In our experience, the defilement of the feet that need to be washed by the Lord signifies our separation from God and from one another through contact with the world; through foot-washing, we recover our spiritual freshness and vitality and we recover our fellowship with the Lord and with one another.
John 13, a chapter right before the Lord gave that long discourse before He went to the cross, is very significant and also applicable to our Christian life and church life.
The Lord loved His disciples, and He loved them to the uttermost; He loved them not only by laying down His life for them but by washing their feet.
We may think that the Lord’s uttermost love is expressed through His death on the cross, and we may not be wrong; however, according to John 13, the Lord loved us to the uttermost by humbling Himself and washing our feet.
In the old days, the Jews wore sandals, and the roads were quite dusty; therefore, their feet easily became dirty.
If they were to gather together for a feast or a meal, they needed to first wash their feet, otherwise, their fellowship would have been frustrated.
They had those lower tables at which you didn’t sit but reclined; therefore, the feet had to be washed.
The Lord Jesus did not expose His disciples nor did He criticize them why didn’t they wash their feet before this last supper He had with them.
Rather, He took out His outer garments, signifying His putting away of His attributes and virtues, he girded Himself with a towel, and He washed each one’s feet.
He didn’t skip Peter or Judas in His washing, though He knew what they were about to do; He washed all His disciples‘ feet, and then he told them that they should do the same.
As believers in Christ who love the Lord and have His divine life, we enjoy Him and we partake of Him, but our walk in the world dirties us and defiles us.
Whether we like it or not, whether we sin or not, our mere walk in the world and taking care of our daily responsibilities causes us to be dirty.
When we come together to fellowship and feast on the Lord and with the saints, we need spiritual foot-washing.
We need to learn to wash one another’s feet and to allow the Lord to wash our feet.
If we want to have a sweet fellowship, a fellowship that is not frustrated by the defilement of the world and the dirtying of our daily walk, we need to practice spiritual foot-washing.
We need to deal with anything that separates us from God.
Our contact with the things in the world and the people in the world defiles us and makes us dirty; this doesn’t mean we should stop talking to our workmates or relatives but rather, that we should be washed and cleansed in the Lord’s word, by His life and by His Spirit.
May we open to the Lord about it, for each and every one of us needs such a washing several times during the day and especially as we come to the meeting.
Being Washed from any Separation between us and God for us to have Fellowship with God and with one Another
![If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 That He might sanctify her, cleansing [her] by the washing of the water in the word. Eph. 5:26](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/If-we-confess-our-sins-He-is-faithful-and-righteous-to-forgive-us-our-sins-and-cleanse-us-from-all-unrighteousness-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 That He might sanctify her, cleansing [her] by the washing of the water in the word. Eph. 5:26")
Just a little contact could become a separation between us and the Lord.
We may have such a good time with the Lord in the morning, and we may enjoy Him in His word in a rich way.
However, as we travel to work either by car or by public transport, we may be defiled by our contact with the world. We may see something on the way that defiles us, and we may lose our touch with the Lord.
Our wife or husband may say something to us that may not be evil but it may just cause us to be a little unhappy.
A little unhappiness can be a layer of dirt that separates us from God.
We may think we are fine, for we didn’t do anything wrong nor did we sin, but we just feel dirty and separated from God.
Especially when we come together and we see that we are so dirty, as we sense that there’s a separation between us and the Lord, we need to open to the Lord and to the saints to be washed.
We may have touched the heavens in the morning and we may contact the Lord during the day, but simply by our doing the things we need to do at the office or by our attending the lectures at the university, we are being dirtied.
Even outwardly speaking, you may clean a vase and thoroughly sanitize and cleanse it, and we may put it on the table.
Even if we don’t dirty this vase, with time, dust and dirt deposit on it.
There’s something in the world, something in the atmosphere, that causes us to be dirty.
If we do something sinful and the Lord shines on our sins, we can confess our sins and He washes and cleanses us.
But many times it is not a matter of sin or sins but a matter of being dirty by our contact with the world.
It is so easy to get dirty, and unfortunately, we may think we are OK but we get others dirty and they may not want to speak with us or fellowship with us because we’re so dirty. Oh, Lord Jesus!
May the Lord have mercy on us and shine on us to expose the dirtiness of the world on our feet, and may we open to Him and allow Him and the saints to minister to us to wash our feet.
Spiritual foot-washing is to deal with everything apart from sin that separates us from God.
It is understandable when a person is separated from God through sin, but we don’t know what to do when we have not sinned yet we cannot touch God.
May we practice coming to the Lord for His fresh and constant cleansing so that anything that separates us from God would be washed away and we would be cleansed and purified for our fellowship with the Lord and with one another!
Sometimes we may come to the meeting after a long day at work and, though we may have not sinned or done anything that is evil outwardly, we have nothing to say in the meeting, not even a Hallelujah.
Others may pray, sing, and praise the Lord, but we feel so dirty and out of it.
May we allow the Lord and the saints to wash our feet as we come together, and may we learn to call on the name of the Lord, pray-read His word, and contact Him as the Spirit in our spirit so that we may be washed and cleansed for the restoration and maintenance of our fellowship with the Lord and with the saints.
Lord Jesus, we open to You and to the saints in the Body and in fellowship so that we may be cleansed and washed again and again. We love You, Lord, and we want to maintain our fellowship with You and with one another. Keep shining on us, dear Lord, and keep exposing anything that separates us from You. We want to allow Your word, Your Spirit, and Your life to shine on us, wash us, and cleanse us from any separation. Amen, Lord, may there be nothing between us and You except a clear sky and a sweet flow of life. We want to cooperate with You to minister Christ to others and speak the truth in love so that they may be washed from anything that dirties them from this world.
We need the Washing by the Holy Spirit, the Living Word, and the Inner Law of Life
In our experience, the defilement of our feet mentioned in John 13 signifies separation from God and from one another through our contact with the world.
Therefore, foot-washing signifies the recovery of spiritual freshness and vitality and the recovery of our fellowship with the Lord and with one another.
Many times the Lord shines on us and our enlightened conscience bothers us concerning the sin or sins we commit; we can then simply confess our sins and the Lord’s blood cleanses us from every sin (1 John 1:7, 9).
But we may still feel that we are dirty, we may feel that we are not spiritually fresh but rather, we are stale in our spiritual life.
What we need is the washing water spoken of in John 13, which signifies the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5), the Word of God (Eph. 5:26; John 15:3), and life (19:34; 10:10; 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:6; 1 John 5:16).
![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. 2 Cor. 3:6 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... 1 John 5:16](https://i0.wp.com/www.agodman.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/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-683x1024.webp?resize=450%2C675&ssl=1 "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. 2 Cor. 3:6 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... 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.
In Titus, we are told that we have the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
In Eph. 5 the Lord purifies and cleanses the church by the washing of the water in the Word.
As we come to the Lord in His word, we are washed and cleansed, and any defilement and separation are removed.
May we come to the Lord again and again and allow Him as the Spirit to minister to us and wash our feet.
May we come to Him in spirit to contact Him so that He may wash our feet again and again.
Only the Lord can wash us, and He washes us by the work of the Holy Spirit, by the enlightening of divine Word, and by the flowing of God’s life.
Before we come to the meeting with the saints, may we take some time to contact the Lord and come to His word to be washed and cleansed.
And may we bring the washing basin with us, filled with water, so that we may wash and cleanse other’s feet with the Spirit, the Word, and the divine life.
Sometimes we may come to the home meeting but there’s no basin there, for no one washed their feet; together, as a group, we need to open to the Lord and come to His word, be filled with His Spirit, and allow His life to flow so that we may be washed.
This washing is not the washing away of our sins by the blood of Christ (1 John 1:9) but the washing of our feet from any staleness in our fellowship with the Lord.
This is what spiritual foot-washing does: it saves us from staleness in our fellowship with the Lord and restores our fellowship with the saints.
Our fellowship with the Lord may still be there, but we are stale, it is not fresh.
We need to have a refreshed fellowship with the Lord.
Our touch with Him needs to be fresh and present, and we should not rely on having contacted the Lord a few hours ago.
Many saints either withdraw or keep going in staleness in their fellowship with the Lord.
When you meet such ones, you sense the need, the lack, and the staleness in fellowship.
Nothing is meaningful to them and they don’t enjoy the Lord anymore; they still serve, but it is just a routine. Oh, Lord Jesus!
We may be a young mother at home, especially after these years of the pandemic and people being at home, and we may have lost our spiritual freshness. We may just be gloomy, and uninspired.
May we pray for one another when we see this.
May we not rebuke others or criticize them, and may we not talk about their situation or condition before others.
May we just pray for others and learn to bring the basin full of water for them to have their feet washed.
May we humble ourselves, gird ourselves with humility, and minister life to others. They may be so dim, so gloomy, and so out of it, but we can just pray for them, reach out to them, and speak something of life to wash their feet.
Today the world is dirty and we, the saints, are easily contaminated.
For us to maintain a 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.
This is absolutely necessary for us to live in the fellowship of the divine life.
Lord Jesus, we come to You to be washed by the Holy Spirit’s work, the enlightening of Your word, and Your flowing divine life. We open to You, dear Lord, and we allow You to wash us and cleanse us in love. Thank You for humbling Yourself and coming to us to wash our feet so that we may maintain our fellowship with You and with the saints. Come in, dear Lord, and wash us by the work of the Holy Spirit, by the enlightenment of the living word, and by the operation of the inner law of life. Save us from staleness sin our fellowship with the Lord. Oh Lord, we want to maintain pleasant fellowship with the Lord and with one another. We want to cooperate with You to wash one another’s feet in love so that we all may live in the fellowship of the divine life!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by Ricky Acosta in the message, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 42, chs. 31 and 36, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Loving the Lord and loving one another for the organic building up of the church as the Body of Christ (2022 fall ITERO), week 5, entitled, Life’s Washing in Love to Maintain Fellowship.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Savior, I by faith am touching / Thee, the source of every good; / Virtue now, by faith am claiming, / Through the cleansing of Thy blood. / Touching Thee, new life is glowing / By Thy Spirit’s burning flame; / Cleansing, purging, Spirit filling, / Glory to Thy Holy Name! (Hymns #559 stanza 1 and chorus)
– Thy washing keeps us always clean, / In function like the laver; / Thus we are kept in fellowship, / Partaking of Thy favor. (Hymns #187 stanza 17)
– Now Thy flowing life, Lord, / Doth enlighten me, / Bringing in the spirit / Fellowship with Thee; / All my need supplying, / Making Thy demand, / Leading me to cleansing / And in Thee to stand. (Hymns #841 stanza 2)
About aGodMan
Students busy themselves in schoolwork at the schools, and housewives engage themselves in their household chores at home. Once a person occupies himself in these affairs, he feels as if heaven has moved away… He may still be able to set aside some time to pray, but he has nothing to say. He can only touch the superficial letter of the Word; he can no longer touch the inward reality. When the prayer meeting comes, he may want to pray, but he is short of words. Even when he does manage to think of some words to say, his conscience bothers him. He may still shout Hallelujah, and the words and sounds may still be the same, but the meaning and taste are different. He feels that something has separated him from God, but he cannot pinpoint any sin… If he was separated from God through sin, he should deal with it through the application of the blood shed on the cross. But this does not seem to be a question of sin. He only feels somewhat dimmed and has lost the former brightness …This is different from ordinary sins. What is needed is the foot-washing. What is foot-washing? It is dealing with everything apart from sin that separates us from God. This happens to us all the time… It is understandable when a person is separated from God through sin. But we do not know what to do when we have not sinned, yet cannot touch God. Thank the Lord that He has not only washed us of our sins, but washed our feet as well. Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 42, pp. 233-234
Many times you are not sinful, but you are dirty. Dust is everywhere. How easy it is to get dirty… Even as you are driving down the street on the way to the meeting, your eyes may accidentally see something that causes you to become dirty. Before you got into the car, your spirit was living and uplifted but… simply by seeing certain things on the way to the meeting place you were dirtied and your spirit went down. Sometimes, even in our fellowship we can become dirty. For things that are sinful we need the cleansing of the blood, but for things that are dirty and not sinful we need the spiritual washing. We need a washing by the Holy Spirit, the living word, and the inner life. Life-study of John, p. 332, by Witness Lee
How much we need to be washed from the dirtiness of the world by the Lord’s living word, by the work of the Holy Spirit, and but the inner operating law of life!
How much we need to cooperate with the Lord to also wash one another’s feet so that we all may be saved from staleness in our fellowship with the Lord!
John 6:31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, “He gave them bread out of heaven to eat.”
(32) Jesus therefore said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Moses has not given you the bread out of heaven, but My Father gives you the true bread out of heaven.
(33) For the bread of God is He who comes down out of heaven and gives life to the world.
(34) They said therefore to Him, Lord, give us this bread always.
(35) Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me shall by no means hunger, and he who believes into Me shall by no means ever thirst.
These ones [who sought the Lord because they ate the physical bread] were still circling around the periphery. They asked, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” (v. 42). They only knew the Lord Jesus from the outside.
The Lord told them again, “I am the living bread which came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread which I will give is My flesh, given for the life of the world” (v. 51). The Jews contended with one another because of this word. Their eyes only saw outward things.
Many of the disciples went back to what they had left behind and no longer walked with Him (v66). They stumbled and were no longer His disciples. Five loaves and two fish on the outside attracted many to seek after the Lord Jesus. How easy it is for men to pay attention to outward things and reject inward things!
Brothers and sisters, we ought to be warned here! Many who were called disciples dropped out halfway. Those who are Christians in an outward way will drop out halfway. Those who do not touch life will drop out halfway. Anyone who has not received the Lord’s life within him cannot be His disciple. No one needs to discourage such a one from becoming a Christian; he himself will find it impossible to go on.
Amen brother. For things that are sinful we need the cleansing of the blood, but for things that are dirty & not sinful we need a washing by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit can cleanse us from everything apart from sin that separates us from God.
We thank the Lord that He washes us not only from our sins, but also washes us from all the earthly things that separate us from God.
May we see the significance of “foot-washing” and come freely to the Spirit to be cleansed by His presence and life.
Amen brother!
Titus 3:5 …According to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
https://youtu.be/gM7gt_cSxjw
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy riven side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure,
Save me from its guilt and power.
The Word today is He has saved us and is continuing saving us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
Being contaminated with the World is so subtle, that we are not even aware of it, we only know that are freshness and liveliness has been somewhat dimmed.
This is when we need Spiritual foot washing from the Lord and from one another to refresh us from things we may have seen, words we may have spoken not according to God or things we may have done.
What a mercy that the Lord introduced the practice of footwashing to show us that not only sin separates us (which necessitates confession and the blood) but the world with its earthly defilement contaminates us and hinders our fellowship with the Lord and with one another!
For us to maintain pleasant and sweet fellowship we need to be washed by the Holy Spirit, through the enlightenment in the word and by the inner life.
Then, even after working, doing household chores or any activity in this world through such a washing we can pray, even pray in the prayer meeting of the church in a genuine and meaningful way to have fellowship with the Lord and with one another!
Amen Lord
Thank You for Your shepherding unto the uttermost!
Amen brother don’t we have experiences in the morning where we feel that we are in heavenlies but then during the day and by the end of the day we feel so far from the Lord that even our fellowship with the Lord has effected?
This is because we are in the world and we are picking up the dirt of the world. So we need to be clean but the end of the day we can filthy, so can we can be saved from this situation, the key is that we need to be washed by the water which is the spirit,
and the word and the inner, we can be washed by the Lord bu spending time with or be washed by the saints when meeting with them may be those who open to be washed