TEXT
Matthew 20:20-28
Romans 15:7
“If you ask me what is the first precept of the Christian religion, I will answer first, second and third, Humility.” –Augustine
“What he was attempting to instill in his disciples was the attitude of a servant: humility and a willingness to put others ahead of oneself. In that culture, washing the feet of others would symbolize such an attitude. But in another culture, some other act might more appropriately convey the same truth. Because we find humility taught elsewhere in Scripture without mention of foot washing (Matt 20:27; 23:10-12; Phil. 2:3), we conclude that the attitude of humility, not the particular act of foot washing as such, is the permanent component in Christ’s teaching.” –Millard Erickson
“The infant who is not received in love by the mother and others is wounded for life and may even die. It must bond with its mother or someone in order to take on a self and a life. And rejection, no matter how old one is, is a sword thrust to the soul that has literally killed many, Western culture is, largely unbeknown to itself, a culture of rejection. This is one of the irresistible effects of what is called “modernity,” and it deeply affects the concrete forms Christian institutions take in our time. It seeps into our souls and is a deadly enemy to spiritual formation in Christ.” –Dallas Willard
“Mission…must take the form of servanthood. Only in this way can it escape the charge of arrogance.” –G. Thompson Brown