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Is foot-washing scriptural?


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But foot washing had a practical application back then...dusty dirty feet. Just like today' date=' we greet one another with a handshake instead of a holy kiss. Maybe today we pick someone up and give them a ride to church instead of wash their freshly showered feet?[/quote']

You mean the "right hand of fellowship" as found in Galatians? :Green You find the Holy Kiss in Scripture, and the "right hand of fellowship" which shaking one another's right hand as a salutation and for signifying approval of someone.
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The command mood here, "greet", is given by Paul to specific believers at Rome and is not a general command to the Church for all time. The "holy kiss" was a custom of the times with which we are not familiar in the modern west. Given that touching of any sort in our culture has more intimate connotations than it did in the ancient world, it is not a custom I should care to revive. I personally think it would do more harm than good.

Footwashing was something Jesus did for the twelve one time (symbolic of humility). It had a special significance that can never be reduplicated. We are nowhere told to "adopt" this as a ritual. The only ritual still valid in the Church today is communion, the remembrance of what Jesus did for us on the cross. To my mind, adding other non-biblical rituals diminishes the important one, thinking about Christ and His death for us, and to that degree is spiritually damaging. The Protestant churches in many denominations are in a phase of re-adopting many Roman Catholic practices and even inventing new ones. That is highly symptomatic of a true lack of interest in the Word of God. Scripture is so deep and wide and broad that hearing, learning, believing, and obeying it all would be hard to do in a lifetime if a person did nothing else. The fact that churches are substituting anything and everything for learning the truth of scripture is just more external verification that this is the age of Laodicea.

Love,
Madeline

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I agree with Madeline.

And yes, in the book of Ruth, her nearest of kin took off his shoe and gave it to Boaz to signify sealing the deal of giving over Ruth.

Footwashing was a custom long before Jesus came upon the earth. However baptism was instituted shortly before Jesus' ministry, by God...and the Lord's Supper was instituted by Christ himself.

Footwashing was the object lesson to teach us servitude. There are many ways to have servitude in our churches today. But we all usually have pretty clean feet, so that would not be one of them.

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Madeline brings up a good point: Jesus only washed the apostles' feet ONCE in 3 1/2 years - so if some think it is some kind of ordinance, why are they doing it more regularly?

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Suzy said:

But foot washing had a practical application back then...dusty dirty feet. Just like today, we greet one another with a handshake instead of a holy kiss. Maybe today we pick someone up and give them a ride to church instead of wash their freshly showered feet?


Yes, it did have a practical and sybolic application. As the text reveals, "...supper being ended..." They had already had their feet washed. Jesus rebuked the the man who didn't offer to wash his feet when the lady poured oil on them and washed them with her tears. Jesus would have already done this grace.

And, as the brother said, nowhere in scripture are we (New Testament believers,) commanded to seal a deal with the swapping of a shoe. This is a New Testament grace. Why are we so settled on explaining it away? I really am curious.

Furthermore, Jerry said:
Madeline brings up a good point: Jesus only washed the apostles' feet ONCE in 3 1/2 years - so if some think it is some kind of ordinance, why are they doing it more regularly?


Using that line of logic, I am going to go through the Gospels and see what Jesus said or did ONLY ONCE, and dismiss it from my Christian life. Furthermore, since Paul commanded giving the holy kiss 5 times, I am going to judge the "professing" church in sin and unbelief because they have not obeyed that which was set forth so evidently.

Now, of course I am not going to do that, but this logic is faulty and invalid. Let's obey the bible, not explain it away, OR rely on what Dr. Leadbottom's Commentary told us to believe.

And, to again clarify, I, nor does scripture, imply this is, "...some kind of ordinance." We are basing this on the error of "some," but the verity of scripture.

Madeline said:
I personally think it would do more harm than good.


Madeline, I have many personal feeling also, but when it comes to scripture, I have to lay them aside and let the word of God speak. The reason Protestants, Catholics, and many sectarian denominations have lost the power of God and become, "Laodicean" is because of over injecting what they "personally think" instead of relying on the clear verity of scripture.

Where this really strikes a blow is that it hits us right where many of us live, in the traditions we have accepted as dogmatic truth. Baptists are just as guilty as Catholics or any other group when it comes to tradition. The very thought of these things move us dangerously out of our comfort zone and we begin to see all the "supposed" problems with obeying rather than trusting, by faith, the blessings of complying WITH scripture. What will they think if I believe this or try to practice it. The fear of man bringeth a snare. There was a time when I disobeyed many things the Bible teaches because I was afraid what the preacher brothers would think, how it would affect "my" ministry, etc. I had to let that die so Christ could live more freely in me. I am still working on that.

Mar 7:9 And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.
Mar 7:13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye.
Col 2:8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
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Ben, don't read into people's comments what is NOT there. I did not in ANY WAY state we didn't have to do something because it was only stated once. I said I do not believe the passage is commanding us to footwash, but rather to forgive (to wash one another's feet spiritually, as the context is primarily speaking of).

Then I posted a question about why YOU make it some big issue to do regularly (I assume that is what you are doing), when Jesus only ever did it once? If anything, you could say someone was fulfilling the requirement (you think is there) by washing someone else's feet once in their life.

My belief of not footwashing has nothing to do with fear of man or fear of going against traditions, but is simply because I am not convinced by the Word of God that I am required to wash other's feet.

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My belief of not footwashing has nothing to do with fear of man or fear of going against traditions, but is simply because I am not convinced by the Word of God that I am required to wash other's feet.


That's how I see it as well.
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Jerry:

...Jesus only ever did it once...


According to the scriptures he was crucified several hours later. He didn't have the opportunity to. However, he did say we are blessed if we do it. Like the Lord's Supper (though this is not an ordinance,) we should do it as oft as the New Testament assebly would dictate.

My belief of not footwashing has nothing to do with fear of man or fear of going against traditions, but is simply because I am not convinced by the Word of God that I am required to wash other's feet.


Jhn 13:15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

Jhn 13:16 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.

Jhn 13:17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

I guess I am reading too much into that text...or you are not.

However, I know that the more important things are winning souls and discipling them to be baptized and learn the doctrines of God. Having said the former, I don't want to appear to go to seed on this, I seldom wash feet, or otherwise, but I DO believe it is clearly there in scripture.
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Ben, may I suggest you go back and re-read my post. I quote "The command mood here, "greet", is given by Paul to specific believers at Rome and is not a general command to the Church for all time." Your reply is an example of what happens when we "wrongly" divide the Word. I would also suggest that do some research as to whom Paul addressed this specific command to. Rest assured that I will respond to the rest of your reply when I get off from work. :tum

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Rom 16:16 Salute one another with an holy kiss. The churches of Christ salute you.
1Cr 16:20 All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy kiss.
2Cr 13:12 Greet one another with an holy kiss.
1Th 5:26 Greet all the brethren with an holy kiss.
1Pe 5:14 Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace [be] with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The context of several of the above verses imply other churches and believers. However, I am not saying you specifically need to practice this OUTSIDE of you local assembly, there is clarity and the "command mood" is here for the local assembly. Where the churches at Rome, Corinth, Thessolinica, and Babylon only to do this?

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Jhn 13:15 For I have given you an example' date=' that [b']ye should do as I have done to you.

Jhn 13:16 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.

Jhn 13:17 If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.


I think you are stuck on not really reading what others are saying mode...

I fully believe I am supposed to do what Jesus says - HOWEVER, I do not believe the passage is teaching we are to go footwash, but that we are to forgive one another, as Jesus forgave us - which is the whole context, and WHAT JESUS WAS CLEARLY TEACHING PETER AND THE OTHERS BY WASHING THEIR FEET. He stated it quite clearly:

John 13:8 Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

John 13:10 Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.

Jesus is teaching about forgiveness and cleansing so we can have fellowship with Him. The footwashing was an object lesson to teach that - the command is to wash one another's feet spiritually, not physically - the whole context is dealing with forgiveness - and the OT type, which Jesus is using, is about being cleansed and forgiven.
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PreacherBen and I are from the hills - he is in TN and I am from KY. I guess there is a big difference amongst what the hill people believe and practice and what the flatlanders believe. There even seems to be a different mindset. We were taught to trust God and the Bible and not to follow after the conventions of men. I had never heard of this footwashing thing until I visited a little church in Belize and then I read about it recently on the internet, so I was curious about it.

Flatlanders seem to go more by what their neighbors are doing and what is socially acceptable to their congregations, than by what the Holy Spirit may be teaching them about scriptural aspects of certain things.

If we say that footwashing and the holy kiss are ONLY for the NT churches of the time, then we can just as well say that the entire NT is only for those churches of that day and age. It is exactly that kind of reasoning that leads to trouble. That is how the congregations get led astray in allowing their women to become preachers and Apostacy to creep in.

As I understand this practice, footwashing is not done every single Sunday morning. It is only done once or twice a year maybe? It is done the same day as the Lord's Supper service, and becomes a part of that service, just like singing special hymns and offering up special prayers are a part of the service.

I know the day I was visiting a small church in Belize, a young teenage girl washed my feet, and said a prayer for me - a total stranger whom she had never met before - and then after the service her family invited me to her house for a sumptious Belizian feast! They lived at the top of a hill, and there were six children plus the mother and father. We had Belizian styled beans and rice, fried plaintains, red cabbage coleslaw with lime, and we spent the whole afternoon discussing the many blessings God have given to us! They grew all of their own food and the children were all happy, healthy, well mannered, and loved. I remember that above all else was the love I felt that day.

I keep hearing about how Fundamental Baptist are all about legalism and no love - well I did not feel any sense of legalism or drudgery from that church on that day - just an overwhelming sense of love. It was the sort of love that I have not ever experienced before in any church stateside, so that was why I asked about it.

And no, the feet of the people in Belize are just as freshly showered as our own (they customarily take 3 showers a day!).

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