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.
Show us the Father and it'll satisfy us
53-0610 §60
Every famous picture must first go through the hall of critics before it can be hung in a hall of fame. And I tell you that's what the Church has done today. It's went through the critics. But one of these mornings God's going to hang her in a hall of fame out here, just sure as the world. That great redeemed Church sprinkled by the Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, symbol of the dove that was turned loose with blood upon her wings that cried, "Holy, holy, holy unto the Lord."... When she passed across, that symbol o...
Questions and Answers, part 2
54-0103E §65
QUESTION: Question: Why should a vision of God come before me when I was about to take the communion at my church? Over. (Well, it's just the lady's name; yes, it's the lady's name.) Why should a vision of God come before me when I was about to take the communion at my church? Well, I wouldn't know, Sister, unless it was this: If you seen Jesus Christ appear in a vision at your church when you were taking the communion, He was letting you know this: that you were taking Him in a symbol. The communion is to represen...
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,...