Is Footwashing in the New Testament a Command or Just Symbolic?
1) Direct Answer
It is a command to be practiced by believers. It is not merely symbolic, though it carries a spiritual meaning. Footwashing is a New Testament ordinance tied to the Lord’s Supper.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Jesus said, “If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet… I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you… If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them” (John 13:14–15, 17).
- He explained the spiritual meaning—cleansing in our daily walk—yet still told them to do it (John 13:8–10).
- The early church continued it: a faithful widow is described as one who “washed the saints’ feet” (1 Timothy 5:10).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Jesus didn’t say, “Think about what I did,” but, “Do as I have done to you.” That’s a command.
- If it were only cultural, the Holy Spirit would not have stamped it in the church record as a mark of faithful service (1 Timothy 5:10).
- Like water baptism and the Lord’s Supper, it is both meaningful and to be literally observed. The act expresses humility, fellowship, and the reminder that the Lord keeps us clean in our daily walk—but He still told us to do it.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Now notice, the Bible ties blessing to obedience: “Happy are ye if ye do them.” So we keep it because the Lord said so. It’s not three ideas or traditions—it’s one simple command: wash one another’s feet.
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What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
The Basis of Fellowship
61-0214 §46
...re. Now, the heifer was to be burnt, and with her was to be burnt hyssop, cedar, and scarlet---was to be burnt together with the heifer. Now notice. Cedar is a red wood, stained wood, white and red together symbolizing the cross. And scarlet is ram's wool, dyed in blood, and hyssop was weeds that was put in with it. Hyssop was what you applied the blood by, and it was the blood on scarlet on cedar wood, all burnt together. To make the what? To make the waters of separation. Made the water and the separation, kept i...
Revelation, Chapter 4c Throne of mercy and judgement
61-0108 §70
All right, the sixth verse now, if we'll get into it. "Seven lamps." And before the throne... was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and ^^around ^^about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. Oh, my! Look at this! "Beasts full of eyes, full of eyes before and..." Now wait: ... before the throne... was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne and ^^around^^... the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. Now the sea of glas...
An Ensign
53-0606 §13
Notice. Then right in that crucial moment, serpents had come in among the people and were biting them. And Moses was taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and they were boasting physicians far beyond in many things than what we are today---had our doctors skinned by hundreds of miles. But, Doctor Moses had no cure for that snake bite. Nothing could be done. There they was, way in the wilderness. And Moses prayed, and God came to him and told him the remedy for it. I like that. What is He? God---Jehovah-jireh,...
The great servant Moses
55-0122 §21
He said, "Moses, throw it down." And when he threw the stick down, it turned into a serpent, and Moses fled. And He said, "Pick it up." And he took it by the tail, and it turned back to a stick again. Moses, I guess could say, "I've seen strange sights today," so when he seen that stick turned to a snake. Now, what was that stick? That's what we're going to speak on. What was that stick? It wasn't an ordinary stick anymore. For it was the judgment rod of Almighty God. What did it symbolize? The cross. And then, how...
The great servant Moses
55-0122 §30
On they went. When they began to need water one day, God told Moses... Listen, closely. Oh, I want you to get this part of it. Here's the golden cord of it. The people were thirsting, and they were wondering, Where can we drink. Our little children are starving? When their little children was sick, God erected a brass serpent: another symbol, another stick, like the one Moses had in his hand, only in a symbol with a snake wrapped around it. What was it? The judgment. Drawing dividends on your insurance policy. Amen...