Consideration for the Poor
I. It must have been a solemn lesson which our Lord chose to teach so earnestly on that last night of His presence with His disciples; and which He not only gave in words, but expressed in a most significant action, to impress it the deeper on their minds and ours. Observe the connection of the words of the Evangelist, "Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God" what did He upon this knowledge? Did He reveal to them some high mysteries concerning the Divine nature, such as kings and prophets and sages had long desired to learn? No; "He riseth from supper, and laid aside His garments; and took a towel, and girded Himself. After that He poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded." This was what Jesus did, "Knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He was come from God, and went to God." Surely no diviner comment could be given upon the words of the Scriptures that "God is love, and He who dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in Him." A command so given and enforced, must surely have been of the deepest importance.
II. I call this text a command to one particular kind of love the love of our poorer brethren. It is sometimes said that it was a command to practise humility; and so it was, in one sense of the word, but it was also meant to teach us to perform duties of kindness, even of the most humble sort, to those who need them the most not to shrink from the meanest offices in visiting and relieving the bodily wants and sufferings of the poor.
It is those little words, "one another" which express so much, and which we are so apt to lose sight of. These words show that the rich and the poor are members one of another, not two distinct castes I had almost said two distinct races. These words ought to take away that feeling of merit which we are but too apt to attach to our charity. No man is proud of being kind to his brother or his near friend; he would only be ashamed of himself if he were not kind. So, if we felt aright to the poor, that they are, in the highest of all relations our brethren, should we not fully enter into the spirit of the Apostle's words, "Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another?"
T. Arnold, Sermons,vol. ii., p. 111.
References: John 13:13; John 13:14. W. Anderson, Discourses,p. 261. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons,7th series, p. 26. John 13:14; John 13:15. E. W. Shalders, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xiv., p. 328. John 13:15. A. P. Peabody, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xii., p. 60; G. G. Bradley, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiii., p. 177; Parker, City Temple,1871, p. 209.