John 13:3

3 [because he] knew that the Father had given him all [things] into [his] hands, and that he had come forth from God and was going away to God,

John 13:3 Meaning and Commentary

John 13:3

Jesus knowing that the Father
These words express the sense Christ had of his own greatness and dignity as Mediator:

had given all things into his hands;
all the persons of the elect, all blessings both of grace and glory for them, and power and authority over all other persons and things, to make them subservient to his purposes:

and that he was come from God;
had his mission and commission, as man, from God; did not come of himself, but he sent him:

and went to God;
or was going to him in a very little time, to sit at his right hand, to have a name above every name, and to have angels, authorities, and powers subject to him; which, as it shows his high esteem with his Father, and his exalted character as Mediator, so it greatly illustrates his wonderful humility, that in the view, and under a sense and consideration of all this, he should condescend to wash the feet of his disciples; of which an account is given in the following verses.

John 13:3 In-Context

1 Now before the feast of Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he would depart from this world to the Father, [and] having loved [his] own in the world, loved them to the end.

2 And [as] a dinner was taking place, [when] the devil had already put into the heart of Judas [son] of Simon Iscariot that he should betray him,

3 [because he] knew that the Father had given him all [things] into [his] hands, and that he had come forth from God and was going away to God,

4 he got up from the dinner and took off [his] outer clothing, and taking a towel, tied [it] around himself.

5 Then he poured water into the washbasin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, and to wipe [them] dry with the towel {which he had tied around himself}.

Footnotes

• [a]. *Here "[because]" is supplied as a component of the participle ("knew") which is understood as causal
• [b]. *Literally "the"; the Greek article is used here as a possessive pronoun