John 13:15

For. have given you an example.

Christ gave an example, not. church ordinance. It is our duty to follow the example and render the same kind of service to fellow Christians. To make his example. ceremonial and follow it literally would be to lose its spirit. We wish every student to note the fact that not once elsewhere is it referred to in the New Testament as. church ordinance, and only once mentioned at all. In 1 Timothy 5:10, it is named as. mark of. godly widow. Nor is there any mention of it as. church ordinance until the fourth century when the tide of corruption was sweeping in. The Pope now washes the feet of twelve beggars once. year, the German Baptists (Dunkards), Mennonites, and. few other minor sects practice it, but with rare exceptions Christendom, from the days of the apostles to our time, has looked upon the Savior's example as. sublime act of humility whose spirit must always be followed, but has rejected the idea of him establishing. church ordinance. There is. wide difference between an example and. church ordinance. When Christ wept with sympathy, or fed the hungry, or ministered to the sick, or taught lowly service by washing the feet of his disciples, he set an example, and happy are we if we know what he did, drink in his spirit, and follow the example. That feet washing belongs to the class of examples, rather than of church ordinances, is demonstrated by the fact that when we turn to the inspired history of the church as recorded in Acts and in the Epistles, it is silent concerning any such ordinance. The Savior, the night before he was crucified, established. church ordinance, the Lord's Supper. We discover it just as soon as the church is organized on the day of Pentecost. The converts "continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine, and in the fellowship, and in the breaking of bread, and in prayers." In his commission, just before the ascension, he established another ordinance, baptism. This we find, also, to appear immediately. On Pentecost Peter commands it and "they that gladly received the Word were baptized." Thus it continues; these undoubted church ordinances are constantly named throughout Acts, through the Epistles, the Apostolic Fathers and early writers of Christianity, while feet washing is named only once more in the New Testament, and then in such. way as to show that it was observed as. private benevolence, not as. church ordinance, and is never mentioned in the latter aspect until the time of Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, when the apostasy had been fully inaugurated and the Bishop of Rome was claiming to take precedence of all other dignitaries in the church. This silence during the ages of apostolic purity settles the interpretation we are to place on the Savior's language. It is our duty to be always ready to do to others as he did, to serve them in. spirit of humility and self-sacrifice.