Is Feet washing an ordainance that Jesus put in the Church.

I do not want to take these verses out of context, but it looks like it says that if any doctrine is man-made, we should not let people judge us concerning their acknowledgement. It is our duty, guided by the Holy Spirit, to recognize the ordinances (if any) are to be observed. If we find commands in their clear context to be specific to us, we must follow them. If we do not see them as a clear ordinance, we must be spirit lead to not offend people if they expect us to observe them.

I have no idea concerning "foot washing" as an ordinance. I've always assumed that the context behind foot washing was that people's feet had to be washed during such times because their feet would directly attract dirt. Also, some things were address directly back then because it both applied back then, and would not hurt to be in the Bible now to let the Holy Spirit let the people who take it as an ordinance be able to bless people in an environment where it would be acceptable and appreciated.

 

Webster Dictionary

Ordinance n. Statute
Commandment n. a law or order
Statute n. a law

Acts 15:20 , I think I have more than two or three.

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
John 13:14-15 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet. For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.

these teaching here I could make the same points on the first that some of you make on the second. Except those of you that say Christ was just washing their dirty feet. then you probably thought Mary was just washing his dirty feet with her tears.

You know I could see some one in need and feel in my heart to do something for them. Some of you would say thats a good thing to do. But you know what, its a commandment. But I guess this is why we have different handles in front of Baptist. ..........bro. jeremy

 

Bro Bob wrote:

I see your logic here, but remember that I said this:

I was basically agreeing with what rlvaughn said in that just because something may or may not be an ordinance doesn't mean it cannot be practiced. I further said:

That's the context, that's what I said and am saying. I do not believe one's doctrine of ordinances is the bene esse of whether or not one is a heretic :smilewinkgrin:

Regarding Baptist distinctives, you wrote:

Well, you brought 'em up :laugh: Interestingly enough, some pentecostals, Churches of God, etc., practice FW for what it's worth.

1 Tim 5:10 doesn't appear to be strong evidence that the church practiced FW. If that's the case, then did the church practice child-rearing, also mentioned in v. 10? And if FW was in connection with LS, why is LS not mentioned? Just food for thought :thumbs:

As I said, I do not believe FW is a 3rd "ordinance" because the Bible is my guide andmy guide gives me no room to allow this. You disagree. Somehow, I think we're both still saved :smilewinkgrin:

 

No. This United Baptist Church (there are few here in Eastern TN) was very unscriptural in its practice and theology. That's why I left (I left years before they did) and when they eventually saw this, they left, too. This particular church adopted very strange practices and unbiblical doctrines, and allowed certain people to engage in gross immorality unchecked, and a myriad of other things. There is only one other United Baptist church that I know of in our county, and it is about 25 miles away. It's been a long time since I've worshipped at that church. I believe they've dwindled down to just a few. My parents saw how faithful to the Word my home church is and it didn't hurt that they could walk to the church since both are along in years. My mother is unable to attend due to failing health, but my father attends every service. He decided age isn't going to slow him down :smilewinkgrin: But truthfully his health is better than hers.

I feel bad for that old church. They lost the concept of what it meant not only to be a United Baptist church, but a Baptist church and a church in general. My heart weeps for them and I pray they turn if Jesus has not already removed their candlestick.

 

Interesting that you mentioned associations. That's one thing this old church eschewed. They claimed they were of the devil. Churches were not to associate with one another formally. Not that there were many United left to associate with, mind you, but they preached against associating with churches (they really preached against Southern Baptist churches). The church also had weekly services (AM, PM, Wed PM). From what I gather, the church used to be part of an association but the church just slipped downward on the downgrade, and slid too far. The church saw a split in the late 80s. A church split off and became a Southern Baptist church. Truthfully, they saw what the rest of us didn't want to see. Eventually, the rest of us opened our eyes (Thank God).

 

Food for thought:

According to the Bible, a church consists of two offices: a bishop and deacons.
Bishop is mentioned 4 times in the Bible (I Timothy 3:1-2, Titus 1:7, & I Peter 2:25). All are from the same word ep-is'-ko-pos/ep-is'-ko-pay meaning a superintendent, a Christian officer in charge of a church, or an overseer.
Deacon is only mentioned twice in the Bible (I Timothy 3:10,13). Both are from the same word dee-ak-on-eh'-o meaning an attendant, someone who waits upon, or a servant. According to the Bible the offices in a church are either a bishop (overseer) or a deacon (servant).

A church in the Bible is always ek-klay-see'ah meaning a religious congregation, a synagogue, Christian community, or an assembly.

Whenever there is a gathering of any group of people, at least one person must lead the goup and at least one (hopefully more than one) has to do the duties of service for that group. Anything less would be a mob and not an assembly. It only makes sense that the Bible would expect Christians to assemble together, thus God has administered these two offices to keep order in the gathering.

The Bible mentions gifts of the church:

Pastors in the Bible is always raw-aw' meaning basically a tender of a flock. The exception of the word Pastors is in:

The word pastors is poy-mane' having a literal and figurative meaning of shepherd.

If one searches throughout the Scriptures it is very difficult to find where a pastor and a bishop are the same person. Of course one person could fulfill both of those roles as most churches today do.

Why am I yapping on about this when it seems to have nothing to do with the subject?

Maybe, churches in the new testament started off as simple gatherings in houses during times when Christians were persecuted. As persecution ceased, people wanted more organization in the church, thus more "offices" were created and more "authority" was given to men. Look at the hierarchy of offices in the Roman Catholic Church. Besides bishop and deacon, all the other offices were man-made.

Since Rome was a dominating government, people adopted the structure of the Roman church. The separatists decided that they had had enough of the forced religion and formed their own churches. However, they were still greatly under the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, thus many of the customs and ordinances were preserved within their own churches. Man-made authority was still dominant and people assumed that men have a God-given authority to rule other people's spiritual lives.

If one studies the New Testament carefully and thoroughly, one will find commandments from Jesus directly or indirectly given to all of us to obey as the Holy Spirit leads us. One would also find the two offices of a church, the gifts of a church, and Paul's guiding principles for how churches should be run to keep harmony in the assembly.

The idea of certain commands being "church ordinances" may have been adopted from tradition as passed down from Roman influence. We have the Lord's commands for all of us to follow as the Holy Spirit leads us. But, since these commands were told either do always or do often, man naturally tries to codify and organize such to make it easier to follow the commands, yet too much "administered organization" can cause such to become mindless mechanisms that lose the heart.

My advise to everyone is to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Don't let traditions and ordinances belittle the commands that Jesus told us to do with a heart of service. Just be careful, my friends. raying:

 

I agree with you that churches should not do it mechanically, and I've seen many who do it often do it in a meaningful way. If someone can look at the broken body and shed blood of Christ in a mechanical way without passion and heart, then something's wrong.