“For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.”
King James Version (KJV)
13:14 Ye ought also to wash one another's feet - And why did they not? Why do we not read of any one apostle ever washing the feet of any other? Because they understood the Lord better. They knew he never designed that this should be literally taken. He designed to teach them the great lesson of humble love, as well as to confer inward purity upon them. And hereby he teaches us, In every possible way to assist each other in attaining that purity; To wash each other's feet, by performing all sorts of good offices to each other, even those of the lowest kind, when opportunity serves, and the necessity of any calls for them.
13:16 The servant is not greater than his lord - Nor therefore ought to think much of either doing or suffering the same things.
Joh 13:15 For I have given you an example. Christ gave an example, not a church ordinance. It is our duty to follow the example and render the same kind of service to fellow Christians. To make his example a ceremonial and follow it literally would be to lose its spirit. Note the fact that not once else where is it referred to in the New Testament as a church ordinance, and only once mentioned at all. It is named as a mark of a godly widow in 1Ti 5:10. Nor is there any mention of it as a church ordinance until the fourth century. The lesson is that he who would be greatest must be always ready to serve others in a spirit of humility and self-sacrifice.
For I haue giuen you an example, that yee should doe, as I haue done to you.
- King James Version (1611) - View 1611 Bible Scan
"For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you.
- New American Standard Version (1995)
For I have given you an example, that ye also should do as I have done to you.
- American Standard Version (1901)
I have given you an example, so that you may do what I have done to you.
- Basic English Bible
for I have given you an example that, as I have done to you, ye should do also.
- Darby Bible
For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
- Webster's Bible
For I have set you an example in order that you may do what I have done to you.
- Weymouth Bible
For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
- World English Bible
for Y haue youun `ensaumple to you, `that as I haue do to you, so do ye.
- Wycliffe Bible
`For an example I gave to you, that, according as I did to you, ye also may do;
- Youngs Literal Bible