Loving the Lord and Loving One Another for the Organic Building Up of the Church as the Body of Christ
Message Five Life’s Washing in Love to Maintain Fellowship
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Scripture Reading: John 13:1-17, 34-35
John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come for Him to depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the uttermost.
John 13:2 And while supper was taking place, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, that he should betray Him,
John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all into His hands and that He had come forth from God and was going to God,
John 13:4 Rose from supper and laid aside His outer garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself;
John 13:5 Then He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
John 13:6 He came then to Simon Peter. Peter said to Him, Lord, do You wash my feet?
John 13:7 Jesus answered and said to him, What I am doing you do not know now, but you will know after these things.
John 13:8 Peter said to Him, You shall by no means wash my feet forever. Jesus answered him, Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.
John 13:9 Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
John 13:10 Jesus said to him, He who is bathed has no need except to wash his feet, but is wholly clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.
John 13:11 For He knew the one betraying Him; for this reason He said, Not all of you are clean.
John 13:12 Then when He had washed their feet and taken His outer garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, Do you know what I have done to you?
John 13:13 You call Me the Teacher and the Lord, and you say rightly, for I am.
John 13:14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
John 13:15 For I have given you an example so that you also may do even as I have done to you.
John 13:16 Truly, truly, I say to you, A slave is not greater than his master, nor one who is sent greater than the one who sends him.
John 13:17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
John 13:35 By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
I. Since John is a book of signs (2:11), what is recorded in John 13 concerning foot-washing should be considered a sign, which is a symbol with spiritual significance (vv. 1-17):
John 2:11 This beginning of signs Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed into Him.
John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come for Him to depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the uttermost.
John 13:2 And while supper was taking place, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, that he should betray Him,
John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all into His hands and that He had come forth from God and was going to God,
John 13:4 Rose from supper and laid aside His outer garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself;
John 13:5 Then He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
John 13:6 He came then to Simon Peter. Peter said to Him, Lord, do You wash my feet?
John 13:7 Jesus answered and said to him, What I am doing you do not know now, but you will know after these things.
John 13:8 Peter said to Him, You shall by no means wash my feet forever. Jesus answered him, Unless I wash you, you have no part with Me.
John 13:9 Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
John 13:10 Jesus said to him, He who is bathed has no need except to wash his feet, but is wholly clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.
John 13:11 For He knew the one betraying Him; for this reason He said, Not all of you are clean.
John 13:12 Then when He had washed their feet and taken His outer garments and reclined at the table again, He said to them, Do you know what I have done to you?
John 13:13 You call Me the Teacher and the Lord, and you say rightly, for I am.
John 13:14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
John 13:15 For I have given you an example so that you also may do even as I have done to you.
John 13:16 Truly, truly, I say to you, A slave is not greater than his master, nor one who is sent greater than the one who sends him.
John 13:17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
John 13:18 I do not speak concerning all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but that the Scripture may be fulfilled, "He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me."
John 13:19 From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe that I am.
John 13:20 Truly, truly, I say to you, He who receives whomever I shall send receives Me, and he who receives Me receives Him who sent Me.
John 13:21 When Jesus had said these things, He became troubled in His spirit, and He testified and said, Truly, truly, I say to you that one of you will betray Me.
John 13:22 The disciples looked at one another, perplexed over whom He was speaking about.
John 13:23 One of His disciples, whom Jesus loved, was reclining on Jesus' bosom.
John 13:24 Simon Peter therefore nodded to him to inquire who it might be about whom He was speaking.
John 13:25 Then he, while reclining thus on Jesus' breast, said to Him, Lord, who is it?
John 13:26 Jesus answered, It is he for whom I will dip the morsel and to whom I will give it. And dipping the morsel, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.
John 13:27 And at that moment, after the morsel, Satan entered into him. Jesus therefore said to him, What you do, do quickly.
John 13:28 But none of those reclining at table knew why He said this to him.
John 13:29 For some supposed, since Judas held the purse, that Jesus was saying to him, Buy the things that we have need of for the feast, or that he should give something to the poor.
John 13:30 Therefore having taken the morsel, he went out immediately; and it was night.
John 13:31 Then when he went out, Jesus said, Now has the Son of Man been glorified, and God has been glorified in Him.
John 13:32 If God has been glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and He will glorify Him immediately.
John 13:33 Little children, I am still with you a little while; you will seek Me, and even as I said to the Jews, Where I am going, you cannot come, now I say to you also.
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
John 13:35 By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
John 13:36 Simon Peter said to Him, Lord, where are You going? Jesus answered him, Where I go you cannot follow Me now, but you will follow later.
John 13:37 Peter said to Him, Lord, why can't I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You.
John 13:38 Jesus answered, Will you lay down your life for Me? Truly, truly, I say to you, A rooster shall by no means crow until you deny Me three times.
A. Foot-washing should not be taken merely in a physical sense but rather, and even more intrinsically, in a deeper, more important, and spiritual sense.
B. In John 1—12 the Lord as life came and brought forth the church, composed of the regenerated ones; in their spirit the regenerated ones are in God and in the heavenlies, but in their body they are still living in the flesh and walking on the earth; this shows us the necessity of the Lord's fellowship in John 13.
John 1—13 To be omitted.
II. “Jesus knowing that His hour had come for Him to depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the uttermost??Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all into His hands and that He had come forth from God and was going to God, rose from supper and laid aside His outer garments; and taking a towel, He girded Him-self; then He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded”—vv. 1, 3-5:
John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come for Him to depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the uttermost.
John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all into His hands and that He had come forth from God and was going to God,
John 13:4 Rose from supper and laid aside His outer garments; and taking a towel, He girded Himself;
John 13:5 Then He poured water into the basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.
A. The outer garments that the Lord laid aside signify the Lord's virtues and attributes in His expression; hence, He was putting off of what He is in His expression.
B. The Lord's girding Himself signifies His being bound and restricted with humility—cf. 1 Pet. 5:5.
1 Pet. 5:5 In like manner, younger men, be subject to elders; and all of you gird yourselves with humility toward one another, because God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.
C. In ancient times the Jews wore sandals, and since their roads were dusty, their feet easily became dirty; if, when they came to a feast, they sat at the table and stretched out their feet, the dirt and smell would certainly frustrate the fellowship; hence, for the feast to be pleasant they needed foot-washing.
D. The Lord washed His disciples' feet to show them that He loved them to the uttermost (John 13:1), and He charged them to do the same to one another in love:
John 13:1 Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come for Him to depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the uttermost.
1. “If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet”—v. 14.
John 13:14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
2. “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another”—v. 34.
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
E. The Lord's washing of the disciples' feet was the washing away of their dirtiness so that their fellowship with the Lord and with one another could be maintained.
III. In our experience the defilement of the feet signifies separation from God and from one another through contact with the world; foot-washing signifies the recovery of spiritual freshness and vitality and the recovery of our fellowship with the Lord and with one another:
A. In our experience the washing water in John 13 signifies the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), the word (Eph. 5:26; John 15:3), and life (19:34; 10:10; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 John 5:16); the Lord washes our feet by the work of the Holy Spirit, by the enlightenment of the living word, and by the operation of the inner law of life.
Titus 3:5 Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,
Eph. 5:26 That He might sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing of the water in the word,
John 15:3 You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.
John 19:34 But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water.
John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life and may have it abundantly.
1 Cor. 15:45 So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul"; the last Adam became a life-giving Spirit.
2 Cor. 3:6 Who has also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant, ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
1 John 5:16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin not unto death, he shall ask and he will give life to him, to those sinning not unto death. There is a sin unto death; I do not say that he should make request concerning that.
B. This is not the washing away of our sins by the blood (1:9); this is why, after John 12, there is the need for such a sign in chapter 13; spiritual foot-washing saves us from staleness in our fellowship with the Lord.
1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
John 12—13 To be omitted.
C. Today the world is dirty, and we, the saints, are easily contaminated; for us to maintain pleasant fellowship with the Lord and with one another, we need spiritual foot-washing carried out both by the Lord in His love and by one another in love.
D. This is absolutely necessary for us to live in the fellowship of the divine life, which is revealed in John's first Epistle, a continuation of the Gospel of John.
1 John To be omitted.
IV. For us to experience the washing, we need to spend time in the Lord's presence and with the saints who are full of the Spirit, the word, and the divine life—cf. Matt. 6:6; 1 Cor. 16:17-18; Acts 6:5, 8; 2 Cor. 1:15:
Matt. 6:6 But you, when you pray, enter into your private room, and shut your door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will repay you.
1 Cor. 16:17 Now I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because these have filled up the lack caused by your absence;
1 Cor. 16:18 For they refreshed my spirit and yours. Acknowledge therefore such ones.
Acts 6:5 And the word pleased all the multitude; and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch,
Acts 6:8 And Stephen, full of grace and power, did great wonders and signs among the people.
2 Cor. 1:15 And in this confidence I intended to come to you previously that you might have double grace,
A. If we remain in the Lord's presence, the Lord will come to us and wash us, not with the blood but with the Spirit, the living word, and the inner life:
1. Whenever we are in need of such a washing, we can just open ourselves up to the Lord as we spend time in His presence and allow the inner life to flow within us.
2. Spontaneously, something living will water, flow, and wash us, and we will become clean again; our spirit will be uplifted, and our whole being will be so pleasant in the Lord's presence.
B. “You also ought to wash one another's feet”—John 13:14:
John 13:14 If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
1. In our experience, the Lord Jesus Himself and the saints who have much life can afford us such a washing.
2. It is the spiritual foot-washing ministered to one another that keeps us clean from the earthly touch; while we are walking and working on the earth, we not only need the Lord's foot-washing ministered directly within our spirit but also the foot-washing from the brothers and sisters.
C. Whenever we are about to wash others' feet, we need to follow the Lord's pattern by “laying aside our garments”; this is to lay aside our attainments, virtues, and attributes:
1. We must humble ourselves and empty ourselves; many wear a garment of spirituality and look down on others; they are proud of being spiritual.
2. To lay aside our garments means to dethrone ourselves.
D. To be girded with a towel means that we are bound and are willing to lose our liberty; we give up our liberty for the purpose of ministering life to our dear brothers and sisters.
V. Each of us must learn how to love the brothers and sisters by ministering the spiritual foot-washing to them to cleanse them from the earthly touch; this keeps them new, fresh, and living; our loving one another in this way is a sign that we belong to Christ—vv. 34-35:
John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
John 13:35 By this shall all men know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.
A. We can summarize defiled feet as staleness in our fellowship with the Lord; clean feet, however, denote fresh fellowship with the Lord:
1. Not many can say today that they treasure and love the Lord as much as they did five or ten years ago; many people have to say that they do not have the same feeling that they had a year ago.
2. Their feet are defiled, and they have become weary; this is spiritual weariness; it is the loss of spiritual freshness and vitality.
B. The Lord is always fresh, and He wants us to be fresh all the time, not spiritually enervated; this is why He makes us lie down in green pastures, He leads us beside waters of rest, and He restores our soul; foot-washing sustains an intimate fellowship between us and the Lord and rekindles our spiritual vitality and spiritual freshness—Psa. 23:2-3; Acts 3:20; cf. Deut. 34:7.
Psa. 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; / He leads me beside waters of rest.
Psa. 23:3 He restores my soul; He guides me on the paths of righteousness / For His name's sake.
Acts 3:20 So that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord and that He may send the Christ, who has been previously appointed for you, Jesus,
Deut. 34:7 And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died; his eye was not dim, nor had his freshness left him.
C. We should never allow ourselves to become old, which is to be set, settled, and occupied; we must keep ourselves empty, open, fresh, new, living, and young with the Lord; we need to pray that the Lord as the Spirit of reality would guide us into the reality of Psalm 110:3—“Your people will offer themselves willingly/In the day of Your warfare,/In the splendor of their consecration./Your young men will be to You / Like the dew from the womb of the dawn.”
Psa. 110:3 Your people will offer themselves willingly / In the day of Your warfare, / In the splendor of their consecration. / Your young men will be to You / Like the dew from the womb of the dawn.
VI. There must be an enigmatic freshness, power, nourishment, and supply within us that will drive others to seek after God by our presence; others should desire to seek after God, and their spiritual energy should be revived as a result of meeting us and speaking to us—cf. Acts 20:20, 31:
Acts 20:20 How I did not withhold any of those things that are profitable by not declaring them to you and by not teaching you publicly and from house to house,
Acts 20:31 Therefore watch, remembering that for three years, night and day, I did not cease admonishing each one with tears.
A. We need the renewing of the Holy Spirit day by day so that we can always be fresh and invigorated—Titus 3:5; 2 Cor. 4:16-18.
Titus 3:5 Not out of works in righteousness which we did but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit,
2 Cor. 4:16 Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.
2 Cor. 4:17 For our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory,
2 Cor. 4:18 Because we do not regard the things which are seen but the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
B. Foot-washing means recovering our former feelings, bringing us back to the freshness and newness of life (Rom. 6:4), and giving us fresh strength (Psa. 27:1, 4) to recover how we previously treasured the Lord as our first love by giving Him the first place in all things (Rev. 2:4-5; Col. 1:18b).
Rom. 6:4 We have been buried therefore with Him through baptism into His death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life.
Psa. 27:1 Jehovah is my light and my salvation; / Whom shall I fear? / Jehovah is the strength of my life; / Whom shall I dread?
Psa. 27:4 One thing I have asked from Jehovah; / That do I seek: / To dwell in the house of Jehovah / All the days of my life, / To behold the beauty of Jehovah, / And to inquire in His temple.
Rev. 2:4 But I have one thing against you, that you have left your first love.
Rev. 2:5 Remember therefore where you have fallen from and repent and do the first works; but if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent.
Col. 1:18 And He is the Head of the Body, the church; He is the beginning, the Firstborn from the dead, that He Himself might have the first place in all things;
C. We cannot wash others' feet unless we enjoy the Lord as our overcoming life and obtain the Spirit's help to live out such a life; the Spirit within us is our Comforter, the One who takes care of our case, our cause, and our affairs—John 14:26; Phil. 1:19-21a.
John 14:26 But the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things and remind you of all the things which I have said to you.
Phil. 1:19 For I know that for me this will turn out to salvation through your petition and the bountiful supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
Phil. 1:20 According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be magnified in my body, whether through life or through death.
Phil. 1:21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
D. Every one of us needs our feet washed, and every one of us needs to be prepared to wash others' feet; among all the services that Christians minister to one another, nothing is more crucial or precious than foot-washing—“If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them”—John 13:17.
John 13:17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
VII. Foot-washing is a matter of the Lord's loving us to the uttermost in order to meet our uttermost need; each of us must learn how to love the brothers and sisters by ministering the spiritual foot-washing to them:
“How can we wash one another's feet? Suppose you have completed your day's work and feel tired. You cannot utter any praises from your mouth. In the evening when you come to the meeting, someone asks you to pray. Halfway through your prayer, you cannot go on, and you stop. You feel as if your prayer is nothing more than a composition. However, perhaps one brother in the meeting has a fresh spirit, and his prayer refreshes your spirit. Your spiritual energy is renewed. This is washing one another's feet. Many times when we come to the meeting, we find the saints' spirit weak and downtrodden. We pray and read the Word, but nothing seems to work. The reason for this is that everyone's feet are defiled, and there is no basin to wash the feet. It is as if something is quenching our spirits. If someone would stand up at this point and wash everyone's feet by offering a prayer or saying a few words, the whole meeting will be refreshed. Without the basin and without the foot-washing, everyone's spirit is bound. The same is true in our family life. A brother or sister may unexpectedly drop by your home and fellowship a short while or give a testimony, and everyone in the family is brought into the presence of God. Before that time there was a separation between them and God, but after such a simple conversation, all the separation is gone. This is washing one another's feet. Those who do this are precious in the Lord's eyes.
“We should have an ambition before the Lord to wash others' feet. In order to wash others' feet, we must have the water; that is, we must be filled with the Holy Spirit and be in constant fellowship with the Lord. For this cause we must live in the Holy Spirit daily. Only then will we have the living water to wash others' feet. Every time we come to the meeting, we must have the living water to wash others' feet” (The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 42, pp. 281-282).
VIII. Without the spiritual foot-washing, the church life cannot be realized, and the reality of the church life would be gone:
A. In order to wash others' feet, we must daily be filled with the Holy Spirit, be in constant fellowship with the Lord, and live in the mingled spirit—Eph. 5:18; 3:19; 2 Cor. 3:16-18; Rom. 8:16; 1 Cor. 6:17; Rom. 8:4, 6.
Eph. 5:18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit,
Eph. 3:19 And to know the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.
2 Cor. 3:16 But whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
2 Cor. 3:17 And the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
2 Cor. 3:18 But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.
Rom. 8:16 The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.
1 Cor. 6:17 But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit.
Rom. 8:4 That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the spirit.
Rom. 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the spirit is life and peace.
B. Therefore, the daily foot-washing definitely needs to be exercised by the Lord Himself on the one hand and by all the saints on the other hand; then we shall be able to maintain an excellent fellowship with which we shall have the real church life.
C. “Now I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because these have filled up the lack caused by your absence; for they refreshed my spirit and yours. Acknowledge therefore such ones”—1 Cor. 16:17-18; cf. 2 Cor. 7:13.
1 Cor. 16:17 Now I rejoice at the coming of Stephanas and Fortunatus and Achaicus, because these have filled up the lack caused by your absence;
1 Cor. 16:18 For they refreshed my spirit and yours. Acknowledge therefore such ones.
2 Cor. 7:13 Because of this we have been comforted. And in addition to our comfort, we rejoiced more abundantly over the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by all of you.
D. May we have fresh spiritual experiences every day; Romans 15:32 says, “I may refresh myself and rest with you”; this is the result of foot-washing.
Rom. 15:32 So that coming to you in joy through the will of God, I may refresh myself and rest with you.
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