John 13:1-17

Invocation

Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise in the assembly of the godly! Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the children of Zion rejoice in their King! Let them praise his name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre! For the Lord takes pleasure in his people; he adorns the humble with salvation. Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their throats and two-edged swords in their hands, to execute vengeance on the nations and punishments on the peoples, to bind their kings with chains and their nobles with fetters of iron, to execute on them the judgment written! This is honor for all his godly ones. Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary; praise him in his mighty heavens! Praise him for his mighty deeds; praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with trumpet sound; praise him with lute and harp! Praise him with tambourine and dance; praise him with strings and pipe! Praise him with sounding cymbals; praise him with loud clashing cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you, and the Holy Spirit, one God, world without end, and amen.

Confession of Sin

1 John 2:3–6 ESV

3 And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4 Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5 but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6 whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Jesus was humble, and called his people to imitate him, by considering others as more highly than ourselves. He modeled humility, by devoting His whole life to service to his people—culminating in His death. He washed the feet of His disciples to show them the nature of His ministry, that it was one of service. Not begrudging service, that complained about dirty feet, but one marked by humility.

Pride is the enemy of humility, it is the basest of sins. C. S. Lewis describes pride in Mere Christianity this way:

the essential vice, the utmost evil, is Pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness, and all that, are mere fleabites in comparison: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind...How is it that people who are quite obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshipping an imaginary God. They theoretically admit themselves to be nothing in the presence of this phantom God, but are really all the time imagining how He approves of them and thinks them far better than ordinary people: that is, they pay a pennyworth of imaginary humility to Him and get out of it a pound’s worth of Pride towards their fellow-men. I suppose it was of those people Christ was thinking when He said that some would preach about Him and cast out devils in His name, only to be told at the end of the world that He had never known them. And any of us may at any moment be in this death-trap. Luckily, we have a test. Whenever we find that our religious life is making us feel that we are good—above all, that we are better than someone else—I think we may be sure that we are being acted on, not by God, but by the devil. The real test of being in the presence of God is, that you either forget about yourself altogether or see yourself as a small, dirty object. It is better to forget about yourself altogether. (Lewis, Mere Christianity, 121, 124)

Those who know Jesus, who abide in Him, must kill pride, and put on humility. So as we come to confess our sins this morning, let us consider the ways we have been exalting ourselves, the ways pride has kept our eyes firmly focused on ourselves, and let us come and ask the Lord to strip us of pride, to burn away our arrogance, and humble us, not so that we may feel like a worm and detest ourselves. God is not after an inferiority complex, but so that we begin to think of ourselves less, and think more of others. Let us confess silently our sins of pride.

New Testament Lesson

Philippians 2:1–18 ESV

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. 14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.

Pastoral Prayer

Let us rouse ourselves to take hold of God, to seek his face, and to ascribe to him the glory due his name.

You are the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. We therefore draw near to you believing that you exist and that you powerfully and bountifully reward those who diligently seek you. You have assured us that while the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, the prayer of the upright is acceptable; and that the one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies you; and the sacrifice of thanksgiving will please the LORD more than an ox or a bull with horns and hoofs. Lord, we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but let your Spirit help us in our weakness and intercede for us. And now, O Lord, for what do we wait? Truly our hope is in you. Deliver us from all our transgressions. Do not make us the scorn of the fool. Thank you, Father, that you have begun a good work in us and will bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus. But Lord, you know that we are not home yet; this world, our individual worlds, are still subject to great brokenness and frustration. And even we who have the Spirit still groan inwardly as we wait for the dawn of salvation to become the full day of salvation. And so, Lord, we eagerly lift up our needs and requests to you. This morning we pray for: Those whose chronic loneliness becomes acutely painful during this holiday season and for those who have lost loved ones and grieve their absence. Lord Jesus, would you be their comfort. Those whose marriages are estranged and who have lost hope of any real intimacy. Lord Jesus, would you be their peace. For those who ache to be married and see no realistic prospect. Lord Jesus, would you be the lover of their souls. For those struggling with acute or chronic illness. Lord Jesus, would you be their healer. For those unemployed or underemployed or those whose jobs are a daily battle with demands and discouragement. Lord, Jesus, would you be their reward. For those who struggle to have even a mustard seed of faith, who lack assurance and live under a cloud of condemnation every day. Lord Jesus, would you be their sun of righteousness. For those who are victims of natural disasters and destruction, hunger and poverty, racism and oppression, war and terrorism. Lord Jesus, would you be their restoration. We think especially of our brothers and sisters across the world who are hated and who hurt in various ways because of their faith in Jesus. Lord Jesus, would you be their glory. In all these circumstances and in countless more, Lord, help us remember that there is now no condemnation in Christ Jesus and there will never be any separation from his love. Continue to guard us through faith, call us each by name, cause us to walk in a manner pleasing to you, and give us a strong and steady hope for that day when all sorrow and sighing will flee away and everlasting joy will be upon our heads in your glad presence. We pray in hope through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Tithes & Offerings

We come now to offer God, the fruit of our harvest, such as it is we ask God to use it for the good of His church, the spread of the gospel, asking that he may hasten the day of His return. But until then, our giving helps us to remember our place, that God is God and we are not, and all that we have body and soul, belongs to him. So give today out of the abundance that he has given to you, and give cheerfully, knowing that God loves the humble and draws near to the broken-hearted. Let us Pray:

O Lord, accept the fruit of our hands, and let it serve to represent our great love and devotion to you, as we worship you this morning. Take it and multiply it, for we know that you give the increase, and may these tithes and offerings serve to exalt your holy name, as we glory in you. Through Christ Jesus our Lord, amen.

The Love of Jesus

John 13:1-17

Intro

Do you have those chores around the house that have to be done, but no one wants to do? Mine is cleaning out the garbage cans. One of the things that has taken us some time to get used to here in the East is the garbage service. In the West, we have perfected garbage collection. Partly this is because cities out west were designed for cars, and most houses have garages and driveways, so there are no cars on the streets. So the garbage truck comes through with its fancy truck that has a mechanical arm that lifts your can and dumps it in the truck, even giving them the ability to tap it a few times to make sure everything comes out. But here, at least in Scranton, the garbage men use their hands to take each bag out of the can. If while doing that a bag breaks, they take that as their cue to stop unloading that can, leaving it for you to clean up. What inevitably happens is the bottom of the can accumulates all kinds of nasty stuff, and from time to time must be cleaned out. It's smelly, disgusting work that no one wants to do. But it has to be done.

The first-century equivalent of cleaning out the garbage can was washing feet. The hot, arid climate of Palestine, with its dusty and dirty streets coupled with open-toed sandals, makes for a nice combination when, before you recline for dinner, someone has to wash your feet. This was a job reserved for slaves, or women, or children, with some arguing that it was not even fitting for a fellow Hebrew who was a slave to do. And it is this smelly, nasty chore that no one wants to do, that Jesus does, using it to show His disciples His great love for them. But more than displaying His love for His disciples, it also foreshadows symbolically the cleansing His bloody cross provides—a model for us as Christians to follow.

As Jesus washes His disciples' feet—an act of love, a symbol of saving cleansing, and a model of Christian conduct—you must cultivate humility, considering others more highly than yourselves.

A Display of Love

The first few verses of chapter 13 form a kind of introduction to this next section in the Gospel of John which is often called the farewell discourse. Already in chapter twelve Jesus received some kind of signal that the hour of His death had come. Jesus had been sent by the Father on a mission to save the world. Much of His ministry on earth was spent preparing His people for that hour by proving to them in word and deed that He was the Christ, the Son of God. Part of that preparation included getting them used to the idea that this salvation would come in a startling way which would only make sense fully after it had been accomplished.

But in this farewell discourse, Jesus is having an intimate teaching opportunity just for the disciples. He is not preaching to the crowds who don't believe in an effort to create faith, but instead is building His disciples up in their faith, and preparing them for what, up to that moment, would be their greatest trial.

The Apostle John is often called the apostle of love for his emphasis on the love of God seen in the sending of His Son to save ruined sinners from death and give them eternal life. From beginning to end, Jesus is the incarnate love of God who came to showcase that by "loving his own to the end." John, who is so fond of double-meanings, shows us "the fullness of Jesus' love as it manifested itself from that moment: it was love to the last breath and love in its highest intensity" (Ridderbos, John, 452).

The confession describes Jesus' earthly ministry as His estate of humiliation. Not because becoming man was inherently degrading, as scripture is not gnostic, teaching that salvation is escape from the body. Matter is not what's the matter, sin is. But for God, the second person of the Trinity, to come and take on flesh and dwell among us, it necessarily meant a condescension on His part, both to leave the comforts of heaven, but also to inhabit time and space. Or, I should say, to inhabit one time and one space at a time. He had to set aside His former glory and take on the form of a servant; He had to subject Himself to the helplessness of being born a child and living life in this fallen world.

Here on full display is the extent of His love. All the thousands of years since the fall waiting for "His hour" to come, and now that it has come, He still needs to show beforehand the extent of that love so that His disciples understand. That's because the nature of that hour is the gruesome death on a cross, which from the perspective of His disciples could look like something else. It could look like a defeat, or worse, that He really wasn't the Christ, and that they had misplaced their hopes.

To prepare them, Jesus, before a meal, takes off His outer garment, adopting the form and posture of a servant so that He could wash their feet. It's curious because the narrative does not set up this stance of humility naturally. Notice v. 3. "Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going back to God, rose from supper" and then proceeded to wash the disciples' feet. That's unexpected, and it shows in their response. Jesus is from God and is going back to Him, and God has given Him authority over everything, and the next thing we expect Him to say is He sat down on a throne and His disciples came and paid homage to Him and one of them washed His feet.

Jesus does the exact opposite. He displays His great love by humbling Himself even further and washing their feet. For love is not being made much of, but making much of others. In that culture's greatest act of humility, Jesus displays His love to His disciples by considering them more highly than Himself. Knowing also as He does that one of them was an enemy and would shortly betray Him. Still, even His enemies see His display of love. But as the response from Peter makes clear, Jesus will have to clarify and apply the significance of His lavish display of love if they and we are to understand why Jesus is doing this.

A Symbol of Saving Cleansing

I love Peter, I think we all do, since he seems to speak for most of us as he's carried away by his own passions, oblivious to what Jesus is doing. And that's me more often than I care to admit. So Jesus makes His way around the table and then gets to Peter. "No way, Lord, you're not touching my feet." Here Peter's blue-collar humility shines, and we've no reason to doubt its genuineness. “Never” in the ESV conceals the vehemence of Peter’s refusal which in Greek is closer to not for all eternity would you ever wash my feet. But Jesus, characteristically, says something startling. He says, "If I do not wash you, you have no share with me" (13:8).

Jesus knows full well that they can't possibly understand the significance of what He's doing. How could they? This is why Jesus so often uses these enacted parables—signs pointing beyond themselves. Here, it points to something looming on the horizon, something for which the hour has come. With the compassion of one who loves to the utmost and the wisdom of the most skilled teacher, Jesus begins to explain the significance of His actions.

Here, Peter is confronted with the all-or-nothing claims of Jesus. If you won’t take part in this foot washing, then you can have no part in me. Meaning that you cannot have salvation, for salvation is not found in following some formula, or an abstract “faith” in God. Salvation is a person, Jesus, and being able to share in what he accomplishes. Here we note that Jesus has already warned Peter that only afterward would these events makes sense. Jesus didn’t mean after he had washed His feet, the afterward refers to his death and subsequent resurrection. How would those events shed light on Jesus’ foot-washing? By showing that it was his death as a servant for the sins of His people that cleansed them from sin.

In all our dealing with the sacraments, and as strong as the sacramental language of the NT is, we must never forget that the sacraments are signs that point us to our union with a person. To take part in the salvation God has accomplished in Christ, you must have your sins cleansed by His precious blood on the cross.

So Peter quickly reverses course. OK, Lord, if that’s the case, then wash all of me, not just my feet but my hands and my head. Here again, Peter does not understand all that he is saying, he only knows at that moment that all he wants is Christ. And if this foot washing is what it takes to have him, then he’ll have it and then some.

Here, we begin to see that this whole display of Jesus love has less to do with the actual feet and actual water, since these serve merely to illustrate Jesus broader point. Which is the servanthood of Jesus. So lest Peter miss the import of the metaphor, and think this foot-washing was the cleansing, Jesus adds, “the one who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.” (13:10).

Although Christ has made you clean, by forgiving you all your sins and reconciling you to God, the frustration of the Christian life is that there remains sinful remnants of the old man that necessitate the ongoing cleansing of Jesus. You are clean, but you still need repentance and the renewing work of the Holy Spirit to wash your feet. Calvin put it so eloquently this way:

The children of God are not altogether regenerated on the first day, so as to aim at nothing but the heavenly life; but, on the contrary, the remains of the flesh continue to dwell in them, with which they maintain a continued struggle throughout their whole life. The term feet, therefore, is metaphorically applied to all the passions and cares by which we are brought into contact with the world; for, if the Holy Spirit occupied every part of us, we would no longer have anything to do with the pollutions of the world; but now, by that part in which we are carnal, we creep on the ground, or at least fix our feet in the clay, and, therefore, are to some extent unclean. Thus Christ always finds in us something to cleanse. What is here spoken of is not the forgiveness of sins, but the renewal, by which Christ, by gradual and uninterrupted succession, delivers his followers entirely from the sinful desires of the flesh. (Calvin, Gospel of John, Vol. 2, 59).

Two things from this comfort us, and then another is warning to hypocrites. First, Jesus doesn’t expel disciples who have soiled their feet, but takes them and washes them. As this enacted parable is meant to teach us the servant nature of Christ, as a display of His love, it is also meant to teach us that he will not disregard you because you managed to get your feet dirty.

Second, not to strain the metaphor too far, but all the disciples need foot-washing. There are not super disciples, who Jesus, by dint of their superior spirituality he allows to wash their own feet. Let me tell you how we often treat Jesus. You are at the table with Jesus, and then you notice him get down and take off his outer garment and start to wash the other disciples’ feet. Which causes you to look down at your own feet, and think O my gosh, they’re so filthy. O know, what am I to do. You look next to you to someone else who Jesus hasn’t washed yet, and your even more appalled, because their feet don’t look that dirty, not compared to yours. Then you try covertly to wash them yourself before he gets there, but now your hands are getting dirty too, and pretty soon, your an even bigger mess than before, and instead of waiting for Jesus to get to you, to cleanse your feet, you leave the table. Then you go and try to find somewhere to clean your feet on your own. So that instead of through repentance experiencing the cleansing grace of the Holy Spirit, you are filled with shame and guilt because in all that you didn’t see the lavish display of Jesus love, you didn’t see the cleansing blood of Jesus on a cross bearing your shame and guilt all you saw was your filthy feet.

Every single washed, baptized, blood-bought disciple is also at the same time a sinner who needs his feet clean. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that your feet are clean and you’ve no need of Jesus to wash your feet. But also don’t think that somehow your the only one, and don’t convince yourself that somehow your feet are so much worse than others such that Jesus may not be able to, or at least not desire to, wash them. Both are lies. You are clean, and you’ve no need to be baptized again, just because your feet are dirty—look to Christ and the cleansing renewal of the Holy Spirit, for the forgiveness of those besetting sins.

But there is also a warning to hypocrites here. Judas has his feet washed too, but he is not clean. While the amazing love the savior is displayed in His having washed the feet of his betrayer, that same action will rise up and condemn Judas on the last day. For he had every opportunity for repentance set right in front of him, and he refused it, preferring to try to impose His own will on Christ. As we will consider in more detail next week, Judas had the sacraments, and they didn’t save. Sacraments, mind you, that were done by Christ, but which were not joined with faith. You have to wonder what passed through Judas’ head when Jesus cleansed his feet. Did he think this was ridiculous and far beneath a rabbi to do? Did he find it absurd and refuse to try to reconcile Jesus’ actions with his purpose to go to the cross instead of winning a political victory? Jesus warns that you can have ready access to the means of grace and yet, because you were not cleansed by Christ, no amount of foot-washing would ever make you clean.

Jesus displays his great love for His disciples by setting aside any worldly honor to wash their feet, both as a picture of His cleansing death, but also as a model for Christian discipleship. So, let us now consider vv. 12-17.

A Model of Christian Conduct

John 13:12–17 (ESV)—12 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? 13 You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you also should do just as I have done to you. 16 Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. 17 If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

The meaning of this enacted parable is not exhausted when we merely see the servant heart of Jesus, unless we understand that what is true of Him must also be true of us. Jesus is a person of eminence, he is a teacher and lord; they have not misunderstood that fact. But there are worldly ways of using those positions which would have you think that foot-washing is beneath them and may even be wrong. Jesus wants that whole notion dispelled. Yes, I am the Lord and master and yes, I have washed your feet, and that is not inconsistent. Those things are not to be set against each other since Jesus did them as an example for us to follow. His argument is an argument of how much more. If Jesus, who is Lord and Teacher, washes the feet of His disciples, how much more ought the disciples to wash each others feet?

There is no disciple, no Christian who is above service to one another. No one exempt from having the same mind as Christ, for since as Paul teaches in Phil 2, He “did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant” (Phil. 2:5). That is the example you must follow, unless you are somehow above God.

Now don’t miss the full import of this by focusing on the foot-washing aspect, that is merely the metaphor which serves as a vehicle to illustrate an attitude and disposition of service to others. Key to this is the cultivation of two attributes Christ models for us here: love and humility. We see that Jesus, instead of telling his disciples about his love and humility and how important it is for them; he shows them what love and humility look like. Not only by washing their feet, but by doing what that sacrificial enacted parable points to, His sacrificial death on the cross. That is love and humility displayed for all to see, and as Jesus makes clear here, to follow him in.

Love, of course, must be the ground motive that drives service, with humility being the mode. Love, not in our current cultures devotion, which is very narcissistic. Love is much more about me, and how I express myself. Self-love, and the turn inward of our therapeutic age, are much at odds with a biblical model of love. But the biblical model of love, is other-orientated, it’s self-forgetful. Which is why humility must go hand and hand with love. Humility we could look at from two angles. Most simply, humility is the absence of pride and a good estimation of yourself with the ability to put others above yourself. Humility is not coping an inferiority complex; it’s not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less. It’s, as Keller put it in a sermon of the same title, the freedom of self forgetfulness. He says,

Gospel-humility is not needing to think about myself. Not needing to connect things with myself. It is an end to thoughts such as, ‘I’m in this room with these people, does that make me look good? Do I want to be here?’ True gospel-humility means I stop connecting every experience, every conversation, with myself. In fact, I stopped thinking about myself. The freedom of self-forgetfulness. The blessed rest that only self-forgetfulness brings. (Keller, The Freedom of Self-forgetfulness, 32).

Those who have been justified by grace through faith have no need for the side-long glance of envy, no need to constantly compare themselves with others, no need to make everything about them. Only when you are secure in your salvation, knowing that it is not dependent on your work or effort, can you have the freedom to be humble, to think of yourself less and think more of others. But humility is such a fragile thing to cultivate. Lewis, in The Screwtape Letters, has Screwtape exclaim to his Nephew Wormwood,

I see only one thing to do at the moment. Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility. Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, ‘By jove! I’m being humble’, and almost immediately pride—pride at his own humility—will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of his attempt—and so on, through as many stages as you please. But don’t try this too long, for fear you awake his sense of humour and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed.

Jesus displays his great love for His disciples by washing their feet. His action prefigure the suffering servant, whose sacrificial death would cleanse them from sin. And while Jesus does not call His disciples to imitate the redemptive nature of His death, he does call them to die. He calls them to die to self, and live for others. He calls them to adopt the same posture of humility and service that he did when he washed their feet. But only those who have been washed can follow Christ in his call to humble service. Only those whose daily experience the cleansing renewal of the Spirit’s forgiveness for sin can serve others with no care for self. For if your Lord, the Son of God, has served you, how much more ought you to serve one another. Amen.

Lord’s Supper Meditation

The context for Jesus’ great act of service by washing His disciples’ feet took place at the Passover meal, on the eve of His betrayal and death. And as at that meal, Jesus summons all those who have been washed, and whose feet are clean. Meaning, those who have been baptized and continue to live lives of repentance. Just as His disciples needed the enacted parable of foot-washing to understand the humility of Christ, the service of His sacrificial death, and the call to imitate him, so to do we continue to need this enacted parable of bread and wine, fit emblems of His body and blood. Would that I had a whole loaf of bread I could tear for you to get the sense of His torn body, and a jug of wine I could pour out so you could sense his blood shed for you. But here we are, and these elements show forth in simplicity fitting for the gospel, the death of Jesus, and your share in it. For you get to come and taste and smell and savor the death of Christ, so that you always remember that His death has brought you life, that in Him you have been justified, freed from sin and death, and set at liberty to follow Christ in love and humility. In this humble meal of bread and wine, we cleansed sinners, eat and drink in the freedom of self-forgetfulness. Not needing to make much of ourselves, because in this meal we see Jesus come as a humble servant, offer his life to you, so that he could make much of you. Those whom God has made much of, can humbly follow Jesus in sacrificial obedience cultivating love and humility to consider others as more highly than ourself. If you have been washed and cleansed, then Jesus invites you to come and share in His life, by eating and drinking of this bread and wine by faith. Amen.

Charge

As Jesus washes his disciples' feet—an act of love, a symbol of saving cleansing, and model of Christian conduct—you must cultivate humility, considering others more highly than yourselves.