Spiritual Foot-Washing in Love is Necessary for Maintaining a Pleasant Fellowship

The reality of the laver of bronze is the Lord Jesus Christ: He is the One who can wash us from any earthly defilement, and He did wash His disciples feet in John 13.

From John 3 to 12 the Lord Jesus presented Himself to the people as the reality of all the offerings: He is the real sin offering, trespass offering, burnt offering, meal offering, and peace-offering. All the offerings at the altar of bronze are fulfilled by Christ as the reality.

After we see Christ as the reality of all the offerings, He leads His people toward the tabernacle so that they may experience God in a deeper way and even be in God as God is in them; the first step toward this is the foot washing.

Some seeking believers consider that this matter of the foot-washing is outward and we should do it whenever we meet, that is, we should physically wash one another’s feet when we meet; but what matters here is the spiritual principle.

The Lord loved His disciples, and He loved them to the uttermost especially as He was about to leave them: He loved them by humbling Himself, putting aside His outer garments, and becoming like a slave to wash their feet.

In John 13 we see the experience of the laver portrayed by the Lord’s washing of His disciples’ feet; what He has done physically has much spiritual significance, since we need a continual foot-washing in order to have a pleasant and proper relationship with God and with the saints.

Because we live in the world and have contact with many earthly things, we become dirty and “our feet stink”; when we get together, even though “our feet are under the table”, they still stink, and we need to make sure we “wash one another’s feet”.

What does this mean? This means that we need to learn from the Lord Jesus and follow His pattern to minister the living word of God, the life-giving Spirit, and the divine life to others in order to dispense the washing, cleansing, purifying, and reconstituting water for the removal of anything worldly and defiling.

We need to learn to minister Christ to one another in the meeting so that any defilement would be washed, and we would have a proper and sweet relationship with the Lord and with the saints.

Spiritual Foot-Washing is Necessary for Maintaining a Pleasant Fellowship

In the old times in Israel people wore sandals, the roads were dusty, and at the end of the day they all were dirty (and stinky) when they gathered around the table to eat; therefore, the custom was that everyone would wash their hands and feet before eating.

As believers in Christ we love the Lord, we pursue Him, we have His life in our spirit, and we do our best to cooperate with Him and grow in life to be transformed into His image; however, we still live in the flesh on the earth.

In our spirit we are one with God and in God in the heavenlies, but in our flesh we are walking on the earth; through our contact with the Lord we are filled with life in our spirit, but through our contact with the earthly things we get dirtied and defiled.

We have God living in our spirit and we are in the heavenlies whenever we exercise our spirit, but in our body we are still on earth and have much contact with the things on earth. Yes, we are a new creation in Christ and we are in God, but at the same time we are still in the old creation, still on this earth.

Therefore, we need a regular practice of spiritual foot-washing. Spiritual foot-washing is a necessity for us; if we don’t have spiritual foot-washing, our fellowship and relationship between us and God and us and the other believers is frustrated.

Humanly speaking we don’t feel comfortable spending time with someone whose feet are dirty and stinky; spiritually speaking, when we come together and are defiled by the world, our fellowship is frustrated. We may not sin or say evil things, but we are not clean; therefore, we need spiritual foot-washing.

The Lord Jesus washed the disciples’ feet with water (John 13:5). Water here signifies the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), the Word (Eph. 5:26; John 15:3), and the life (19:34). The Lord washes us spiritually by the working of the Holy Spirit, by the enlightening of the Word, and by the operating of the inner law of life. In the Scriptures each of these three items is symbolized by water….We need to allow the Spirit, the living Word, and the inner life to wash away all the dirt that we have accumulated while living in the flesh and walking on this dusty earth. (Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2907)

What is the water that we wash one another’s feet with? It is the Holy Spirit, the living word of God, and the divine life; these three things are distinct but not separate, for when we have the wonderful life-giving Spirit, we have God’s living word and we have the flowing of the divine life.

Whenever we exercise our spirit to speak the word of God to others, we wash their feet; when we listen to the saints speaking from their enjoyment of Christ, our feet our washed.

Unless we allow the Lord through us to wash others’ feet and unless we allow others to wash our feet, we have no part with the Lord (John 13:18); can’t have a proper fellowship and a pleasant relationship with God and with the saints unless we let the Lord wash our feet and we cooperate with Him to do the same.

In John 15:3 the Lord told His disciples, You are clean because of the word that I spoke to you. His speaking cleanses us. Our prophesying and ministering Christ to one another – whether in the meetings or in our personal contact with others – flows out the divine life to others to wash them and add Christ to them.

One of the reasons there’s gossip and problems in the church is because the saints don’t practice to go to the Lord and have their feet washed by Him in His word, by His Spirit, and with His divine life, and because they don’t cooperate with Him to wash others’ feet.

It is absolutely necessary for us to have spiritual foot-washing – with the washing Holy Spirit, the washing word, and the washing life – carried out both by the Lord and by one another in love in the church life in order to maintain a pleasant fellowship with the Lord and with one another.

Lord Jesus, we need You to wash our feet with the living water, the Holy Spirit, and the divine life. Lord, we come to You in Your word with our spirit exercised to have any defilement, filthiness, and corruption removed from us. Lord, wash our feet! We want to cooperate with You and learn to wash others’ feet by ministering Christ to them. Save us from merely imparting doctrinal knowledge to the saints. Lord, we want to be filled with the living water and flow out the Spirit and the divine life through Your living word for the saints to have their feet washed!

Loving the Saints and Washing their Feet just as the Lord Loved us and Washed our Feet

In John 13:1 we see that the Lord, knowing that the hour has 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. Then the following verses describe how the Lord humbled Himself and washed His disciples’ feet.

The Lord’s washing of the disciples’ feet was a matter of love to the uttermost; to wash one another’s feet, therefore, is a matter of brotherly love (see John 13:1, 4-5, 14-15, 34-35). Why would we willingly wash other people’s feet, when we know how dirty and stinky feet are? The source and motivating factor of the laver, of the foot-washing, is brotherly love.

The Lord loved us to the uttermost by denying Himself and humbling Himself to lower Himself down and wash our feet with His life; eventually, He even laid down His life and died for us on the cross not only to redeem us (the blood shed on the cross) but also to regenerate us and wash us (the water that flowed with blood from His pierced side, see John 19:34).

The commandment to wash one another’s feet is related to the commandment to love one another. Today Christians talk a great deal about brotherly love, yet not many realize that brotherly love is expressed in foot-washing. If we do not have the reality of foot-washing, we actually do not have brotherly love. If we love one another, we need to wash one another’s feet. Without foot-washing, there is no brotherly love. The Lord Jesus loved His disciples to the uttermost, and this love is seen in His washing their feet. (W. Lee, The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John, p. 309)

Christ’s goal was not just to die for us to redeem us back to God but to have His life released and dispensed into us to fill us with Himself and make us His many brothers, the many sons of God, and the many members of the Body of Christ, and to produce us as the beautiful bride of Christ, bringing us into the highest and holies intimacy with Himself.

Christ loved us to the uttermost by releasing the washing, sanctifying, and beautifying divine life to dispense it into us and make us His counterpart. We need to learn from the Lord and let Him fill us with His love for others so that we would also love the saints and wash their feet by ministering the living word of God to them so that they may receive the divine life and allow the Holy Spirit to operate in them freely.

Brotherly love is not merely “a feeling” you get when you see the brothers; brotherly love is expressed when we deny ourselves, lower ourselves, humble ourselves, and cooperate with the Lord to minister the life-washing water in the word of God for the saints to be washed, cleansed, and beautified to be the bride of Christ.

We need to be those willing to lay down our soul life and deny our self so that we may be able to spiritually wash other’s feet. There are many ways to wash others’ feet, and there are many opportunities during the day that we can just minister something of the divine life to others. We simply need to love the saints and wash their feet just as the Lord loved us and washed our feet.

Lord Jesus, thank You for commanding us to love You and to love our neighbour; we want to learn to love the saints and wash their feet even as You loved us and washed our feet. Lord, fill us with Your love and with Your life. Wash our feet again and again, and give us Your heart of love for the ones around us so that we may cooperate with You and spiritually wash their feet. May we find many ways and take any opportunity to minister Christ to others, speak the living word of God to them, and let the Spirit flow to wash them!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Dick Taylor’s sharing in the message for this week, and The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 2906-2908 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-Study of Exodus (3), week 7 (week 31), The Laver of Bronze.
• All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
• Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
  # He will keep me till the rapture, / Day by day He’ll wash my feet, / And will transform all my nature / That in glory we may meet. (Hymns #337)
  # Let’s enjoy Christ to reach the goal, / Partake of Him to beat the foe, / All His vast riches we extol, / Yes, we are freed from every woe! / We may not know a lot of things, / But we are kept from Satan’s stings / By eating Christ, and Christ alone! (Song on Enjoying Christ)
  # We are washing all our robes the tree of life to eat; / “O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah!”—Jesus is so sweet! / We our spirits exercise, and thus experience Christ. / What a Christ have we! (Hymns #1151)