Cleaned Up — Again and Again

Today's Three-minute Bible Study
Print, Study and Apply

Title: Cleaned Up — Again and Again ------------------- Date: 11/1/2001
Keywords: "cleansing" "confession" "washing"
Welcome to eXXit, the web site designed to help you stand strong in the face of sexual temptation.

Passage: John 13:5-11*

5. Then He poured water into the basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which He was girded.

6. And so He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, "Lord, do You wash my feet?"

7. Jesus answered and said to him, "What I do you do not realize now, but you shall understand hereafter."

8. Peter said to Him, "Never shall You wash my feet!" Jesus answered him, "If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me."

9. Simon Peter said to Him, "Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head."

10. Jesus said to him, "He who has bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you."

11. For He knew the one who was betraying Him; for this reason He said, "Not all of you are clean."

Questions

1. In this scene, which depicts Jesus’ last night with His disciples, the Lord is washing His followers’ feet. What would be the condition of the feet of twelve grown men at the end of a day of walking the dusty streets of Jerusalem in the first century?

 

2. What do you learn about Jesus’ humility and His servant mentality and the nature of Kingdom of God leadership when you see Him willingly wash His disciples’ dirty, smelly feet?

 

3. What about the exchange Jesus had with Simon Peter (vv. 6-10)? What do you think Jesus is teaching Simon?

 

Practical help

On the one hand, Jesus is demonstrating the nature of leadership in the Kingdom of God by the foot-washing. Leadership that imitates Jesus is SERVANT leadership.

On the other hand, Jesus uses the physical act of washing to picture something fundamental about the spiritual life. His reference to BATHING is a reference to conversion. This is the whole body/self being cleansed by God at the moment we place our faith in Christ for salvation. (for more about how to enter life in Christ, click here)

However, in the daily tramping around in the dusty streets of normal life, the feet of clean people get dirty. We sin. We dirty ourselves. Foot washing, then, is what happens when we misbehave after conversion. Like Peter, the Christian must sit still while Jesus cleans him up.

The good news is that daily cleansing is available. And, while not to say that sin should ever be winked at, the believer’s sin is ANTICIPATED and PROVIDED FOR by the foot-washing ministry of the Savior.

Getting all wrapped up in porn? Get clean. Right now. Confess your sin, and then sit still while Jesus washes you.

eXXit homepage
Index of three-minute studies
Copyright 2001 by eXXit
*"Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, © Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission."