Section 8
church life, you cannot avoid touching certain situations and speaking to certain people. Peo ple will come to you continually. Be assured that no one who comes to you is clean, for the clean ones will never come, because they do not have problems. Whoever comes to you is a person with a problem. Sometimes a sister with a prob lem will come to you again and again, not leav ing you until she has caused you to be angry with her. Once she has left you, you find that you are completely dirty. Between you and her there is the need of a big foot washing. Without such a foot washing the pleasant fellowship be tween you could never be restored.
This is the reason why a local church may be very happy at the beginning, but after a period of time some in it may become dirtied. Although they still come to the meetings, they do not come pleasantly, with a pleasant spirit. Perhaps they will recall how certain brothers or sisters have offended them. They may attempt to smile and pretend to like others, but what kind of fellow ship could they have? They need the foot wash ing. They need the ministry of life.
In washing one another's feet, we do not need to say, "Brother, I love you, I am going to wash your feet." Foot washing needs a great deal of