(John 13:and 15:)
"Feet washing"and"fruit bearing." The former is the Lord's self-imposed responsibility, if one may reverently use such words in connection with Him; the latter is our responsibility. In John 13:it is the intensity of His love for " His own that are in the world " which leads Him to stoop and serve us in order to remove the defilements which are contracted while passing through the world, and keep us in moral suitability to Himself, ready at any moment to be taken away into the place where He is gone Himself. It is not making us fit in the sense of giving us righteous title to be with Him where He is; that is the result of the work of His cross:and through the infinite value of that work as seen, known, and valued by our God and Father, we "are made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light" (Col. 1:12). It is keeping us in moral fitness by the action of the Word as used by Himself, in whatever way, so that there may be no break in the enjoyment of His love here, and moral fitness to receive Him, and be with Him when He comes to take us there. The action is His, not ours. All His own are the subjects of that action; if any are not, it is because they are not His; they have " no part with Him."
The blessed Lord knew He was going out of the world to the Father:and that the Father had given all things into His hands. He was therefore going back to Him in a new character-as Man; and as the one who had all things given to Him as Man. That marvelous love of His had given the poor things He calls "His own" to share with Him-to have "part with Him" in all that was given Him; and now He would still serve them and stoop to their very feet so that the knowledge and enjoyment of that love might not be interrupted by the world's defilements. They were "perfected forever" by His one sacrifice (Heb. 10:14). They were "clean every whit" by the action of His Word (John 15:3). But being in an unclean and defiling world, they would necessarily contract its defilement and need the constant activities of His eternal and unchanging love to remove those stains so that there might be no moral distance between Him and them, and therefore inability to enjoy His things-the "part with Him " here and now before He comes to take us there to enjoy it in its fulness. Let me observe again the action is His, we are the subjects of it and benefit by it.
In fruit-bearing it is different, the responsibility is ours, and that side is put first throughout the chapter. "If ye abide in Me.""Abide in Me," etc., etc. Fruit-bearing is the object, and the Father the One for whom the fruit is produced. Jesus washes our feet because His love cannot bear to have distance and lack of enjoyment between Himself and His own, no matter what produces it. When the feet are washed, and the defilement is removed, then there is no hindrance to fruit-bearing; so that there is a moral connection between the two chapters in that sense. His love is seen in the removal of the hindrance; the Father's heart is gratified by the fruit which is produced when the hindrance is removed. Our responsibility is to abide in Christ that we may produce much fruit.
In communion with Christ the Word has its power over us, the conscience is sensitive and receives its impression the more easily, and one is the more easily cleansed as a fruit-bearing branch. Everything is refused which would be a hindrance to that which gratifies the heart of the Father. Not that we are occupied with the fruit we produce, but in loving obedience, and in dependence, the heart is free to occupy itself with its object-Christ; and in so doing readily and willingly responds to the desires of His heart whatever they may be, and in so doing produces that which satisfies the Father.
Wm. Easton
New Zealand