Charles Ellicott Commentary John 13:3

"[Jesus], knowing that the Father had given all the things into his hands, and that he came forth from God, and goeth unto God," — John 13:3 (ASV)

Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands . . .—This explains the act of humility that follows. With the full consciousness of His supreme power and divine origin, and of the divine glory to which He was about to return; yes, because He was conscious of all this, He left the disciples an example of the self-denial that is the necessary outcome of love. Subsisting in the form of God, He thought it not a thing to be grasped at to be equal with God, but emptied Himself by taking upon Him the form of a servant, and being made in the likeness of men (Philippians 2:6). (Compare, for the thought of the gift of all things, Notes on 1 Corinthians 15:25; Ephesians 1:22.)