As we have already pointed out, to be dirty does not mean that we are sinful. Many times you are not sinful, but you are dirty. Dust is everywhere. How easy it is to get dirty. While you are living on earth, even if you sit there without moving, you will become dirty. This earth is full of dirt. Thus, in doing anything, you will get dirty. Even as you are driving down the street on the way to the meeting, your eyes may accidentally see something that causes you to become dirty. Before you got into the car, your spirit was living and uplifted, but after driving for ten minutes, although you had no intention of seeing anything, simply by seeing certain things on the way to the meeting place you were dirtied and your spirit went down. Sometimes, even in our fellowship we can become dirty.
For things that are sinful we need the cleansing of the blood, but for things that are dirty and not sinful we need the spiritual washing. We need a washing by the Holy Spirit, the living Word, and the inner life.
Because being dirty is very close to being sinful, it is difficult to make a distinction between them. It is not easy to give a clear illustration. Perhaps one day you are unhappy with your wife. It is not sinful for a husband to be unhappy with his wife. He does not hate her or say anything bad about her or to her. He is not angry with her. He is simply somewhat unhappy with her. Many times the wives love their husbands excessively. Husbands need the love of their wives, but sometimes a wife’s love is excessive. Sometimes the wives love the husbands with a kind of love when there is no need of that kind of love. When love is needed, it is sweet, but when love is given overabundantly, it is excessive. Such overabounding love can become a disturbance. Suppose a wife, out of concern for her husband’s health, wants him to wear a topcoat when he does not really need one. She fears that he will catch a cold and wants him to wear extra clothing. Such a concern is a bother to the husband and it causes him to be unhappy. Such unhappiness is not sinful. The husband does not say a word; he does not express anything. He is just a little unhappy with his wife. That little unhappiness will frustrate the pleasant fellowship between them.
What should we do in such a case? Perhaps you will apply the blood, saying, “Lord, I was unhappy with my wife for loving me too much. I apply Your blood to this situation.” But that does not work. You need another kind of washing, not the washing by the blood, but the washing by the Spirit, the living Word, and the inner life. Who can afford you this kind of washing? First, the Lord Jesus Himself and second, a saint or saints who have much life. You need to spend time in the Lord’s presence. Remain in the Lord’s presence, and the Lord will come to you and wash you, not with the blood, but with the Spirit, the living Word, and the inner life. It is difficult to say just when He completes this washing. Sometimes it takes only a few minutes to wash the dirt away; at other times it may take half a day. Whenever you are in need of such a washing, just open yourself up to the Lord as you spend time in His presence, and allow the inner life to flow within you. Spontaneously, something living will flow, water, and wash you, and you will become clean again. Your spirit will be uplifted, and your whole being will be so pleasant in the Lord’s presence. This is the washing with the living water in the presence of the Lord.
It is very easy for brothers and sisters who live and serve together to offend each other unconsciously. They may not fight with one another, for fighting is sinful. They simply offend one another unconsciously. Perhaps you offend me without being conscious of it. However, I am full of the consciousness of the offense. As a result, we both have become somewhat dirty. Thus, it will be difficult for us to maintain a pleasant fellowship with one another. Even if we say nothing and try to learn the lesson of the cross, we still find that our fellowship becomes dead. We need to be washed.
Perhaps the brothers who live together in the brothers’ house come together to pray. Some of them are quite living, and others are not at all living because they have become dirtied and their spirits are down. Sometimes all of the brothers may be numb and down in their spirit. It is not because they all have become sinful. They do not criticize one another or fight with one another. Nevertheless, all the brothers have become dirty simply because they have lived together for a length of time without having the proper foot-washing. They also need to have their feet washed.
To be dirty is very close to being sinful. If you go just a half of a step beyond being dirty, you will be sinful. This kind of dirt frustrates our fellowship. The more I look at you, the less my spirit is able to rise up. The more you look at me, the more your spirit goes down. Even if we speak to each other, we cannot speak pleasantly. We can never pretend to be what we are not. If our spirit is pleasant, then our words will also be pleasant. However, if we do not have a pleasant spirit yet we pretend to be pleasant in our words, the situation will become worse. Do you know why so many times the brothers and sisters cannot pray when they come together? It is because they all have become dirtied. They all need the foot-washing for one another.
The Lord washes our feet by the working of the Holy Spirit, by the enlightening of the Word, and by the operating of the inner law of life. Today the Lord always exercises the washing by the Holy Spirit within us, by the Word of God in the Scriptures enlightening us, and by the inner life operating within us. The Lord may wash us many times a day. I can testify that the Lord washes me several times within one day by the Spirit, the Word, and the inner life. I must walk on the earth because I live on the earth. I cannot avoid the earthly touch. I have to deal with my relatives and with the dear brothers and sisters. Sometimes a friend comes to visit me. I cannot avoid meeting with him. But after his visit I feel dirty. This is the earthly touch. Moreover, I must deal with the stores whenever I go shopping. After I have been to a department store, I have the feeling that I have been to Hades. When I come out of that store, I need to be washed immediately. Every time I go shopping, my feet touch the earth and become very dirty. But the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and the inner life are working and operating to wash me continually. Otherwise, I could not maintain my fellowship with the Lord.
After one week’s accumulation of the earthly touch, do you feel the need of the washing when you come to the Lord’s table on the Lord’s Day? Indeed, you do feel the need for the foot-washing to cleanse you from the dirt that you have accumulated from the earthly touch during the week. We need the washing, not only the washing of the blood, which is for sins, but the washing by the work of the Holy Spirit, by the enlightenment of the Word, and by the operation of the inner life to cleanse away the dirt that comes from the earthly touch.
Now we know the real meaning of foot-washing. It is a matter for maintaining fellowship in life. It is not merely a physical matter; rather it has to be a spiritual practice. We must allegorize this sign and not merely understand it in a physical way. According to the spiritual meaning of this sign, we need to allow the Spirit, the living Word, and the inner life to wash away all the dirt that we have accumulated while living in the flesh and walking on this dusty earth.