It is Jesus Christ, the beloved Redeemer of our souls, who speaks thus. He had just humbled Himself to do the work of the slave by washing His disciples’ feet. In doing so, His love demonstrated to the body the service which was lacking at the supper table. At the same time He showed, in a striking symbol, what He had done for their souls in cleansing them from sin. In His twofold work of love He set before them, just before parting, the whole work of His life as a ministry of blessing to body and soul. And as He sits down, He says: “I have given you an example, that ye should do, as I have done to you.” All that they had seen in Him and experienced from Him is thus made the rule of their life.

The word of the blessed Saviour applies to us, too. To each one who knows that the Lord has washed away his sins, He commands with all the touching force of one who is going out to die, “Even as I have done to you, so do ye also.” Jesus Christ does indeed ask everyone of us in everything to act just as we have seen Him do. What He has done to us, and still does each day, we are to do over again to others. In His condescending, pardoning, saving love, He is our example.

At once, we think: “Alas, how seldom I have lived like Christ. How little I have even known that I was expected to live thus!” And yet, He is my Lord; He loves me, and I love Him. I must not entertain the thought of living in any other way than He would have me. I must open my heart to His Word, and fix my gaze on His example, until it exercises its divine power upon me, and moves me to cry: “Lord, even as You have done, so will I do also.”

There is one thing I must not forget. It is not the remembrance of what Jesus has done to me, but the living experience of what He is now to me, that will give me the power to act like Him. His love must be a present reality – the inflowing of a life and a power in which I can love like Him. It is only through the Holy Spirit that I can realise what Jesus is doing for me, how He does it, that it is He who does it, and that it is possible to me to do to others what He is doing to me.

“Even as I have done to you, do ye also!” What a precious word! What a glorious prospect! Jesus is going to show forth in me the divine power of His love, so that I may show it forth to others. He blesses me, that I may bless others. He loves me, that I may love others. He saves and cleanses me, that I may save and cleanse others. He becomes a servant to me, that I may become a servant to others. He gives Himself wholly for and to me, that I may wholly give myself for and to others. I have only to be doing to others what He is doing to me – nothing more. I can do it because He is doing it to me. What I do is nothing but repeating, showing forth, what I am receiving from Him (see Num. 10:32).

Wondrous grace, which thus calls us to be like our Lord in that which constitutes His highest glory. Wondrous grace, which fits us for this calling by Himself first being to us and in us what we are to be to others. Our whole heart will joyously respond to His command, Yes, blessed Lord, even as You do to me will I also do to others.

Prayer: “Gracious Lord, what can I now do but praise and pray? My heart feels overwhelmed with this wondrous offer: that You will reveal all Your love and power in me if will yield myself to let it flow through me to others. Though with fear and trembling, yet in deep, grateful adoration, with joy and confidence, I accept the offer and say: Here I am. Show me how much You love me, and I will show it to others by loving them even so. Grant me, by Your Holy Spirit, a clear insight into Your love for me, that I may know how You love me. And also grant me to see, as often as I feel how little love I have, that it is not with the love of my little heart, but with Your love shed abroad in me, that I have to fulfil the command of loving like You. Am I not Your branch, O my heavenly Vine? It is the fullness of Your life and love that flows through me in love and blessing to those around. It is Your Spirit that, at the same moment, reveals what You are to me, and strengthens me for what I am to be to others in Your name. In this faith, I dare to say, Amen, Lord, even as You do to me, I also do. Yes, Amen.”