John 13:4 (LSB)

Passage

got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He tied it around Himself.

Nearby Context

John 13:2 And during supper, the devil having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray Him,

John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into His hands, and that He had come forth from God and was going back to God,

John 13:4 got up from supper, and laid aside His garments; and taking a towel, He tied it around Himself.

John 13:5 Then He poured water into the washbasin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel which He had tied around Himself.

John 13:6 So He came to Simon Peter. He said to Him, “Lord, are You going to wash my feet?”

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "supper", "laid", "aside", "garments", "taking", "towel", "tied", and "around". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "supper" and "laid", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 3's "Jesus knowing that the Father had given..." into verse 5's "Then He poured water into the washbasin...", so "supper" and "laid" belong inside that flow. In John context, the local focus is the identity of Jesus, new birth, eternal life, and belief and unbelief.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "supper" and "laid" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.