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.
Why little Bethlehem?
58-1228 §72
O Lord God, this little broken-up message brought from the Scriptures, though, in all its symbols, that You put it there; maybe it's hid from the eyes of the wise and prudent, and be revealed to babes such as will learn. How that little Bethlehem, the least of all of them! How did the prophet say that? "Art thou not least among all the princes?" But it so pleased God to bring from that little insignificant place, the Ruler of Israel. Lord God, out of a little group of people that's washed by the scarlet line of blo...
From that time
60-0716 §86
Now, I knowed when He come back, my body would be resurrected. I know that I'd have a body; all the old age will be gone away. You'll never be old there. No, sir. Every symbol of sin will be taken away, and old age is a symbol of sin. So, everything that represented sin will be taken away, because from the curse... Not that you sinned, but you're one of Adam's race, and you turn back to the dust. And I thought, "If I could just live to see Jesus coming."
The infallible Word of God
56-0404 §13
Now, the Hebrew prophets, the two major themes... And practically from somewhere along in every chapter of the Bible, from Genesis to Malachi, you can find one of those subjects being dealt with, all the way through the Bible: the coming of the Messiah, and the anointing and sending forth of the church into all the world. Spoke of in symbols and by animals and so forth. And like great armies and so forth, that marches on, and runs over the walls and so forth, of different like locusts and everything was in symbols...
Questions and Answers on Hebrews, part 2
57-1002 §67
Oh, I think of Job. Yes, God was looking down; Job knew that God loved him. (And notice he cannot take you.) He said, "You got him at your hands, but you don't take his life." And then the first thing you know, shoulders begin to stoop, and after a while you were gone. What was it happened? Now, in the resurrection there won't be one thing that symbols death. There can't be one thing that symbols this earth. See, you were coming up by the will of God; you had life. Then death set in, take you down by eating the sam...
Elisha the Prophet
56-1002E §21
Now, a double portion of Elijah's spirit come on Elisha, and he done twice the miracles that Elijah did. And a double portion of the Holy Spirit... Now, I want you to notice. Elijah had a robe as a symbol. A robe was what he was wrapped in, and it was a symbol of the Holy Spirit. And as he went up, he watched, and the robe fell back from the chariot. And he picked up the robe and laid it on his own shoulders and went down to the Jordan and started doing miracles. And Jesus, the baptism that He had was the baptism o...