Albert Barnes Commentary John 13:14-15

"If I then, the Lord and the Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another`s feet. For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you." — John 13:14-15 (ASV)

You also should wash, and so forth. Some have understood this literally as instituting a religious rite that we should observe; but this was evidently not the design, for:

1. There is no evidence that Jesus intended it as a religious observance, like the Lord's Supper or the ordinance of baptism.
2. It was not observed by the apostles or the early Christians as a religious rite.
3. It was a rite of hospitality among the Jews, a common, well-known thing, and performed by servants.
4. Its manifest design is humility: to teach them by his example that they should condescend to the most humble services for the benefit of others. They should not be proud and vain, but should regard themselves as the servants of each other in every way. And especially as they were to be founders of the church and to be greatly honored, he took this occasion to warn them against the dangers of ambition and to teach them, by an example that they could not forget, the duty of humility.