FRIEND OR FOE

Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.  I Thess. 5:26

Greeting one another with a kiss on the cheek was commonplace in Mediterranean culture.  It was not specific to Christians.  It dates as far back in biblical texts as I Samuel.  It would be compared to our modern day handshake or hug.  Paul’s words meant this, “When you kiss, or since you kiss, make it a sanctified thing, a holy thing. Don’t be hypocritical.  Don’t give what appears to be a holy kiss, like Judas, but have something adversarial in your heart.”

Have you ever given or received a hug when your heart was saying something else entirely?  It felt pretty bad, didn’t it?  When I embraced someone with whom I felt awkward, several things occurred.  1.) It exposed the true state of our relationship.  2.) I realized I was acting hypocritical.  I feigned warmth but felt something else altogether.  3.) In faking it, I lost self-respect and knew I disappointed Jesus.  I went away sad.

Family reunions are times for hugs.  I realize that.  So is a reunion for old friends.  I don’t believe this is what Paul was referring to.  He would warn us today of being political.  I should never hug as a way of buttering someone up.  A kiss can go a long way to lead someone to believe that they’re more important to me than they actually are.  At the point of deception, I can persuade them to do what I want, but I’ve lost my honor.  God forbid!

Let my ‘yes be yes’ and my ‘no be no’.  Being ‘nice’ is not the goal of Christianity if it promotes something inauthentic.

Jesus, you never sought to fool anyone.  Your embrace was sincere.  Your rebuke, the same.  Give me the courage to be the ‘real deal’.  Amen