Wash one another's feet?

While foot-washing¹ has possessed a negligible presence among Southern Baptists since our actual founding in 1845, its practice may nonetheless be found among some individual congregations affiliated with the SBC   >>>

Presently, I'm teaching through Article VII in The Baptist Faith and Message dealing with our two church ordinances. Baptism and the Lord's Supper. I found the following quote by a longtime favorite author, Francis Schaeffer, particularly insightful:

While most of us think it is a mistake to make this a sacrament, let us admit that it is 10,000 times better to wash each other’s feet in a literal way than never to wash anybody’s feet in any way. It would be far better for us to make a mistake and institute a third sacrament of literal foot-washing than to live out our lives without once consciously choosing to serve each other. Doing the Lord’s work in the Lord’s way is not some exotic thing; it is having and practicing the mentality which Christ commands.²

Schaeffer is surely correct. While those who practise foot-washing may not have sufficient biblical warrant upon which to claim the practice as an ordinance of the church, it is mistaken to think not washing anybody's feet in any way is better than, without sufficient biblical warrant, washing others feet in a literal way.

 

¹the common biblical basis cited for practicing foot-washing is John 13: 1-17. Many Free-will Baptists, Primitive Baptists, and other independent Baptist congregations still observe the ritual, some claiming it as a third ordinance of the church. Historically, Separate Baptists and General Baptists routinely practiced foot-washing. Beginning in 1925, no Southern Baptist confession acknowledged any church ordinance other than Baptism and the Lord's Supper.   

²Francis A. Schaeffer, The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview. (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1982)

Comments

[Robert Vaughn]

I love the Schaeffer quote. Slightly different, but in a similar vein, some pastors spend a lot of time teaching their congregations about why feet washing is not an ordinance and spend almost no time telling what Jesus did might mean to us.

The association (local) that I grew up in was pretty much that way. Studying our history, I would later find out our church (organized mostly by Georgians) used to wash feet in the 1800s, and in the same period our association had a standing resolution that washing the saints feet should not be a test of fellowship between churches.

[Mark]

Love it!

[Les Prouty]

Great post. On one of my trips to Haiti, the women on our trip came up with the idea of getting all the orphanage house mamas, cooks, etc. together and our US women washed their feet and then gave them pedicures. Wish I had thought of it. I heard the Haitian women singing praises to God as these blancs served them, gently washing their feet. And I can tell you, Haiti is a very dusty and dry place in many places. These were some dirty feet. It gave me a greater insight into what it must have been like in NT times.

[Steve Martin]

Love the quote. Love the topic.

This is (in my opinion) the best sermon I have ever heard on the subject of Jesus' command to wash each other's feet:

http://theoldadam.com/2012/04/03/the-last-day-of-jesus-life-on-earth-what-did-he-do-why-did-he-do-it/

I hope you find it equally edifying.

[peter lumpkins]

Brothers,

Thanks for the feedback. Albeit I do not read him as much as I used to, Schaeffer remains one of my heroes. I consider his writings as much as any single author outside the Bible as supplying the "basic stuff" in the early formation of my Christian worldview.

Grace all.

With that, I am...
Peter

[Robert Vaughn]

Steve, I enjoyed the sermon you linked. Who is the preacher preaching the sermon?