12 When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. (John 13:12-16 ESV)
By the washing of feet Jesus shows his disciples what discipleship actually looks like in practice. If you remember yesterday’s meditation, you know the reason Jesus needs to wash our feet is for the sake of sanctification.
Even though sanctification is personal because each of our journeys toward the image of Christ is different depending on our own idols; what Jesus tells us is that sanctification is a community effort. Jesus tells his disciples, “wash each other’s feet.”
When you help others look for Christ instead of clinging to an idol in their lives, we’re loving other people exactly in the way Jesus tells us to love – to sacrifice our own rights to sanctify others. This is the way God designed us to live in faith.
How Can We Help in the Sanctification of Others?
I can think of three very practical ways we can live in community with other disciples of Jesus and contribute to their sanctification.
1.Listen to their stories.
Don’t underestimate the power of listening. Most people just need a place to talk out loud so that they can hear and process the areas of their lives where they need to the Holy Spirit to move so that they can be clean and be more like Jesus.
2. Invite them onto a different journey.
Help them see the sins they don’t see in their own lives. Show them through the lens of the gospel how what they are not seeing as sin is one of the things Jesus died for. Then invite them into accountability with you, to talk and be encouraged when they are facing that type of temptation.
For example, you hear a friend is consuming pornography just like eating breakfast or lunch. A routine part of his or her daily routine because their spouse is more like their roommate nowadays and the intimacy once shared by the couple is now shared between that person and the screen, then this is an opportunity for you hearing and grieving that sad reality to invite that person onto a different journey by giving them a vision of what could happen if his or her relationship with pornography ended and a relationship with their spouse were reignited.
3. Challenge them to live better.
Once you invite that person to see a vision of what their life could be like without pornography, challenge them to repent to their spouse about the affair of the heart and create a strategy to heal the relationship by investing in a real relationship instead of an imaginary one. Then keep them accountable to the task. You can also help the couple by inviting them to receive help or counseling.
Pray that you can identify people you need to deepen a relationship with so that you can wash their feet like Jesus.
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