will and coming into humility and affection in order to receive His teaching, for true humility receives His work with gratitude. A clean heart is of far more consequence than bodily cleansing, and no one cherishing unhappy dissension is in an acceptable state before God. Outward washing without inward cleansing gives no part with Christ, for except in the case of one the washing signified cleansing from sin, and the feet of Judas were washed but his heart remained defiled with sin.
Until the lips are cleansed as by a living coal, counsels do harm and become a savor of death unto death. Those who continue in this rubbish handle strange fire because His words are not heeded. Having part with Him means eating His body and drinking His blood not merely at the sacramental service but by daily partaking of the bread of life that alone satisfies soul-hunger, receiving His Word and doing His will.
Footwashing as Sacred Ordinance
By His own act in washing feet He established footwashing as a consecrated religious ordinance, His appointed preparation for communion. It is a simple, lasting, solemn and impressive religious practice to be administered and kept. It keeps His lessons of humility and service in mind and prepares the heart for fellowship with Him.
As He ate the Passover with His disciples He put an end to the sacrifices that had been offered for four thousand years. In place of the national festival observed by the Jewish people He instituted a memorial service in the ceremony of feet washing and the sacramental supper, to be observed by His followers through all time and in every country, who should ever repeat His act. It discharges His disciples from the cares, burdens, rites and ceremonies of the ancient Jewish obligations, because type was meeting antitype in Himself as the authority and foundation of all those ordinances and the great and only efficacious offering for the sins of the world. To continue them would insult Jehovah.
The washing was not ordinary hospitality for dusty travelers, but a service given to test and prove loyalty. The ceremony was to precede the partaking of the emblems of the Lord's death. Cherished pride, discord, and rivalry prevent readiness to receive the communion of His body and blood, and no one cherishing unhappy dissension is in an acceptable state before God.
The washing of saints' feet with breaking of bread and the communion must be kept private among believers alone, separate entirely from unbelievers and the wicked. Jesus took His disciples away alone, first washed their feet, then gave them broken bread to represent His broken body and juice of the vine to represent His spilled blood. Conducting them among unbelievers brings reproach and dishonor on God's cause.
Footwashing belongs together with breaking bread as a practice for all to engage in heartily, men washing men's feet and women washing women's feet, not men and women together. It is to be observed with the Lord's supper after humble confession. It is a solemn act bringing humility before God, with weeping and rejoicing, bringing gladness and a good work long to be remembered.
On every such occasion God is sacredly near, and Christ Himself is always present to make participants feel the pulse of conscience, understand the lessons symbolized, revive memory, convict of sin, and receive penitential offerings. Through remembrance of what He did it brings a state of feeling where no exalting of one above another finds place. It brings brother to an understanding of his brother's feelings and clears away misunderstandings before the Lord's supper.
It should be practiced with the Lord's Supper to foster humility and keep believers from worldliness and backsliding. It should be carried out carefully and wisely, especially where people are unfamiliar with the practice or prejudiced against it, and without making it a tedious ceremony. It speaks less to intellectual capacity than to the heart, meeting the moral and spiritual nature, and if the disciples had not needed it, it would not have been left as His last established ordinance in connection with the last supper.
Jesus and Judas Iscariot
Even Judas had his feet washed, and his were washed first, though Jesus alone knew his secret purpose to betray Him. No word of rebuke was spoken to him and he was not exposed, but every opportunity was given him in tender ministry as a final appeal of love and a final effort to reach him before his choice was settled. The washing offered even the betrayer the chance to receive Christ, repent and be cleansed for fellowship with Him.
Under that touch his heart thrilled through and through with an impulse to then and there confess his purpose. Pride led him to resist conviction and reject the appeal, and anger that Jesus would stoop to a servant's work proved to him that Jesus would not be made an earthly king. That conclusion, instead of drawing him to love Jesus more, made him more determined to betray Him. He had persisted in excusing his actions and was out of harmony with Christ, yet used his place beside Jesus at the supper to disguise his plans, and after the washing he went out with Satan controlling his heart and mind.
Judas was still allowed a place at the table and to share in the sacrament, though Jesus knew he would leave to betray Him. The ordinance is therefore not to be deferred or withheld because some present are considered unworthy, for human beings cannot read the secrets of the soul to tell who is worthy or to tell the wheat from the tares. No one may refuse to attend because an unworthy one is present, and no man may decide who shall present themselves. Even in private observance a Judas may at times appear to be with believers and eat and drink to his own damnation, until God makes him manifest and purges him out from among Israel. The washing of saints' feet with breaking of bread and the communion must still be kept private among believers alone, separate entirely from unbelievers and the wicked, lest conducting them among unbelievers bring reproach and dishonor, with Jesus' own order followed of first washing the feet and then giving broken bread for His broken body and juice of the vine for His spilled blood.
His treatment of poor, deluded Judas at that hour was a sample of His treatment of them all through His association with them, showing long patience with perverse human nature. The example teaches not to abandon someone believed to be in error or sin, but to act with patience and mercy to give opportunity to receive Him, repent and be cleansed rather than leaving them exposed to temptation. By this service the disciples' faults were met, and all but one were brought to repentance. The scene was witnessed by unseen heavenly beings as well as by those present.
Humility Unity and Discipleship
Christ's lowly service rebukes pride and teaches the need to walk humbly before God and to recognize what God has done through the gift of His Son. It recalls the humility of the Lord and brings a person out of selfishness, self-exaltation, esteeming self above brother, seeking the highest place, and bitterness and evil surmising over trifles, unto washing a brother's feet and clearing away misunderstandings. His followers must not consider themselves superior to even the lowliest believer, but are to serve those in their care without regard to rank or status and to follow His example.
True service calls for unselfish ministry, most forcibly illustrated when He who was the pure, spotless Lamb of God presenting Himself as a sin-offering girded Himself and performed the office of a servant for those who called Him Lord while they were contending for the highest place in the promised kingdom. Those who are Christ's seek to do good to others and to benefit suffering people rather than please themselves, and without doing so they cannot expect to have a part with Him.
The ordinance teaches humility and brings Christ's followers together in unity and oneness with Christ, and the instruction given in John 13 should cure dissension. It prepares hearts by expelling selfishness and fostering the Holy Spirit, love, grace, and peace. In that humble act Christ subdues and cleanses, washes away dissension and hatred, and brings a change of feeling into union of heart, meekness, peaceableness, and love that will concede the highest place to another, making ready to partake of the supper with love for the Master and love for one another.
The lesson is learned at the ordinance by being softened and subdued as the first disciples were, who were ashamed, mortified, conscience-stricken, subdued and broken, with hearts going out to Jesus in deep earnest faith which works by love and purifies the soul. Believers are to closely investigate life and character with true contrition of soul and fellowship with Christ and with brethren, having barriers of pride and self-sufficiency broken down so the love of Jesus abounds. By being cleansed by His efficacy they become humble and clean in heart, purified from all defilement with sins forgiven, and prepared to appreciate holy communion with Christ and with one another. This pictures how often sinful, polluted souls are brought into contact with the heart of Christ, who hates nothing but sin, and how defiling sins grieve His pure, holy Spirit.
The humble act teaches humility especially to gospel ministers, pointing to the penitence and faith learned at the cross and to the sacrifice that redeems humanity. The verse is part of God's will plainly outlined in John 13 through 17 for those who minister in word and doctrine and are acquainted with present truth, teaching the philosophy of genuine missionary work which God means just as He says. Those who minister need conversion to understand it, and it is their privilege to believe every word of it and to live it out before their fellow ministers. Its teaching concerns a duty specified by Christ needing careful study and earnest practice, whose faithful observance bears divine credentials to the world.
Having no part with Him is applied to refusing the surrender, humility, and willingness to endure hardship that marked Christ's life, for those who share His sufferings may share His glory but those who will not do so have no part with Him. Having part depends on cheerfully enduring privation and suffering as He did without murmuring, drinking of His cup and being baptized with His baptism. Only those who follow His life of humility, ministry to others, obedience and submission to the Father can share with Him in His glory in His heavenly kingdom, while those who refuse will have no share with Him.
Peter was impetuous, hasty, and self-confident and often appeared more faulty than Judas, and Jesus reproved him often, yet Peter's later life of service and sacrifice testified to the power of God's grace.