John 13:1-17
Jesus Says He Has Set the Example for Us to Follow
1It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love.
2The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. 3Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; 4so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. 5After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?"
7Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand."
8"No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet."
Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me."
9"Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!"
10Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." 11For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean.
12When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. 13"You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. 14Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. 15I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 16I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.
We are to be like Jesus...And Jesus and His Disciples and Apostles said these things about being more like Him...Whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked...For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps...Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ...Therefore, be imitators of God, as beloved children...And walk in love, as Christ LOVED us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God...To put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness...You call Me Teacher and LORD, and you are right, for so I AM...If I then, your LORD and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet...For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you...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...If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them...If you love Me, you will keep My commandments...For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the Image of His Son, in order that He might be the firstborn among many brothers...
So a goal of all people is to be like Jesus...He is the Perfect Man...He committed no sins and no words of deceit ever has came from His lips...However man sins...And we fall short of Jesus and God...by sinning everyone fails to achieve maybe our main objective in life that is called "the Glory of God."...This is one of the main goals in life is to be in the Glory of God and to be more like Jesus...And maybe it is not only a goal of man's but the purpose God created man and woman...
Man is to be like Jesus or in some manner be as much like Him as we can...God sent Jesus down, maybe for no other reason...It is possible that the unverse, which was made through Jesus, was created for no other purpose but for every man and woman to be like Jesus is, in the Gospels...
C. S. Lewis said that the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ and closer to Jesus, to make them little Christs...If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time...So, if you believe this, then everyone of us has to be teaching and doing and most of all acting and living like Jesus did, while He was on earth...It is the Great Commission that everyone knows the gospel and know Jesus...Whether it be the church or reading the Bible or living like Jesus did, we are to teach all our neighbors about Jesus and how to be like Him...
Lewis in his book Mere Christianity in the chapter The Great Sin puts this more into context: “It is so easy to get muddled about that...It is easy to think that the Church has a lot of different objects—education, building, missions, holding services...Just as it is easy to think the State has a lot of different objects— military, political, economic, and what not...But in a way things are much simpler than that...The State exists simply to promote and to protect the ordinary happiness of human beings in this life...A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden—that is what the State is there for...And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time...In the same way the Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs...If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time...God became Man for no other purpose...It is even doubtful, you know, whether the whole universe was created for any other purpose...It says in the Bible that the whole universe was made for Christ and that everything is to be gathered together in Him...I do not suppose any of us can understand how this will happen as regards the whole universe...We do not know what (if anything) lives in the parts of it that are millions of miles away from this Earth...Even on this Earth we do not know how it applies to things other than men...After all, that is what you would expect...We have been shown the plan only in so far as it concerns ourselves.”...