All Washed Up

If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
(John 13:14-15 – ESV)

When Christ was presenting and performing the idea of washing one another’s feet, He was not saying we are to do this to everyone, everywhere, all the time. Obviously that is impossible and is evasive of His point. It is not about the physical washing of people’s feet, but about humility and service to one another.

However, this foot washing idea goes further than that. It is more than general humility and service, it is to surrender to a group of people whom you give yourself to in extraordinary service, beyond normal Christian charity. This is not simply to everyone at all times, although we are to be a humble servant to all. Again that would be evasive of the point by making this only a general principle when Jesus really means this for a specific group.

The action of Christ here is indicative of a humble serving spirit, but it is more specific than just that. This is Jesus telling us that we are to be about the giving of ourselves to a specific set of individuals. You give yourself to all of Christ’s body, but you wash the feet of those whom you are in intimate fellowship with. Of course this means that to be able to do that you have to have intimate fellowship with a group of believers.

This was not only about submission and service, but also about surrender. You can humbly serve the whole body and specially as you encounter them, but washing feet as seen by Jesus here is about getting dirty, and removing the dirt from the worn and weary feet of those you are in the trenches with. That isn’t everybody; that is about your local set of people whom you get muddy with on a regular basis, as Jesus did with His disciples. You give yourself to a group of people and those people are whose feet you wash.

A proof of this is found in Paul’s first letter to Timothy. This was what Paul was instructing Timothy about in 1 Timothy 5:9-10. The true widow, who Paul described in detail, and who had humbled herself and served the local congregation of saints, was to be considered for being on the church’s benevolence list or given a paying job of some kind to help support her as she supported those in the church. If she had shown care for others they were to take care of her. This shows us the application of the “washing of feet” means to a local fellowship, not just a general principle only. Although we are to be humble to all and serve all, this is not just about humility and service in general, but in specific terms to specific people sets.

To truly wash the saints feet, you must be a part of a local body of believers to whom you give yourself. If you don’t have a set of saints you are submitted to you are upsetting the biblical balance in your life. Church is God’s idea: giving yourself to a group of others is what Jesus is commanding us to do here in this text. The disciples had been arguing for some time about who among them was greatest, and Jesus here shows them that if they will not serve the group but want to stand out, or think that they can, that they are sorely mistaken. If you think that you are some super saint and that you don’t have to be a vital part of a local church, if you haven’t surrendered your role as the final arbiter in your life, your discipleship is all dried up. You’ve thrown in the towel against the church instead of girding yourself with it.

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©