John 13

John 13:1:
Now before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.

"Unto the end" is the measure of the Saviours love. The word does not mean merely so long as He lived, but also in the highest degree, to the uttermost. It is not merely a measure of time, but a measure of the quality and passion of love. Many commentators prefer to used the words "He loved them unto the uttermost" rather than "unto the end"--so making them to express the depth and degree rather than the permanence and perpetuity of our Lords love.

It is key to His action of washing their feet, to give them a proof of His enduring love. It is the explanation of all His previous life and of His death He will soon accomplish. He was possessed and governed by love. If we do not see this, we see nothing and understand nothing. All that Jesus did and was, was the fruits of love. He had loved His own which were in the world, and now He loves them unto the end. When Jesus said on the cross "It is finished," His end of sacrifice was the carrying forward and culmination of all His grace.

John 13:1-20:
Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
2 During supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him,
3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God,
4 rose from supper. He laid aside his outer garments, and taking a towel, tied it around his waist. 5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples' feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around him. 6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?”
7 Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.”
8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
9 Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!”
10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”
11 For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “Not all of you are clean.”
12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you?
13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.

A classic cartoon demonstrates how fallen, selfish reason thinks. The cartoon shows aliens from outer space observing human beings walking their dogs and picking up their feces. The aliens assume that dogs are the dominant species and the humans are their slaves. The joke is that humans are acting in a way that is inferior to dogs and is unreasonable. But that is only true if you think in terms of power and cannot imagine why anyone would pick up someone else’s feces unless he was in bondage.

In fact, mothers and fathers and even older siblings clean up children’s feces all the time. They do it not in bondage, but in willful, voluntary, loving service to the child. There is no thought of superiority or power. The child is subordinate, but he is not oppressed or inferior. He is subordinate in order to receive from his mother the gifts of her office. The mother serves the child over whom she exercises authority for his benefit not for hers. Her authority and service are not a means of manipulation or control but are acts of love. These acts in no way debase her or undermine her authority. The child submits to and obeys her in part because of these acts of service that she provides in humility and love for his sake. The child doesn’t exist for the mother, but rather the mother exists for the child.
-David Petersen; Lutheran Witness

John 13:10:
10 Jesus said to him, “The one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.”

This answer of our Lord to Peter has a naturally double meaning. It is both literal and figurative. Just as one who having bathed in the morning considers himself clean and does not repeat this total ablution at meal-time, but is contented with washing his feet on entering to remove such accidental defilement as he may have contracted by the way; so he who, by sincerely attaching himself to Christ, has found pardon for his sins, needs nothing else than a daily and continual purification from the moral defilement of his life. Peter was clean because he sincerely believed in Christ. The purpose, then, of what Jesus was now doing for him was not to reconcile him to God, but to remove from him , by such an example of humility, that particular defilement, the desire for earthly power and greatness, which Jesus at that very moment observed in His own.

John 13:14-20:
14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.
16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him.
17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.
18 I am not speaking of all of you; I know whom I have chosen. But the Scripture will be fulfilled,[ ‘He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.’
19 I am telling you this now, before it takes place, that when it does take place you may believe that I am he.
20 Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

Jonathan Edwards

John 13:15, 16
For I have given you an example, that he should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
WE have in the context an account of one of the many very remarkable things that passed that night wherein Christ was betrayed (which was on many accounts the most remarkable night that ever was), viz. Christ's washing his disciples feet; which action, as it was exceeding wonderful in itself, so it manifestly was symbolical, and represented something else far more important and more wonderful, even that greatest and most wonderful of all things that ever came to pass, which was accomplished the next day in his last sufferings. There were three symbolical representations given of that great event this evening; one in the passover, which Christ now partook of with his disciples; another in this remarkable action of his washing his disciples feet. Washing the feet of guests was the office of servants, and one of their meanest offices. And therefore was fitly chosen by our Savior to represent that great abasement which he was to be the subject of in the form of a servant, in becoming obedient unto death, even that ignominious and accursed death of the cross, that he might cleanse the souls of his disciples from their guilt and spiritual pollution.
This spiritual washing and cleansing of believers was the end for which Christ so abased himself for them. Tit. 2:14, Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people. Eph. 5:25, 26, Christ loved the church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water. That Christs washing his disciples feet signified this spiritual washing of the soul, is manifest by his own words in the 8th verse of the context, Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him. If I wash thee now, thou has no part with me. Christ, in being obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, not only did the part of a servant unto God, but in some respects also of a servant unto us. And this is not the only place where his so abasing himself for our sakes is compared to the doing of the part of a servant to guests. We have the like representation made in Luke 22:27, For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? Is not he that sitteth at meat? But I am among you as he that serveth. And wherein Christ was among the disciples as he that did serve, is explained in Mat. 20:28. Namely, in his giving his life a ransom for them.
When Christ had finished washing his disciples feet, he solemnly requires their attention to what he had done, and commands them to follow his example therein. Verses 12-17, So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done unto you? Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one anothers feet: for I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord, neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.
-Jonathan Edwards; Portsmouth, at the ordination of the Rev. Mr. Job Strong, June 28, 1749

John 13: 34-35:
A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

Feb 21, 2022: Already Not Yet:What Does a Committed Church Member Look Like?
Our Lord Jesus specified one defining mark for his disciples. Of course, there are many marks of true discipleship, but one mark is singled out as signifying to the watching world that we belong to Christ:
A new commandment I give you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. (John 13:34–35)

The law had also already taught some points of this duty. Thus the Mosaic statute said, "Thou shalt not suffer sin upon thy brother," --a mode of brother-love which, though negative in its form, was positive in its spirit. But in its expressiveness and comprehensiveness this command was new. It was now given direct phraseology, and it developed the one principle to which all preceding enactments were to be traced. Incidental injunctions had contained some one or other of the features of this brother love; but all such commands were absorbed in this novel and engrossing declaration, "Love one Another." Various elements has previously delineated but now, and for the first time, the theory was enforced.

"As I loved you" points to an action which is past and done. It implies that Christ's work is now finished. And now we should love one another. In fact, it is because of that finished work that we can love one another.

"It is well." said John Wesley, "that you should be thoroughly sensible of this: Heaven of heavens is Love, there is nothing higher in religion, there is in effect nothing else. If you look for anything but more Love, you are looking wide of the mark: you are getting out of the royal way."

Brotherly love is to be openly shown that the followers of Christ will be recognized thereby. His followers are not to be known by dress, language, or occupation etc, but by the mutual kindness which they cherish and exercise towards one another. Chrysostom was quoted as saying "Miracles do not so much attract the heathen as the mode of life; and nothing so much causes a right life as love..."

Our Lord discards the external and His followers are known not by dress, language, or occupation, but by the mutual kindness which they cherish and exercise towards one another. They are to be known not by mind, but by heart; not by intellect but by soul.

"There is no necessary connection between being an objectivist on truth and being intolerant. Of course, there is a historical tendency that can be disturbing--a sense of absolute certainty does lead some people to intolerance and imperialism. Still, relativists who try to make this point don't seem to realize that there can be moral systems that are taken to be objectively true and that teach or even require tolerance...The Christian motivation for tolerance is not that nobody has the objective truth but that Jesus told us to love all people and especially our enemies. And we Christians try to practice tolerance and respect for people precisely because we believe that Jesus' teaching is true (i.e., objectively true)."
--Stephen T Davis [Rational Faith]

Francis Schaeffer proposed two powerful things we can do, to display observable love for one another in response to these verses and also John 17:23:
One, “When I have failed to love my Christian brother, I go to him and say, ‘I’m sorry.’ That is first. It may seem a letdown — that the first thing we speak of should be so simple. But if you think it is easy, you have never tried to practice it. . . .”
Two, “There must also be open forgiveness. And though it’s hard to say ‘I’m sorry,’ it’s even harder to forgive. The Bible, however, makes plain that the world must observe a forgiving spirit in the midst of God’s people. . . .”
“[Does the world] observe that we say ‘I’m sorry,’ and do they observe a forgiving heart? Let me repeat: Our love will not be perfect, but it must be substantial enough for the world to be able to observe it, or it does not fit into the structure of John 13 and 17. And if the world does not observe this among true Christians, the world has a right to make the two awful judgments which these verses indicate: that we are not Christians, and that Christ was not sent by the Father.”
Francis Schaeffer, “The Mark of the Christian,” in The Church at the End of the Twentieth Century (Downers Grove, 1970), pages 143-146.

John 13: 36-38:
Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where are you going?" Jesus replied, "Where I am going, you cannot follow now, but you will follow later." Peter asked, "Lord, why can't I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you." Then Jesus answered, "Will you really lay down your life for me? I tell you the truth, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times!

Jesus had stated that where he is going the disciples will not at present be able to follow. Peter makes a hasty statement that he is willing to die—to”lay down his life” (verse 37). The words Peter uses, thVn yuchvn mou uJpeVr sou' qhvsw, are almost identical to those used by Jesus in 10:11 when he spoke as the Good Shepherd. Ironically, Peter is not yet ready to follow this path on behalf of his Lord, although one day he will be (u{steron, compare 21:18). Instead, before this can happen, Peter will deny Jesus three times, as Jesus tells him. The fulfillment of this prediction is recorded in 18:27. Furthermore, also ironically, it is not Peter who is about to die for Jesus, but Jesus who is about to die for Peter, as the reader of the Gospel well knows. Peter did not wait on God; and instead in his mind forecast where the test would come, and the test came where he did not expect it. Peters declaration was honest, but ignorant. Jesus' response to Peter showed he had a deeper understanding of Peter than Peter had of himself. Natural devotion may serve to attract us to Jesus, but it will never make us disciples. Natural devotion will always deny Jesus at some point.