(Galatians 6:1; Acts 20:28-31; 1 Thessalonians 2:11-12; 1 Timothy 5:19; 2 Timothy 4:2; 1 John 2:13-14.)
An important kind of Christian discipline is that of fatherly watchfulness and pastoral care, for it has a personal character. The church, as such, has nothing to do with it; such care helps to prevent the need for church discipline.
This kind of care requires spiritual experience, wisdom and grace on the part of the one who is to exercise it. He is to speak as a father to his children, not only because of age and greater experience, but also because of grace and a godly walk. “Ye are witnesses, and God also,” the Apostle could say, “how holily, and justly, and unblamably we behaved ourselves among you that believe.” Then he continues, “As ye know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you, as a father doth his children, that ye should walk worthy of God, who hath called you unto His kingdom and glory” (1 Thess. 2:10-12). We find the same in Galatians; the Apostle first exhorts them, “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another” (Gal. 5:25-26). He then continues, “Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted” (Gal. 6:1).
The Real Father
Not everyone who assumes the air of a father is a father. The real father behaves and acts as a father simply because he is one. True spiritual superiority does not assert itself but rather makes itself felt. It does not look out for acknowledgment, but it is acknowledged because of its reality. Fatherly authority in the church should be coupled with motherly tenderness, as was the case with Paul. He not only exhorted the Thessalonians as his children, but he also knew how to comfort them. He wrote to them, “We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children” (1 Thess. 2:7).
“Fathers” are those who “have known Him that is from the beginning” (1 John 2:13), to whom not only all power in heaven and on earth is given, but who is also meek and lowly in heart. They have learned Christ, whose yoke is easy and His burden light. As such, they are able, with a father’s authority, tenderness and care, to restore those that have been overtaken in a fault “in the spirit of meekness” and to “bear ... one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Gal. 6:1-2). This latter quality especially constitutes true pastors, who not only feed the flock, but also before God take upon themselves, as their own, all the cares and sorrows, the sin and misery, of an erring brother, and from God bring the remedy to the failing one.
Loving Gentleness
Words of truth, thus spoken to an erring brother in loving gentleness, will always find a good place with him, even when not received well at the beginning. In these last days, when pride and self-will are so evident, not only in the world, but also in the church of God, the Christian service of washing one another’s feet must frequently expect an unkind reception. There are men whose skin is so thin that a slight scratch causes bleeding difficult to be stilled. And so there are nowadays not a few Christians with such a slender spiritual constitution that at the slightest accidental scratch, so to speak, they start up as if they had been pierced by a dagger. They only prove how little their hearts have been established through grace and how little they have learned of Him who is meek and lowly in heart. But this ought not to deter us from our duty, under grace, to wash one another’s feet, as did our gracious and lowly Master. Christian meekness and humility, so closely connected with Christian love, are most essential requisites in the service of feet-washing.
The Example
When our Lord said, “I have given you an example that ye should do as I have done to you,” He certainly did not mean the mere preparations for that service, such as the girding with the towel and the pouring water into the basin. Many show great aptitude for such preparations, but break down in the act of feet-washing, because they fail to kneel down to get at the brother’s feet. They enter into his presence with an air which says, I have come to wash your feet. Such preparations resemble rather those of a barber than the humble service of a Christian feet-washing, and they generally do more harm than good. A well-known servant of Christ has truly observed, “If I do not judge first in myself the flesh I see active in my brother (for the same exists in myself), I am not fit to wash his feet.” If, before going to a brother to wash his feet, I have been in the dust before the Lord, I shall appear little before my brother and thus be able gently to remove the defilement.
Humility and Love
How much humility ought I to have towards a brother? Enough to supply his lack of it. If he will not bow his knees, let me bow mine and he will soon follow. Did not Gideon do it before the Ephraimites (Judg. 8:1-3)? How much love should I have for my brother? Enough to make up for his lack. Paul also set us the example when he said, “I will very gladly spend and be spent for you” (2 Cor. 12:15). Thus it should be among all the members of Christ; one member ought to supply the others.
The important service of Christian feet-washing forms an integral part of the wider range of fatherly watchfulness and pastoral care, and especially amid the increasing difficulties that beset the “house of the living God” in these last days.
J. A. von Poseck (adapted)