Love One Another | John 13:1-17

INTRODUCTION

John 13

¹It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

²The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. ³Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. ⁵After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

⁸“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

⁹“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

¹⁰Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” ¹¹For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.

Meaning behind the Wash

¹²When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. ¹⁶Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. ¹⁷Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

John 13:34-35

³⁴“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

CONTEXT

As we come to John 13, we are coming to the second half of the gospel of John.

Now, chapters 13-17 are all about the last 24 hours of Jesus’ earthly ministry. We give enormous attention to the last words of a loved one, don’t we?

John 13:1

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

Then Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Jesus is using a visual aid to teach his disciples.

Three symbolisms in this visual aid.

• Christ’s Mission.
• Christ’s Ministry.
• Christ’s Mandate.
• Christ as the Model.

1. Christ’s Mission.

John 13:1

….Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father….

As he was sent from the Father and now he will be returning to the Father.

Jesus knew that the Father has put all things under his power, v3

John 13:3-4

³Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; ⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

Jesus is aware of what is about to happen. Jesus came from glory and now will move back into glory through his death and resurrection. Peter is going to deny him. Judas is going to betray him. The Pharisees are waiting for a chance to kill Jesus. But Jesus is in full control. The Father has put all things under his power.

What is interesting is that the entire mission of God of his self-disclosure is set out in the washing of the disciple’s feet. Everything: The incarnation, the humiliation, the crucifixion, and the ascension.

This is not an ordinary foot washing. The foot washing normally happened in Jesus’ time when you got into the house. At the door, water would be provided for you, you remove your sandals and wash your own feet and come to home. According to history, Jewish slaves were prohibited by law from being asked to wash anyone’s feet. It was humiliation and degradation. All that was required for the host was to provide water for the guest to wash their own feet. That is the standard practice all throughout the Bible.

Abraham told his guests,

Genesis 18:4

“let a little water be brought and then you may wash your feet and rest under the tree;” When Abraham’s servant came to Laban, water was provided so that they would wash their own feet; Gen. 24:32

What Jesus did was without parallel although anticipated by Mary by washing his feet with her tears.

This is symbolic. The foot washing is the symbol of the very mission of God.

John 13:7

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

Jesus was portraying what will be happening when he is crucified on our behalf.

John 13:4

….so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

So he got up from the meal:

Recalling the glory Jesus once had when he was at the right hand of the Father.

Getting up in order that he might be incarnate.

Leaving the table fellowship of the heavenly hosts in glory in order that he would assume the life of humiliation and service in his incarnation.

Jesus prayed later on that night:

John 17:5

And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began;

So Jesus getting up from the table was a symbolic depiction even of his getting up from the right hand of the Father in the heavenly banquet in glory. He laid aside his robes.

He took off his outer clothing:

John 13:4

⁴so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist.

There is symbolizing a divesting of the garment of glory and honor.

He wrapped a towel around his waist:

Now all he has is a loin cloth, the dress of a slave, as he prepares himself as a servant to wash.

John 13:5

After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

Jesus washes Thomas’ feet who would later doubt him. He washed Peter’s feet who would later deny him. Yes, even Judas feet, the one who would betray him.

Mark 10:43-45

⁴³Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

John 13:12

¹²When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place…

He put on his clothes and returned to his place:

Jesus did the work of foot washing and then he sits down after having done his work.

Hebrews 1:3

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Hebrews 10:12-13

¹²But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, ¹³and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.

The Apostle Paul puts the mission of Jesus in Philippians 2

Philippians 2:3-11

³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

⁵In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:

⁶Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;

⁷rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

⁸And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

by becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

The enacted mission in the foot washing.

2. Christ’s Ministry: Cleansing.

He was from God. He would return to God and in between he washed our feet. Foot washing is a picture of not only the mission but the ministry of cleansing, and spiritual cleansing that Christ offers us.

Hebrews 9:13-14

¹³The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. ¹⁴How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!

1 John 1:7

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.

When Jesus came to Simon Peter to wash his feet, he said:

John 13:6-8

⁶He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

⁷Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

⁸“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

After having Jesus wash his feet, Peter in this text later is ready to die for Jesus. Peter, before you can lay down your life for Christ, He has to wash you and lay down his life for you. Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

There is a definitive cleansing when you are born again.

But in the course of our travels and walk with God, there is a lot of muck and mire that gets on us. We need washing again and again. It is not a one-time cleansing experience. There is a constant need for ongoing cleansing to deal with ongoing sin.

1 John 1:9

⁸If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. ⁹If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

We need to be cleansed constantly, daily.

Christ’s Mission; Christ’s Ministry:

3. Christ’s Mandate:

The take way for us.

John 13:12-15

¹²When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. ¹³“You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. ¹⁴Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. ¹⁵I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Some think it has to be practised literally, that there has to be a foot-washing ceremony. There is nothing wrong with that, some churches do that.

That is not what Jesus has in mind. He said:

John 13:15

I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.

Then he goes on to say:

John 13:34

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Our text is a passage about demonstrative love. Jesus is washing the feet of his disciples. This is an enacted parable of love. The disciples are the recipients of the lavish love of Jesus. Jesus showed his disciples how much he loved them by washing their feet and even more by dying on the cross. This love has to characterize every believer, marriage and every relationship.

Christ’s Mandate: Love One Another.

4. Christ as the Model.

John 13:34-35

³⁵A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. ³⁵By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

Love dominates this entire section of the gospel of John. Chapters 13-17 have more references to love packed into those five chapters than are found in the synoptic gospels all put together. This is the last 24 hours of Jesus’ ministry before his death, and the dominant theme is love.

The Old Testament is about Love

Think of the summary confession, the Shema: Deuteronomy 6:

Deuteronomy 6:4-6 (The Shema)

⁴Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ⁵Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.

In Deuteronomy 10, we have this emphasis on our love relationship with God, his love for us, and our call to love one another.

Deuteronomy 10:12-13

¹²And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you (what does God want?) but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, ¹³and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?

These are God’s manual for how to have the greatest satisfaction in one’s life.

Deuteronomy 10:14-19

¹⁴To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. ¹⁵Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations as it is today. ¹⁶Circumcise your hearts, (not just outward staff, inward commitment) therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. ¹⁷For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. ¹⁸He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. ¹⁹And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt.

See God’s love in the OT:

• God’s love for us.
• Our love for him.
• Our love for one another.

God loves those who are the most needy, most marginalized, most liminal members of our culture, our society. We are to love likewise; foreigners and neighbors.

Leviticus 19:18

“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD.

Jesus summarizes the OT of what all the 39 books say in a nutshell.

Matthew 22:36-40

³⁵“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” ³⁷Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

What love looks like?

• Love the Lord your God.
• Love your neighbor.

John 13:34

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

What’s this new commandment then that I give you? It’s the same OT commandment. What is new? As I have loved you, so you must love one another. There is a whole new transforming model for our love in the love that Christ has for us. It meets our needs so that we might love others. He fills up our cup with his love.

John gives us a paradox:

1 John 2:7-8

⁷Dear friends, I am not writing you a new command (Context: to walk in love as Jesus did) but an old one, which you have had since the beginning. This old command is the message you have heard. ⁸Yet I am writing you a new command; (It’s both and it is really the old commandment to love, but it’s now infused with a whole new escalated dimension of meaning when it is understood in light of Jesus’ model, his example as he washed the feet of the disciples.) its truth is seen in him and in you, because the darkness is passing and the true light is already shining.

How he showed his love for them in that amazing, self-denying, self-sacrificing act which was a pre-figurement of the cross when he would die the day following for the sin of the world, washing us with his own blood that forgives us and cleanses us of all of our sin.

So we can look at that contrast between the new and the old in a variety of ways.

Jesus Provides a Model for Love.

1 John 4:11

Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

2 Corinthians 5:14

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced one died for all…..

Jesus Sustains our Love

1John 4:11-12

¹¹Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Jesus calls us Friends.

John 15:12-13

¹²My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. ¹³Greater love has no one than this; to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Friends

Jesus Calls the Disciples as His Friends.

We are Jesus’ Friends.

We are to Be Friends to One Another.

The Apostle John uses ‘friends’ as his designation for the believers.

3 John 1:14-15

¹⁴I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face. ¹⁵Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.

We’re friends if we are Christians. Would you please join me in please saying to your neighbor? “We are friends.”

How Do We Practice Love?

What does loving your neighbour as yourself look like?

Leviticus 19:33-34

³³“‘When a foreigner resides among you in your land, do not mistreat them. ³⁴The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the LORD your God.

You identify with your neighbour.

You Share Your Life And Stuff.

Juan Carlos Ortiz, an Argentinian Pastor in his book ‘Disciple’ wrote this:

If I have a plate of food and my neighbour doesn’t, to love him as myself means I am going to make the same effort to get food for him as I did for myself.

What if I can’t? Well, then it means that I will give half of what I have to him. Just split it.

If I have two suits and he has none, I will make the same effort to get him two suits.

If my children are well dressed and fed and going to school and his are not, I must make the same effort for his children that I make for my own.

This is exactly what John the Baptist said before the new covenant.

Luke 3:10-11

¹⁰“What should we do then?”the crowd asked.

¹¹John answered, “Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.”

Jesus then says, well, now, if you’re going to love according to the new commandment, you’re going to love your neighbour even more than yourself. You’re going to love as I love you and that is a self-sacrificing love. This is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.

It is a standard that includes loving others that don’t deserve our love because while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

He loved us before we were still not all that lovable, and still he loves us. It is the love that wins love. We don’t deserve it. He loves us nevertheless.

Accept One Another

Romans 15:7

Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.

Serve One Another

Galatians 5:13

…do not use your freedom to indulge in the flesh; rather, serve one another humly in love.

Be Kind and Compassionate to One Another.

Ephesians 4:32

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Forgive One Another

ILLUSTRATION

Jerome one of the church fathers speaks of the Apostle John who tells us so much about this love and he tells us when John was an elderly man what happened. He could no longer walk so they did not really have like a wheelchair, instead, they had a human wheelchair. His friends carried him to church, it was a throne of affection as they brought the lone now sole living apostle, the last to die, and everybody in the church would be waiting to hear what the apostle John would say, and what he would say as they all listened with bated breath was this, “My little children love one another.”

In the next week, what would he say, “My little children love one another.” He would say nothing doing, it is the Lord’s commandment that is why I keep saying it and if you keep it that alone suffices. A new command I give you, love one another.

CONCLUSION

In John 13:1-17, Jesus exemplifies humility and love through foot washing, teaching us to serve others selflessly. As His followers, we are called to embody this love and service in our daily lives, reflecting Christ’s example in all we do.