Joh 13:8 | KingComments | STEP | When the Lord comes to Peter to wash his feet, Peter objects. He finds it inappropriate that the Lord is going to wash his feet. He is the Lord, isn’t He? Then it cannot be so that He, the Lord, bows down before him. Peter reveals here a trait of character that many of us also have. Sometimes we refuse to perform this humble service ourselves, and sometimes we refuse such a service to be performed to us, but we will motivate our refusal in a different way than Peter does here. Such an attitude shows that we don’t mind sin all that much. We must learn – and it must penetrate deeply to us by what the Lord is doing here – that the defilement we incur by our going through the world is so bad that nothing less than Christ in His humiliation can cleanse us from it. The Lord answers Peter that he does not yet know what He is doing, but that he will understand it hereafter. By this he means that Peter will only fully understand the meaning when the Holy Spirit has come. It may also be possible that the Lord is pointing ahead of His statement after the foot washing. Another consideration is that Peter will understand the spiritual meaning once he is restored by the Lord after his denial of the Lord. Peter is not very much impressed by the words of the Lord. He does not moderate his tone, but vigorously contradicts Him. He will never cooperate with what he considers to be too humiliating an act for the Lord. With similar powerful statements, Peter also said that the Lord would not suffer and die ( ). He speaks without self-knowledge and without knowledge of the Lord. The Lord tells him the consequences if He does not wash him. Then He will have no part with Him. The Lord does not say: ‘You have no part of Me’. Every believer has part of Him. The Lord spoke of “no part with Me”. This means that a believer has part with Him in all that is His part, that is all that the Father has given Him ( ). From eternity He always has everything in His hands as the eternal Son and the Creator. But He has become Man and now as Man He will possess what has always been His possession as the eternal Son. This has made it possible to share it with people. In this way we have received life from Him because He is life. In order to have part with the Son in that which He has received as Man, it is necessary that the believer is cleansed of everything that defiles Him. We don’t even have to think about specific sins, although sins are of course an obstacle to fully enjoy with the Son what the Father has given Him. It’s about becoming defiled merely by the fact of our going through the world. It’s about a defilement which we cannot do anything about, but that is nevertheless there. The Lord Jesus washes the feet of the disciples because they have inevitably become dirty from walking through the streets of Jerusalem. In the same way, we too become defiled spiritually when we go through the world. Unsolicited or unintentionally we see and hear things every day that defile our mind and can influence our thoughts. That makes their daily cleansing necessary ( ). We undergo this daily cleansing when we read God’s Word in prayer. Our mind and thoughts are washed clean by reading God’s Word. No believer can do without it. This service of cleansing is what the Lord Jesus does to us when we read His Word. He can also do this by someone we hear preaching or applying God’s Word in a meeting, or when someone comes to us and draws our attention to something in God’s Word.

‏ John 13:8

Having Part With the Lord Jesus

When the Lord comes to Peter to wash his feet, Peter objects. He finds it inappropriate that the Lord is going to wash his feet. He is the Lord, isn’t He? Then it cannot be so that He, the Lord, bows down before him. Peter reveals here a trait of character that many of us also have. Sometimes we refuse to perform this humble service ourselves, and sometimes we refuse such a service to be performed to us, but we will motivate our refusal in a different way than Peter does here. Such an attitude shows that we don’t mind sin all that much. We must learn – and it must penetrate deeply to us by what the Lord is doing here – that the defilement we incur by our going through the world is so bad that nothing less than Christ in His humiliation can cleanse us from it.

The Lord answers Peter that he does not yet know what He is doing, but that he will understand it hereafter. By this he means that Peter will only fully understand the meaning when the Holy Spirit has come. It may also be possible that the Lord is pointing ahead of His statement after the foot washing. Another consideration is that Peter will understand the spiritual meaning once he is restored by the Lord after his denial of the Lord.

Peter is not very much impressed by the words of the Lord. He does not moderate his tone, but vigorously contradicts Him. He will never cooperate with what he considers to be too humiliating an act for the Lord. With similar powerful statements, Peter also said that the Lord would not suffer and die (Mt 16:21-23). He speaks without self-knowledge and without knowledge of the Lord. The Lord tells him the consequences if He does not wash him. Then He will have no part with Him.

The Lord does not say: ‘You have no part of Me’. Every believer has part of Him. The Lord spoke of “no part with Me”. This means that a believer has part with Him in all that is His part, that is all that the Father has given Him (Jn 13:3). From eternity He always has everything in His hands as the eternal Son and the Creator. But He has become Man and now as Man He will possess what has always been His possession as the eternal Son. This has made it possible to share it with people. In this way we have received life from Him because He is life.

In order to have part with the Son in that which He has received as Man, it is necessary that the believer is cleansed of everything that defiles Him. We don’t even have to think about specific sins, although sins are of course an obstacle to fully enjoy with the Son what the Father has given Him. It’s about becoming defiled merely by the fact of our going through the world. It’s about a defilement which we cannot do anything about, but that is nevertheless there. The Lord Jesus washes the feet of the disciples because they have inevitably become dirty from walking through the streets of Jerusalem.

In the same way, we too become defiled spiritually when we go through the world. Unsolicited or unintentionally we see and hear things every day that defile our mind and can influence our thoughts. That makes their daily cleansing necessary (2Cor 7:1). We undergo this daily cleansing when we read God’s Word in prayer. Our mind and thoughts are washed clean by reading God’s Word. No believer can do without it. This service of cleansing is what the Lord Jesus does to us when we read His Word. He can also do this by someone we hear preaching or applying God’s Word in a meeting, or when someone comes to us and draws our attention to something in God’s Word.