Like Teacher, Like Disciple - Your Daily Forward Devotional

Like Teacher, Like Disciple

March 18

Read John 13:12-15 (ESV)

When he had washed their feet and put on his outer garments and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you.

Reflect

Who do you look up to as a role model?

Who did you look up to when you were a kid? Maybe it was someone famous like an athlete or a musician. Or maybe it was someone closer to you like a family member, friend, or trusted teacher. We all need a role model. Someone to show us the way. An example of how to live.

In today’s passage, Jesus told His disciples that He is the example that they should follow and He had just shown them what He expected them to do after He was gone—humbly serve one another in love.

Jesus, God in the flesh, had already condescended to our level by leaving His glory in Heaven to come to earth as a man. Now, He humbly stooped down even lower to wash His disciples’ feet. Our Lord and Savior did the menial, dirty work of a servant out of love for them and in today’s passage, He told them that He expects them to “wash one another’s feet” as well.

In Mark 9:33-35, there is an account of the disciples arguing with each other about who was the greatest of them all. Jesus corrected them by saying, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all” (v. 35). If they wanted to be first, they had to put themselves last. Jesus expects His followers to serve others the way that He served others.

But service isn’t the only aspect of Jesus’ life and ministry that His followers are supposed to follow. Coming up in John 13:34-35, we’ll see that Jesus commanded His disciples to “...love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

We also know that we are to forgive each other “as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). Jesus also commanded that we forgive others: “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25).

Friend, if you are looking up to anyone else but Jesus as your role model, as great as they are, they will fall short. Jesus is the only perfect example of how to live a life that pleases and honors God. In today’s passage, Jesus called Himself “our Teacher and our Lord.” Since He is the best teacher we could ever hope to have, let’s do to others what Christ has done for us: serve, love, and forgive. May the world know that we are His disciples because we reflect Him. Like Teacher, like disciples.

Respond

Lord, thank You for being the perfect example of how to live a godly life. I know that You are so much more than a good Teacher and a positive role model but You aren’t less than that. Please keep working in my life. Make me more like You every day. Amen.

Reveal: How is serving, loving, and forgiving like Christ, a testimony to those around you?

~ Pastor Nat Crawford