Article 23

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: "You call me Master and Lord: and you say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you." And He also added: "If you know these things, happy are you if you 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 believers. Therefore the believers, as successors and followers of Christ and His apostles, ought also, when time and place permit, to 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 service 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 here to meditate with a humble heart.

How Christ practiced this ordinance with His apostles, and commanded that it be observed, read John 13, verses 4 to 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 threescore years old, having been the wife of one man, well reported of for good works; if she has brought up children, if she has lodged strangers, if she has washed the saints' feet," and so on. First Timothy 5, verses 9 and 10.

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