Of the feet-washing of believers we confess:

After our Leader Christ Jesus had celebrated the Supper with His apostles, He, before His suffering, used another ordinance with them, and commanded that they should observe it with each other. He rose from supper, girded Himself with a linen towel, poured water into a basin, washed the disciples' feet, and wiped them with the towel; saying to them: Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you. And He also added: If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

And we find that the apostles observed this ordinance of Christ in this manner, and that they counted it, in the ministry of the saints, among the good works, and required it of the believers. Hence, the believers, as successors and followers of Christ and His apostles, ought also, when time and place permit, practice and observe this ordinance of Christ. When their fellow believers, out of love, visit them, they shall, with heartfelt humility, receive them with the kiss of love and peace into their houses, and as a ministration to their neighbors, according to the humiliation of Christ, wash their feet; sincerely .considering how the most worshipful Son of God humbled Himself, not only washing the feet of His apostles, but much more washing and purifying with His precious death and blood, all our souls and consciences from the stain of eternal condemnation. On this the pious ought herein to meditate with an humble heart.

How Christ practiced this ordinance with His apostles, and commanded it to be observed, read, John 13:4-17.

And also, how the apostles required it of believers as one of the good works, read: "Let not a widow be taken into the number under three-score years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works; if she have brought up children, if she have lodged strangers, if she have washed the saints' feet," etc. (1 Timothy 5:9, 10).

How the pious fathers practiced this ordinance with the guests whom they received, read: Genesis 18:4; 19:2. And also Luke 7:38; John 11:2; Acts 16:33.

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