Charles Ellicott Commentary John 13:10

"Jesus saith to him, He that is bathed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all." — John 13:10 (ASV)

He that is washed needs not, save to wash his feet.—Better, He who has bathed... St. Peter’s words implied that he was wholly unclean and needed a moral cleansing for his feet, head, and hands—for the whole man. Christ answers that this was not so.

The man who has been bathed is clean, but his feet, coming in contact with the dust of the road, need to be washed. This was also true morally.

They had been cleansed; their whole moral life had been changed. However, as they walked through everyday life, they were still liable to its corruption and needed to be cleansed from its pollution.

That day had furnished an example: their pride and self-seeking were of the spirit of the world, and not of the spirit of Christ. His act was a cleansing from that, but it did not imply that they were not already clean.

The lesson is that all, from the Apostles downward, need the daily renewing of God’s grace.

Furthermore, no one should find in failure, or even in the evil that clings to his daily path, a reason for questioning the reality of the moral change that has made him a child of God.

And you are clean, but not all.—This is the moral application, accompanied by the mournful thought that it was not true of all. There was one among those who had been bathed who had allowed evil to enter his heart and pollute it. For him, cleansing had been neglected, and the daily corruption of the world had remained. Evil thoughts had been harboured until, at length, they had made the whole man corrupt. (Compare the note on John 15:4.)