The Ordinance of Foot Washing

rockytopva

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People shower today.

Apparently not everyone...
P7010190-Dirty_feet-SPL.jpg



Of course the story is not about dirty feet to begin with. It is about humility.
 
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squint

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It is a gesture of humility at the surface. However there is more to it at a deeper level. Jesus focused the attention to the feet. If they are clean then you are clean every whit. In Revelation 1 John is seeing an angel that appears to be godlike. The clue of foot washing was a warning from Jesus to look to the feet. Perhaps black people will appreciate this more since they might be tired of hearing "white as snow" referred to as holy. The sound of many waters and a two edged tongue are clue references back to Pentecost, tongues, and the 42,000 ephraimites that lost their lives over a difference in tongue (shibboleth). Again, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, David, and Jesus all spoke to God directly. Why would God (after all his warnings about not stopping to talk to angels) not keep his pattern? His ways are patterned verily, verily.

Angel speak is very confusing. God speak is very clear. Listen to the beginning of Joshua to hear God speak. "Every where your foot touches is yours". Angel speak has multiple nations, battles, leaders, abstract concepts that all have to happen first. Then they have the ultimate defense bug...silence in heaven..."Oh great, God must be doing a great work in me I haven't heard from Him in a long time. This must be the silence spoken of."

Rev1:14His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; 15And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters. 16And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

Moses was advised to remove his shoes as where he stood was holy ground.

Now, one could in that observation observe the dirt under his feet OR the feet of Moses himself.

Isaiah 52:7
How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!

Echoed again by Paul here in nearly the exact same way:

Romans 10:15
And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

The physical matters of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples was entirely symbolic of the above matters.

It is quite entirely a most beautiful picture. Peter obviously could look down and see Jesus washing his feet, but that is NOT WHAT THAT MEANT.

John 13:
6 Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?
7 Jesus answered and said unto him, What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter.

It did not mean simply physically washing their feet whatsoever.

If we look to Isaiah or Paul we see what that matter means, or even to Moses' FEET.

Where we stand is holy ground, that is, His occupancy in us and the delivery of HIS INTENTIONS.

As in anything God does there is a NATURAL SHOWING of SPIRITUAL INTENTION. Jesus Himself was a NATURAL MAN showing and a FINAL RAISED INCORRUPTIBLE MAN.

This is His Way. Is that which is shown in the natural what God is really getting at?

Not at all.

In many ways what is shown in the natural is also meant to 'weed out' those who see naturally as well from those who don't.

Whatever God is in the process of doing yet today is still also shown in the natural FIRST. Those who know His Ways WILL SEE HIS HANDS and FACE.

God is quite entirely dynamic and alive along these lines.

s
 
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MoreCoffee

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Let’s see in scripture!

...
Uzziah is the form of a Christian who, starting out well, did well and prospered. However, in the old age the heart waxed haughty and was in need of chastening from the Lord. How arrogant was this man?

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. – Isaiah 6:1

King Uzziah was so arrogant that it took him dying away for Isaiah to see the Lord, high and lifted up. This is the way of arrogance, it inhibits the Lords true and good spiritual light from illuminating the darkened corners of mankind.

I know of no better way of killing the old King Uzziah than a good old fashion foot washing. I am a member of the Pentecostal Holiness church. Back a hundred years ago they use to have foot washings. You could see the difference in the character of the people. The people were very tender hearted. The older guys would sit there and weep while people were being laid out in the Spirit. One old gentlemen, when we would make eye contact, would only, with tears running down his cheek, would only point with finger and declare “The Holy Ghost! The Holy Ghost!” while beholding the spectacle around him.

And furthermore, the Holy Spirit himself would speak in the sanctuary. Someone would give out a message in tongues, and then someone else by the selfsame Spirit would interpret that which was spoken. And there was a seven day a week joy about the people.

I wish I could put a good ending to this story. The Holy Spirit basically quit speaking in the sanctuary, there is no more weeping the service, there is political trouble in the church, and the church is became just like any other church on any other corner.

"The Lord seemed to sleep" - Pope Benedict XVI

What happened? It is the spirit of Uzziah! The Lord cannot speak as long as Uzziah is on the thrown! He must be cast out of the temple! God is not sleeping! He just doesn’t care to share the thrown with the arrogant king Uzziah!

That’s where the foot washing comes in. It kills the Uzziah enough for us to see the Lord high and lifted up with his train filling the temple.
...

Benedict XVI washed feet every year at the Mass on Thursday night before Easter Sunday.

Our Seventh Day Adventist brethren wash feet around four times a year.

As you observed, a number of Pentecostal denominations practice foot washing.

Are all of these 'cleansing away evil, pride, and arrogance from the heart'?
 
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rockytopva

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Benedict XVI washed feet every year at the Mass on Thursday night before Easter Sunday.

Our Seventh Day Adventist brethren wash feet around four times a year.

As you observed, a number of Pentecostal denominations practice foot washing.

Are all of these 'cleansing away evil, pride, and arrogance from the heart'?

If it is successful, yes. But, as everyone can imagine, there can be many instances of 'footwashings gone wrong.' And, as any other ritual, people hearts must be in the thing.

Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them to you. - 1 Cor 11:2

26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.
28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup.
29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body.
30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. - 1 Cor 11

The church at Corinth were not taking the communion with all due diligence as they should have. I can well imagine the ordinance of foot washing being observed with the same lack of dd. In which case, as in communion, it is better not to have a foot washing then to have one 'unworthily.'
 
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Eseven

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Benedict XVI washed feet every year at the Mass on Thursday night before Easter Sunday.

Our Seventh Day Adventist brethren wash feet around four times a year.

As you observed, a number of Pentecostal denominations practice foot washing.

Are all of these 'cleansing away evil, pride, and arrogance from the heart'?

No but its a start
 
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ImaginaryDay

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The story is about dirty feet why else would they need washed?

And it's also about servant hood.

Why do you go on and on about dirty feet, then ask why else they need to be washed, then answer your own question?

Which purpose do you suppose churches today have in mind when they do it? That's part of the reason I asked this earlier in the thread:

Not sure the objection by some to this practice. Are we so offended by Christ's display of humility and service that we just can't see ourselves following His example? Strange...

I can only assume that your objection is you take offense to His act of humility and service. As an example of what I mean, I have participated in foot washing when I was a member of a certain Pentecostal denomination. It was a humbling act to be sure. I also did so privately when I proposed to my (now) wife. Now, do you suppose I did that for her because her feet were dirty? Or because I wanted to display the type of mutual love, submission, and service that I wanted to strive for as her husband? Yeah, it must be the dirty feet...
 
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Rev Randy

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People shower today.

It's not like Jesus day when they walked long distance and washed their feet in a basin.

Foot washing is obsolete.

It's like telling someone to hitch up the team then they drive off in their car.

There are other ways that we can serve our brothers that are more applicable to our day.
Is happiness? JN. 13:17 "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them."
 
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tturt

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"And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord." I Sam 25:41

Usually a custom for a servant to wash guests feet but this Scripture shows that an honored person is washing feet in humility.

If you don't think foot washing has spiritual value, wash the feet of a spouse if married, church leader, an enemy, etc.
 
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peterlindner

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I'm sorry - having trouble understanding your post. I've posted things previously that I had to rephase so hope you're not put off.

At a surface level...yes washing feet is an act of humility and perhaps good for us. Although to match Jesus intent of praying behind closed doors, I would imagine that washing strangers feet and telling no-one of the matter would be closer to his intent. Washing someone's feet and then publishing the humility is really just another version of a Pharisee act.

At a deeper level this washing has nothing to do with cleanliness. Jesus is focusing our attention on the feet. Later in the word there are characters that look and sound like godliness; however they have a sign that gives away their true nature. The sign is their feet. In Revelations the angel is as white as snow, has a two edged (cloven) sword for a tongue and BRASS feet. A wasp is like a bee but doesn't make honey. Brass is like Gold, but it isn't pure. Brass is made like brick. Brick (and slime/snake like)was used for the tower of Babel. The altar is made of unhewn stones.

God's story in the old testament warned his prophets not to stop and talk to people/angels on the way out.

The true end time stories are John21 fishing, John2 Cana Wedding, and John11 Lazarus. Within these stories contain the end time mystery.

All angel accounts lead to confusion...end of daniel, ezekiel, and revelations.
 
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Rev Randy

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The ordinance does not apply today. Feet just don't get dirty like they did in bible times so there is no need to wash them.

There are other ways to serve the brethren.
I agree there are many ways to serve the brethren. But this isn't about dirty feet.
 
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CityOfGod

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But this isn't about dirty feet.

In bible times people's feet got dirty from walking long distances.

That is why they washed them.

Today, we live under different circumstances with Cars and showers.

So foot washing has become obsolete.

The real teaching of Jesus here is the importance of being a servant.

There are other ways to serve rather than washing clean feet.
 
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I attended a Free Will Baptist church while going to college. One evening we had a footwashing / communion service. Having never been to one my flesh fought me all the way to church that night. During the service there was such tears and shouting, wow! They would pray over you as they washed the feet and it was really a dramatic sight. It is really done decent and there is such a clean spiritual sensation afterwards as I cannot describe.

fwblogo8.jpg


See the icon in the lower left of the above image? That is the basin and towel that symbolizes the ordinance of foot washing in the Freewill Baptist church.

I had a girl get on at my workplace with a Freewill Baptist church shirt on. I told her she was the first Freewill Baptist church member I have met since college. She said that she was looking for a good church. I told her there were no churches that observed the ordinance of foot washing here and that the people have became annoyingly arrogant. We both agreed that bringing the ordinance of foot washing to some of these modern day refrigerators would probably do a lot of people good. The humility would be a great asset! :thumbsup:

So... Break out the basins and towels and lets get at it! :clap:

I would have to say this... There is no ordiance of foot washing in the bible. IF people say there is, they have missed the point of what Jesus was doing.

This act that Jesus did is not some ordiance that all have to do, it is symbol. Back in the bible days you wore sandals or even bare feet. Your feet would become terribly dirty and foul. When you walked in to a house the lowest of servants would wash your feet. It was not a good thing. That servant was often mistreated or had to do the most foul of task.

That was Jesus's point. He had come to serve and save. Jesus was showing that kind of leader that we were to be. Servants. People seeking to serve because we want to and not because we have to. People who are willing to dive into the filth to serve others above out own comfort levels. It is not an ordiance, it is a model of behavior that we are to take with each other.


NOW That being all said, Foot washing services are awesome... Humbling and realigning ourselves to a humble heart and attitude towards one another is never a bad thing.
 
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Rev Randy

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In bible times people's feet got dirty from walking long distances.

That is why they washed them.

Today, we live under different circumstances with Cars and showers.

So foot washing has become obsolete.

The real teaching of Jesus here is the importance of being a servant.

There are other ways to serve rather than washing clean feet.

This wasn't about feet. This was and is about finding happiness in being a servant.
 
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Rev Randy

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I would have to say this... There is no ordiance of foot washing in the bible. IF people say there is, they have missed the point of what Jesus was doing.

This act that Jesus did is not some ordiance that all have to do, it is symbol. Back in the bible days you wore sandals or even bare feet. Your feet would become terribly dirty and foul. When you walked in to a house the lowest of servants would wash your feet. It was not a good thing. That servant was often mistreated or had to do the most foul of task.

That was Jesus's point. He had come to serve and save. Jesus was showing that kind of leader that we were to be. Servants. People seeking to serve because we want to and not because we have to. People who are willing to dive into the filth to serve others above out own comfort levels. It is not an ordiance, it is a model of behavior that we are to take with each other.


NOW That being all said, Foot washing services are awesome... Humbling and realigning ourselves to a humble heart and attitude towards one another is never a bad thing.

Ordinance? If you mean Law, then I could agree. Jesus said they should do this one to another. He did not say until people's feet were no longer dirty. He did not say until we begin using closed shoes (which we're not good at doing in warm climates).
Do I think this is the only way we can learn to be a servant? Not for a moment. Do I think it should be ended because of modern times? Not until we no longer have feet.
I see the feet of the redeemed as beautiful. I'd give foot massages if my Lord had taught it. (actually I do for the wife)
So why do I do this? Jesus said I should.
 
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