Inspired P.S. #4: Salutation Commmanded

Introduction: The Postscript of 1 Peter and the Salutations

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, July 16th, 2000, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn again in our Bibles to 1 Peter and the 5th chapter, 1 Peter chapter 5.

0:27 And I shall do as we did this morning, read in your hearing the postscripts of the letter, beginning in verse 12 and obviously concluding at verse 14. By Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I account him, I have written unto you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God. Stand fast therein. She that is in Babylon, elect together with you, greet you.

1:02 And so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace. Be unto you all that are in Christ.

1:15 Now let us again seek the face of God in prayer that the Holy Spirit will help us, especially as I will seek to deal tonight not only with your understanding but with your conscience. And it's a very sober thing when a servant of Christ touches your conscience. And if any man of God has any of his wits about him, he trembles when touching the consciences of God's people. To go beyond what God has said or to fall short of what God has said.

1:48 So let us together confess our need of the Spirit's help and pray that we may be conscious of that help together. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you again that your word encourages us to come to you in the posture of felt weakness and dependency. And we would acknowledge afresh the truth of the words of John.

2:14 John the Baptist, when he said, A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. So we come, our Father, and ask that you will be a giving God. The God who gives to your servants the grace to handle your truth aright. The God who gives grace to your people to receive that word in the spirit of the Bereans.

2:40 Readiness of mind. Eagerness to search out. And O God, we would be bold to ask that you would give even of your Spirit's peculiar ministry in convicting those who know you not and savingly revealing Christ to their hearts. Come to us, we pray, and meet us in the ministry of the word we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ.

3:09 Amen. Now those of you who worshipped with us this morning will already know. That tonight's message is the continuation and the completion of what I began to do in the morning hour. Namely, to open up one of the sections of this postscript in Peter's letter to the suffering saints in Asia Minor.

3:34 In our previous studies, in verse 12, we saw that this postscript begins with Peter's commendation of Silvanus, the bearer of the letter to those various Romans. In the Roman provinces, Peter's own summarization of the letter as to its relative length, it was brief, as to its manner, it was exhorting and testifying, and as to its central theme, the grace of God. And then from his commendation and summarization, Peter goes on to give an exhortation to these believers to stand fast in the grace of God. Then in verses 13 and 14, he says,

4:17 In 14a, we have what I have chosen to call Peter's salutations conveyed and commanded. She that is in Babylon elect together with you, greets you, and so does Mark my son, greet one another with a kiss of love. Now in our initial study this morning, I first of all addressed the difficulties of the passage, and I noted three. Where is this?

Addressing Difficulties: Babylon, 'She,' and Mark

4:47 Babylon, from which Peter writes, and I said that my judgment aligns with the vast majority of ancient and contemporary commentary, that this is a cryptic, a metaphorical use of the term Babylon, and Peter is at this time in the city of Rome, a relatively short time before he is martyred according to the prophecy of the Lord Jesus found in the Gospel of John. And then the second difficulty is, Who is the she that greets these believers? And I asserted that it is my judgment, again, aligning with the majority of ancient and contemporary commentary,

5:30 that Peter is referring to the church, the people of God at Rome, who convey their warm Christian greetings to their brethren in Asia Minor. And then the third difficulty is identifying this Mark. Who is he? And in what sense is he Peter?

5:47 Peter is Peter's son, and I asserted that it is my judgment that it is John Mark, the author of the second Gospel, and in a very peculiar way, one of Peter's spiritual sons, with whom he had unusual intimacy, and whom he tutored, and over whose shoulder he looked as John composed, as John Mark composed the second Gospel. We then proceeded to look at the key issue in the text. And the key issue is this word, salute or greet. It is found in an indicative, she that is in Babylon is greeting you.

6:28 The one who is elect together with you is greeting you. And then that same verb, aspazomai, is given in the imperative form, we are to greet one another with the kiss of love. And after asserting the frequency of the use, of this word in the New Testament, I tried to give the overall sense of it, and this is what I set before you. To greet means consciously to recognize another person or persons with appropriate verbal and non-verbal signals of that recognition in a climate of love and goodwill.

7:10 It is not to greet someone like Ahab greeted the prophet Elijah in 1 Peter, Kings chapter 18. Is it you, O troubler of Israel? He recognized him. He acknowledged that recognition, but it certainly was not an aspazomai recognition.

7:30 It was a reluctant, grudging, and hateful recognition. When Peter writes, she that is in Babylon, co-elect with you, greets you, Peter is saying that the people of God in Rome, are consciously recognizing their fellow believers in Asia Minor, and they are recognizing them with that climate of love and of goodwill. Arndt and Gingrich, universally recognized students of the meaning of Greek words, state in their treatment of this word that in some context, it is almost a synonym for the verb to love. To greet is almost a synonym for the verb to love.

8:13 To greet is almost a synonym for the verb to love. To greet is almost a synonym for the verb to love. To greet is almost a synonym for the verb to love. To greet is almost a synonym for the verb to love.

8:17 To greet is almost a synonym for the verb to love. We then proceeded to look at that part of the text that I described as an expression of Christian love and goodwill from afar. The church in Rome greets the brethren in Asia Minor, and so does Mark. That was all we were able to unpack this morning with three practical observations and applications.

The Command to Greet One Another: Love Close at Hand

8:40 Now we come tonight to the latter part of our text, which I will describe, which I will describe, which I will describe, as a command to express love and goodwill to those close at hand. Peter conveys the expressions of love and goodwill from afar. She that is co-elect with you in Babylon greets you, and so does Mark from afar. Now he turns to the believers and says, You greet one another with a kiss of love.

9:14 This is a command to express love and goodwill to those close at hand. As Peter wrote this under the guidance of the Spirit, note that he wrote, Greet or salute, express affection and love one to another. And this word, Allelu, one to another, Peter has already used several times in his epistles. And as we look at its use in the previous sections of the epistle, it's clear that no one sitting in any of the congregations, in any of those Roman provinces to which this letter came,

9:57 no believer of any age, any stage of Christian maturity, could exempt himself from the directive that comes to the people of God concerning their responsibilities one to another. For example, chapter 1 in verse 22, Seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth unto unsained love of the brethren, love one another from the heart fervently. Now I ask you, could any believer sitting in any of those churches, in any of those provinces, exempt himself from this command,

10:38 see that you love one another fervently? Could any believer exempt another believer in that assembly from being one towards whom he was to exercise love? No, no exceptions in the reception of the command, no qualifications in the expression of obedience to the command. Similarly, in chapter 4 in verse 9, Using hospitality, one to another without murmuring.

11:19 The believers in their interaction one towards another are to manifest their love and concern and delight in one another by voluntarily opening home and table and heart in showing hospitality one to another. And again in chapter 5 in verse 5, Likewise you younger, subject to the elder, yes, all of you, gird yourselves with humility to serve one another. Here is the word that takes in the whole congregation in its congregational life and interaction

12:00 under the Lordship of Christ and in the power of the Spirit. So Peter then issues this command to express love and goodwill to those near at hand by the use of this imperative, greet one another with a kiss of love. Now as we take up the subject, as I indicated this morning, each of us comes to something like this with our own built-in defense systems. Well, I know what it says, but I know it can't mean that.

The Five New Testament Commands for a Holy Kiss

12:38 Well, surely it must mean this, but it doesn't mean that. All I plead for is that you have the spirit of the Bereans for which I prayed, for I trust all of us, that we will receive the word with readiness of mind and search the Scriptures to see if these things be so. Now Peter's directive under the guidance of the Spirit is unique. As I indicated this morning in trying to tease you into looking into the matter in the afternoon hours if you had opportunity to, there are five imperatives about this matter of believers kissing one another.

13:18 Peter's imperative is unique. It is Peter alone who writes, greet one another with a kiss of love. The other four instances speak of greeting one another with a holy kiss. Peter alone says a kiss of love.

13:38 And I want us to just look at the other passages so that they come into our eyes, and I trust into our ears, with fresh biblical authority. The book of Romans, chapter 16, the Apostle, after this litany of greet this one and that one and all of these little personal references, there are eleven references that would indicate Paul had some personal acquaintance with at least eleven of these whom he greet. As well as his more general greetings. And then he says in verse 16, greet one another with a holy kiss.

14:20 All the churches of Christ greet you. Now you see, Peter's order is reversed. Peter says, she that is elect with you in Babylon greets you. Here is greeting from afar.

14:33 An expression of good will and Christian love from afar. Now show it one to another. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Paul reverses it here and says, greet one another with a holy kiss.

14:46 And as you express that mutual affection, you are simply being a mirror of the wider fellowship of all the church of Christ. All the churches of Christ greet you. You are a little, a little miniature expression of the church universal in that love and unity, by which it is bound in Jesus Christ and by the Spirit. Now remember, as I indicated again in trying to tease out your thoughts, this command did not come to an exclusively Jewish church.

15:24 If this command were found in the book of James, in which the predominance of the whole substance of the book of James assumes that these are Hebrew Christians, we might say, well this is a carryover from Hebrew culture. And the Hebrews were a hugging people. And one can demonstrate that from the Old Testament scriptures. But here is the Apostle Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, writing to believers at Rome.

15:55 And when you read chapters 14 and 15 through 1 through 8, you know that this was an ethnically, racially, and religiously mixed congregation. That was one of the problems. You had people with a Jewish conscience and feeling there were holy days and feast days for this and that that they ought to remember. There were pagans and Gentiles who had no such scruples and trying to get them to function together under one roof.

16:24 Paul had to write all that he did in chapter 14 and again through half of chapter 15. So one cannot culturally box up these physical expressions of affection and say, that is an exclusive Hebrew trait. It will not wash. And frankly, I'm pained when I hear people who say they believe in the sufficiency of scripture neutralizing the pressure of a passage like this by saying, well that's just a Hebrew cultural thing.

16:54 You didn't have a bunch of Hebrew culturally oriented people there exclusively in the congregation at Rome. And Paul did not say, you who have a Hebrew background, and you who have a Middle Eastern cultural background that makes kissing natural, you greet one another with a holy kiss, the rest of you do what you want. I don't see that in my Bible. You say, Pastor, where are you going?

17:19 I'm not going anywhere but just trying to be honest with the text. We want to go wherever our Bibles take us. I have no desire to take you anywhere your Bible won't take you. I have no desire to go there myself, but I want to go wherever my Bible takes me.

17:33 This is the first example. Now, 1 Corinthians. Again, this is not an exclusively Jewish church. It's a predominantly Gentile church coming out of a wretchedly immoral context.

17:48 Paul had to deal with some very, very nasty stuff in this church. He had to give the explicit directives that we studied a few months ago in 1 Corinthians 6. Antidotes to fornication and sexual uncleanness. And yet when he comes, to conclude this letter, notice how he does in chapter 16 and verse 19.

18:10 The churches of Asia greet you. Aquila and Priscilla greet you much in the Lord with the church that is in their house. You see how careful Paul is to let them know, you're not in this alone. The churches of Asia are greeting you.

18:26 Now it's reversed. Peter's in Rome and he says, the church at Rome greets the people of God in Asia. Here, Paul says the churches of Asia are greeting those in Macedonia. Those that are across the sea, there in what we now call modern Greece.

18:46 And he says, they greet you. And furthermore, Aquila and Priscilla, they not only greet you, they greet you much. They extend an intensified measure of love and goodwill towards you. And also the church that is in their house.

19:02 All the brethren greet you. Now he says, because that's the climate of the church universal, make sure that it's the climate of your church local. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Make sure that what is expressed by the churches of Asia and by Aquila and Priscilla and the church that is in their house, make sure that you're in lockstep with that climate of manifested love.

19:34 Greet one another. With a holy kiss. 2 Corinthians 13, verse 11. Finally, brethren, farewell.

19:48 Be perfected. Be comforted. Be of the same mind. Live in peace.

19:54 And the God of love and peace shall be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

20:12 Do you see the setting in which this directive is given to this same church? This church that had been full of factions? Paul said, it's been reported unto me of the household of Chloe that there are divisions among you. And he spent several chapters dealing with the problem of divisiveness.

20:28 Then in chapter 8 of the first epistle he had to deal with the problem again of Christian liberty. People with a differing conscience on things indifferent and meets offered to idols. And how do we deal with all of this? And then in the second letter he had to deal again very firmly and with a letter that we do not have in our possession that he calls his sharp letter.

20:50 Paul had all kinds of problems to deal with in that church. But now confident in what God had begun to do and the news of that had been conveyed back to him by Titus. He writes and now he says finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfected. Be comforted.

21:08 Be of the same mind. Live in peace. That's all internal. Be of the same mind.

21:15 Live in peace. Well, isn't that enough? He says, no. I want what the grace of God is working in your heart to find an expression in your hands and in your lips.

21:28 I want you to greet one another with a holy kiss. If it were not to have it in the heart the Holy Ghost would not say show it on your lips. Show it in your arms. The same Holy Ghost who says through Paul be perfected.

21:49 Be of the same mind. Live in peace. Who says all the saints greet you. Says you greet one another with a holy kiss.

21:59 And then in 1 Thessalonians another Gentile church primarily a Gentile church. They had been idolaters according to Paul's account of their conversion. He concludes his letter to this infant church. Chapter 5 and verse 25.

22:23 Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. Ah, now the noose is tightening. Greet the brethren that are huggers with a holy kiss.

22:41 The others just wink at us. Greet the brethren that you really get along with with a holy kiss. The others, don't knock them. Don't slander them.

22:53 Don't fight with them. But surely God doesn't expect you to give a physical expression of affection to those that just kind of leave you this way. No, my brethren, look at the text. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.

23:10 So if you sat in the church at Thessalonica and heard this letter read, you would know that if there was any brother or sister to whom you would not give a holy kiss, and we're going to deal with what a holy kiss and a kiss of love is, you would be openly disobedient to the living word of God through the apostle. You could not sit in any one of those congregations and believe you were pleasing Christ if you did not obey the apostolic direction coming through the apostolic letter to greet all the brethren. Does that mean you couldn't go home until you'd gotten to every other noose? Given all of the variables in the providential arrangement of how we interact with one another, what it's saying is

23:54 there should be no brother within the assembly to whom you could not give that token of love and goodwill at any time in your life together. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. And then when we come to 1 Peter, that's the fifth and final mandate in the New Testament with respect to this matter of the kiss, it is greet one another with a kiss. A kiss of love.

Distinguishing Essence from Circumstance in Biblical Commands

24:23 Now, the question is this, and you've already been thinking, what is the essence of the command and what has to do with the circumstances of the command? The essence is abiding, unchangeable, authoritative, and our consciences must be bound to the essence of the command. The circumstances, the clothing, the dressing of the command is a matter where there is flexibility. Now, let me try to show the difference of this in several passages in the Word of God so no one will think, oh, Pastor Martin feels the pressure of the text

25:06 but he doesn't want to split the church or get fired, so now he's going to back off. It's plain. We ought to all stop right now and have a hugging fit. That's what some would say.

25:17 No, that's not necessarily the way we ought to go. Look at Matthew chapter 5. We used it this morning, Matthew 5, for another purpose. Now look at verse 41.

25:30 Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount, whoever shall compel you to go one mile, go with him two. Now let me ask you, how many of you sitting here tonight have ever been compelled to be someone's courier for one mile? Someone has met you in the street and said, here is my duffel bag full of my military gear, take it for the next mile in the name of Jesus. In the name of the Roman authority.

25:55 How many of you ever had anyone meet you and tell you to do that? Not a one of us. Well, good. We're free from this commandment.

26:01 That doesn't apply to us. Well, wait a minute. There is an essence of the command and then there is a circumstance. What is the essence?

26:09 The essence of the command is found in verse 38 and following. Jesus is dealing with this subject. You have heard that it was said, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. But I say unto you, don't resist him who is evil.

26:23 Whoever smites you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any would go to law with you, take away your coat, let him have your cloak. Whoever shall compel you. What is Jesus doing?

26:33 He said, here is the essence of the command. As my people, you are not to have a tit for tat retaliatory spirit. You take my eye, I'll take yours. Jesus said, no.

26:47 The spirit of the child of God is totally opposite to that. You are not to have to resist the one who is evil. That does not mean we should never have recourse to the courts to protect our money and our rights. No.

27:02 He's talking about the individual believer must not manifest this litigious get even spirit. He must be prepared to take personal injury. Whoever smites you on the right cheek, turn the other. Most of us have never been smitten on the cheek with a fist, with a hand.

27:19 But we have with words. And if we have the spirit of the command within us, we'll not retaliate with nasty letters to people's nasty letters about us. No eye for eye, tooth for tooth. He that would smite you on the cheek, he that would smite your ears with vicious words, smite your spirit with slanderous letters, don't you respond in kind.

27:50 That's the spirit of the command. Someone's got a litigious spirit and wants to go to court. He says, look, look, at all costs except righteousness, yield. Don't stand upon your rights.

28:06 And when that Roman soldier who has been given authority by the Roman government to take any person within the scope of the Roman Empire and make that person his courier, his donkey to carry his duffel bag for a mile, you show that you have a totally different disposition from the average Palestinian Jew. When he says, take my load, and he expects you to growl and snarl and grouse and complain, you say, yes, sir. Where do you want it? One mile down the road?

28:39 Sir, I'll take it too. And they'll say, what in the world makes you different? And you'll say, I'm one of those Jesus people. His kingdom has come in my heart.

28:51 I march to the beat of a different drum. That's the spirit of it. But you see, the Lord clothes the essence of the command in particular, specific examples. And we don't wait around till we have a one-to-one parallel of the specific example.

29:08 We get the principle, and we seek to express it in a hundred other appropriate ways. You find the same thing in 1 Corinthians 11. Paul establishes that there is a divine hierarchy in the male-female relationship. Christ is the head of man.

29:31 Man is the head of woman. God is the head of Christ. There is a divine hierarchy. Paul is saying, as believers, we must make it evident.

29:40 We embrace that hierarchy. And then he gets specific in terms of that Corinthian situation and culture, and he says right down to the matter of dress and hair, make it evident, and he gets specific. But we get the principle and apply it in terms of the concreteness of our cultural situation. We don't make a wooden one-to-one equivalence any more than when we read 1 Timothy 2.8,

30:10 I will that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting. Are we ready to say unless men lift their hands when they pray, they are disobeying God? No. Paul assumes in that context when men prayed, they lifted their hands.

30:28 He says, make sure when the men pray that the hands they lift are holy hands. They are joined to lives that manifest communion with God in likeness to Christ. Whatever the outward way men may pray, standing, sitting, raising hands, folding hands, that's a matter of the circumstances not the essence of the command. Do you see that distinction?

30:54 If you don't, there are many parts of your Bible that either will have no relevance to you or you'll end up being a religious kook. And there are all kinds of kooks because they figure what it says in the Bible. Failing to make that distinction is critical and it's critical here. So when we have read, greet one another with a holy kiss.

The Essence of the Holy Kiss: Not Hypocritical, Erotic, or Heartless

31:15 Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Greet one another with a holy kiss.

31:24 Greet one another with a kiss of love. What is the essence of the command? Well, surely the essence of the command is that those who sat in those congregations at Rome, at Corinth, at Thessalonica, and there among the churches of Asia Minor, that they would take which was for many of them a cultural expression of goodwill, of amity, of love, of love and love and love and love and love and love and love and love and of love of love of affection and that they would suffuse it with all the dynamics of God's grace so that when they embraced

32:08 one another and placed the kiss upon one cheek of both cheeks and the historians and the students of the culture of that time can't agree at least in my limited research as precisely how they did it, these Biblical writers expressed among the brethren would be a holy kiss. It would be a kiss of love. That is, it would not be a hypocritical Judas kiss. You remember what sign Judas gave to the chief priests and the military authorities?

32:42 Luke chapter 22. He had given them a sign saying, the one that I kiss, he is the one that you are to lay hold of. Look at verses 47 and 48. And while he yet spoke, behold, a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them.

33:02 And he drew near to Jesus to kiss him. But Jesus said unto him, Judas, do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? You see what our Lord is saying? Judas, the kiss is an expression of love, of goodwill.

33:23 Of a heart that is already joined to the one that the cheek feels the warmth of the lips. Judas, do you betray with a kiss? You've utterly violated the significance of the sign. A kiss is to be an expression of love, of goodwill.

33:43 Do you betray me with a kiss? So when the scripture says a holy kiss, to every New Testament first century Christian, it was a call, to make sure that when they planted a kiss on the cheek of a brother, and it's debated whether men kissed women, and I'll not go into that debate. Suffice it to say that for them, the literal kiss, if to be a holy kiss, if to be a kiss of love, must never be a hypocritical Judas kiss. Do you see what that would do every time you met your brethren?

34:15 Can I kiss them with a holy kiss? A kiss that is set apart unto God's purposes, signifying, but God says it ought to signify that there is unruptured love between me and my brother, me and my sister,

34:35 to come to a service saying, before I leave, every brother, sister that God brings across my path, that I can judiciously, consistent with other responsibilities, take the initiative to greet. I must greet them with a holy kiss. That would be a weekly call to keep sure to come, once with your brethren, or you would turn the holy kiss into a hypocritical Judas kiss.

35:03 And it should never be an erotic kiss. The kiss is an erotic thing. In Solomon's warning to his son with respect to the immoral woman, and it always bothers me when people say she's a harlot. She's not a harlot.

35:20 She's a married woman who likes to conquer young, naive men. And she goes from the attire and the role of a housewife. Her husband's gone on a long business trip. And it says this woman then dresses herself up with that wardrobe that she keeps tucked away in the back of her closet.

35:43 It's not the wardrobe of a loyal wife. And a housewife, it says, with the attire of a harlot. But she's a married woman. And she's taking advantage of the fact that her husband has gone on a long journey, a bag full of money, not going to come back till the new moon.

36:00 And then, the scripture tells us in Proverbs 7 and in verse 13, so she caught him and she kissed him. That was not a kiss that was holy. That was not a kiss that was a kiss of love. It was an unholy kiss of erotic, base, sinful, carnal passion.

36:29 Greet one another with a holy kiss. You see, as you sat in the church in the first century, you had the slightest thought of taking advantage of that culturally compatible way of expressing goodwill and affection. The word of God would have checked you if in the slightest way you were getting the slightest jollies out of kissing your brothers or your sisters. Because you would hear the word of God saying, greet one another with a holy kiss.

37:02 A kiss of agape. Not erotic,

37:06 but agape. God-like love. And it was not to be a heartless kiss, a mere formality. It was to be a kiss that was holy.

37:19 It had an apartness and a quality that marked its apartness. It was the expression of the Spirit's fruit, which is love. It was a kiss of love. Not a heartless kiss.

37:36 Not an erotic kiss. Not a hypocritical kiss. A holy, holy kiss. It was a kiss of love.

37:45 Now then, that's what it would mean for people in the first century. There's no way they could obey the injunction and just shake hands.

37:55 You see that? If you were first century Christians at Rome, at Corinth, at Thessalonica, in those churches, there's no way you could obey it without, I looked at them and winked. It doesn't say, greet one another with a holy wink. Well, I shook their hands.

38:15 It doesn't say, greet one another with a holy handshake. It says, greet one another with a holy kiss. You see, if you lived then, there's no way you could obey it, but do it. All right?

Theological Reflection on the Holy Kiss and Cultural Sensitivity

38:26 But now we ain't there. We're here. Now, what is of the essence and what is circumstances? Am I ready to try to persuade my fellow elders?

38:37 I wouldn't live long enough to do that. To try to persuade them that we ought to take not just the essence, but the circumstances. Discipline people who won't kiss one another every time they're seeing one another in a church context. Now, I'm not prepared to do that.

38:55 Not because I would be unwilling to do it if I was persuaded it was right, but I don't believe that's what the word of God is demanding. The finest, beautiful summary statement of what is of the essence of the command, what is of the circumstances, to my judgment in all my reading, I found in my old friend John Brown, the Scottish commentator of another generation, who says that no one is ever going to prove from the Bible that the Holy Kiss is a kind of sub-sacrament along with baptism in the Lord's Supper. You know that there are groups of Christians that believe foot-washing is a sacrament and we ought to take each other's shoes off and wash each other's feet

39:38 because Jesus said you should do not what. Jesus said do as I've done to you. Take the role of a servant. But they render it as though it said do as.

39:48 Do exactly what I have done to you. And foot-washing is the third sacrament. Well, some would make kissing the brethren a fourth sacrament. And John Brown says the effort to prove that has failed until now and most likely will continue to fail.

40:04 Then he goes on to state that among the church fathers, and the church fathers are those generally referred to who were the successors of the apostles, not in terms of apostolic office, but they had some association with the apostles before they died and they are called the church fathers and he cites instances from Justin Martyr and from Tertullian and from Origen to show that the holy kiss had become in many of the churches of the east a very common practice. Some made it part of their liturgy that before or after the communion they would all in the congregation having come to the table would then embrace one another and believe that they were doing so

40:48 to express obedience to the church fathers. And he says that they were doing so to express obedience to the church fathers. And he cites instances to this directive. And then, as best I've been able to trace it out, because the pagans accused the believers of carrying on their secret meetings and offering sacrifices because they had the Lord's Supper and engaging in sexual liberties, some have assumed and have written that the church dropped the practice for the sake of the maintenance of its testimony.

41:17 But then he goes on to say, and this is what I think is so important, I quote now, some Christian groups still retain the practice that is of the Holy Kiss and even insist on it as a term of communion. We have no objection to the first, that is to practice it, but we must protest against the second, that is, making it a mandate for all. Surely this is not one of the points on which the peace of the church should be disturbed or her communion broken. They who observe it should not condemn those who do not and those who observe it not.

41:51 Romans 14. Let not him who eats judge him who eats not. Then he says, let those who observe it not condemn those who observe it not, and they who do not observe it should not despise those who do observe it. He goes on to write, let each be fully persuaded in his own mind, that's scripture.

42:12 In both cases, if they are sincere, they will be accepted of the Lord. The grand matter is this, the fact that cultivation of mutual love, the mode of expressing it, unless there be distinct proof, which we apprehend there is not, that it has been fixed by apostolic authority for the church in all ages, the manner of expressing it is a matter of very inferior importance. It seems like every external thing not essential, not expressly enjoined as a law to the church, is a thing of time and place depending on the manners of the age or the country,

42:56 like the wearing or the not wearing of long hair at Corinth. A kiss of love is equivalent to a kiss not of mere form, but expressive of real Christian affection. But though the external mode of expressing Christian love be a matter of comparative unimportance, the importance of cherishing this affection and of expressing it too cannot be exaggerated. You see the distinction he's making.

43:29 The form of maintaining it and expressing it a matter of indifference, but having it and showing it is not a matter of indifference. And if we can bleed those side imperatives of a demonstrable expression of love, then I'm ready to close my Bible and say I cannot trust its authority for many other matters. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Maintain the disposition among yourselves of which in your setting the kiss is a tangible, physical, visible,

44:12 demonstrable expression. Greet one another with a kiss of love. See the balance? Love must be in the heart, but it mustn't stay locked up in your heart.

44:28 Let it get out in your arms and in your lips. Appropriate to your cultural setting, the place in which you are, love in the heart, love expressed by lip and deed among the communion of God's people. That's the point that John Brown makes, and I believe with razor-like accuracy. Though the external mode of expressing Christian love be a matter of comparative unimportance, the importance of cherishing this affection and expressing it too cannot be exaggerated.

45:09 The entertainment and increase and expression of Christian love is not optional, but obligatory. The very stamp and badge of Jesus' trust upon his brethren. By this, shall all men know that you have loved one to another because they can put a love-o-meter on your heart and know that you feel it. The world has no such love-o-meter.

45:41 Men shall know that we love one another when they see the manifestations of that love, not alone in deeds of charity and compassion for one another in our peculiar needs, but when we take seriously the five apostolic commandments to greet one another with a holy kiss and with a kiss of love, to maintain love, and to make conscious of some expression of that love verbally and where and when appropriate, even physically. So I would like to submit to you

Why Outward Expressions of Love Are Commanded: Deception of the Heart and Psychosomatic Nature

46:26 that when we sort out the essence of the command from the circumstances, the circumstances of the command, we come up with something like this, that we are under solemn obligation to express in culturally sensitive, verbal and physical ways, the love and goodwill that is in our hearts one to another. When Pastor Lamar goes over to Pakistan and the relatives disuse me a short time, and there seeks to minister in the Pakistani culture, he says, if there were some sisters that he had come to know quite well, and he were to greet them with any physical contact, you know what he would do?

47:10 He would destroy his credibility as a servant of God, even as an upright moral Christian man. Why? Because in that culture, a man does not touch a woman other than his wife. He doesn't touch her.

47:18 So you've got to find ways to express the love that is in your heart to your sisters. For the brothers, you not only hug once, I think that's the best way to express the love that is in your heart to your sisters. For the brothers, you not only hug once, I think that's the best way to express the love that is in your heart to your sisters. For the brothers, you not only hug once, I think that's what caused me, it was a year after I got home from that last conference in Pakistan where 90 men at a pastor's conference, and most of the Pakistani men are smaller, and when they came for their embrace over one shoulder to the other shoulder, I picked up one of them and they all thought that was great.

47:48 I ended up doing with all 90 of them. Embrace over one shoulder, embrace over the other, embrace back and then pick them up. That was great. I was communicating to them that I was going to hug them.

47:59 I was going to hug them. I was going to hug them. I was going to hug them. I was going to hug them.

48:04 I love you. My skin is white. Your skin is dark. We're a bunch of distant handshakers, we cold-hearted westerners.

48:12 You're a bunch of huggers. I'll become one of you. It was culturally appropriate expression of the love that was in my heart. Had I stood up like this and said, I love you brothers, my actions would have negated the sincerity of my words.

48:29 That's why I've used this terminology, expressing in culturally sensitive verbal and physical ways. Peter's conveying the love of John Mark and of the church at Rome in words. That's all he can do. He can't cut off a few hands from a few of the members, put them in a box, and send them and say, put these severed hands on your shoulders.

48:58 That's the expression. No, can't do that. Now, Johnny Erickson told an incident that comes to mind. This wasn't in my notes, but I'll tell you.

49:05 When I was at the Ligonier concert, a dear woman, who's literally being dismembered because of her diabetes, lost a foot and then a hand and another hand. And Johnny Erickson Tata was saying how this woman has triumphed over self-pity and her suffering. And on her birthday or anniversary, that is Johnny Tata's birthday or anniversary, she got a box in the mail from this woman. And in it was a prosthetic foot.

49:32 And with it was a note from this dear sister in Christ saying, since all of me can't be with you, I thought I'd send a part of me. Well, it would take someone in that setting to appreciate that. Well, Peter couldn't take parts of the believers, so he said, I convey the goodwill and the love. It's the only way I can do it, with all the distance between us.

49:56 That's by words. You remember what John said, let us not love in word only, assuming we'll all do the easy part. Let us not love in word only, assuming we will do that. But in deed and in truth.

50:10 So the essence of these five imperatives that we've come upon in seeking to expound the P.S. of 1 Peter mandates expressing in culturally sensitive, verbal and physical ways the disposition of love and goodwill that we have in our hearts one to another. Now, some of you may think, well, you know, Pastor Martin, that's just one of your little hobbies and, you know, that's something that's part of your life.

50:42 No, my friends. I was reared in a home where after we ceased to be little kids, there was very little physical touching. I was well, well along. It's only been the last few years that I felt comfortable hugging my mother.

50:55 My father. We wouldn't see one another sometimes for years. And he'd come and I'd see him at his home or my home and he'd stick out his hand and I'd push him to the side and try to give him a hug. He'd stand there like a board.

51:07 He never knew male affection. His father died when he was 13. He was brought up by his mother and an aunt. An older sister, I'm sorry, and then an aunt.

51:17 No, that's not my heritage. That's not my heritage. It's not my inbred temperament. I'm Swedish and Scottish.

51:24 And between the Tweed and the Swede, I'd be a very reserved, in terms of those things. I'm not a Mediterranean. I know some of my black friends say if I trace back far enough I'm going to find something back there in Africa. And my Spanish friends and Italian friends say if we go back, well, eventually we're going to go back to Adam.

51:43 The whole gene pool was in him to start with. Well, enough of that. No, dear people, this is not a matter of some little hobby that I'm trying to find a biblical outlet for my own temperament. It's been my Bible that has pressed me.

51:57 And my grown children, saved or unsaved, would not think of greeting my wife and me without physical and verbal expressions of their love. Because they were determined that it was biblical that that should be so. And I believe with Professor Murray, and here I want to quote to you the handling of the Holy Kiss from Professor Murray, greatly esteemed as a man of God and a reformed theologian and commentator. Listen to what he says on the command in Romans 16, 16.

52:30 The Holy Kiss is enjoined not only in this epistle but in several others. And he quotes the other four places. Peter gives the same charge and called to this the kiss of love. We're advised of the custom of extending friendly greeting by a kiss in the reprimand of Jesus to Simon the Pharisee.

52:49 Luke 7, 45. You gave me no kiss. There can be no question but the kiss was practiced as the token of Christian love. Peter's designation makes this clear.

52:59 But a kiss on its own account is the token of love. And the hypocrisy of Judas is exposed by the question do you betray the Son of Man with a kiss? Paul characterizes the kiss as holy and thus distinguishes it from all that is erotic or sensual. It betrays an unnecessary reserve if not the loss of the ardor of the church's first love when the Holy Kiss is conspicuous by its absence in the western church.

53:24 End quote. That's a Highlander talking. Because his Bible is bigger than his Highland culture. And the Bible is bigger than his Highland culture.

53:35 And the Bible is bigger than his culture. And may God help us if our Bibles are not bigger than our culture and our upbringing and anything else that molds and shapes us into what we are and what we do. By the way in the last few years of his life my father became a passionate hugger of his own sons and his own daughters. He grew in grace even into his 80's.

54:11 His dog old dog and new tricks. The Spirit of God dwells in every Christian and can continue to conform him to the revealed will of God until he crosses Jordan and wakes up in the promised land. Now we come to some very pointed applications as to why and then I'm done why I believe the Spirit of God has enjoined those expressions of Christian love. Why is it enough to say love one another?

54:50 Peter had already said that in 1 Peter chapter 1. You have purified your souls unto unfeigned love of the brethren love one another from the heart fervently. Why isn't that enough? Why has he got to say greet one another with a kiss of love?

55:08 Isn't it enough to have it in the heart? Well it should be but I get two answers. First of all Peter and the other biblical writers are materialists about the effects of our remaining sin. Our remaining sin acts as the internal deceiver.

55:28 The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And though the wickedness of the heart is fundamentally conquered in regeneration and conversion the remaining sin in the heart is exceedingly devious and deceitful. Another reason I write about the three things that I like about the Bible is that the kingdom on which I live is not limited by the grace of God not by the sin but

56:12 by the concealed sin itself relationship to me. We have found over the years that one of the first signs of disaffection among church members is when they conveniently avoid face-to-face physical contact with their overseers. There's a reason for that, because we are not disembodied spirits, and our bodies

56:49 express our hearts. When you're happy, you dance and clap your hands. When you're sad, you bow your head and you weep. The dispositions of the soul, because we are psychosomatic entities, we don't think of ourselves in terms of Greek philosophy, that the body is just a prison of the soul. No, we are image bearers of God in the integrity of our body-soul existence, and the

57:19 Bible addresses us in terms of what we are, not in terms of the perversions of Greek philosophy. That's why Peter's not content to say, maintain fervent love to one another in the heart. He says, get it out in your hands and in your lips. Greet one another with a holy kiss. Now you think right now, as you sit

57:41 among God's feet, is there anyone that if you happen to meet in the hallway or meet in the aisle tonight, you could not, if you're not a hugger at least, get up as far as their elbows and look them in the eye and say, brother, sister, I love you in Christ. And though psychologically and emotionally, in a lot of other ways, I can't hug, I want you to know in my heart I'm hugging you. Now, would that be asking too much? Then do it outwardly. Can you

58:09 at least say that's in your heart? Now, is there anyone to whom you couldn't say that? If so, you're violating the essence of this command. You see the difference? I'm not saying unless you go up and

58:23 hug them, kiss them, then we'd have to give rules. Where do you kiss? How far from the lips? How far from the ear to the cheek? Brethren, may God have mercy on us if we take something that's supposed

58:33 to be an expression of love and make the occasion a split in the church. The kissers and the non-kissers. The kisses on the cheek, the kisses on the forehead. The kisses on the chin, the kisses on one cheek.

58:44 I mean, where would it end? Where would it end? Given what we are, where would it end? So that's why God, I believe, has given us the power to kiss. We're not supposed to kiss. We're not supposed to

58:53 kiss. We're not supposed to kiss. We're not supposed to kiss. We're not supposed to kiss. We're not

58:54 supposed to kiss. We're not supposed to kiss. We're not supposed to kiss. We're not supposed to kiss.

Jesus' Example: The Pharisee and the Sinful Woman

58:54 Because he knows the deception of our hearts. And secondly, he knows that because we are body-soul entities, I've already alluded to this, but I want to focus upon it, that we are not relating as whole people if we simply have these dispositions of the heart. I want you to see in this instance in the life of our Lord, perfect humanity. Remember now, no sinful petulance, no sinful hurt.

59:23 He is perfect. sinless humanity. Turn to Luke chapter 7, if you will. Two passages in Luke, and then we're done our study, for now. Luke chapter 7. Jesus comes into the house of a Pharisee.

59:41 Verse 36. He entered the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. Behold, a woman was in the city, a sinner. When she knew that he was sitting at meet in the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster cruise of ointment. Standing behind at his feet, weeping, she

59:58 began to wet his feet with her tears and wipe them with the hair of her head, and kissed profusely. The Greek verb in its tense means not kissed once with a passing kiss, but smothered his feet with kisses and anointed him with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee that had bidden him saw it, he spoke within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have perceived who and what manner of woman this is that is touching him, that she's a sinner. And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto you. And he said,

60:35 Teacher, say on. A certain lender had two debtors. The one owed five hundred shillings and the other fifty, and they had not wherewith to pay. He forgave them both. Which of them

60:44 therefore will love most? Simon answered and said, Well, he, I suppose, to whom he forgave the most. And he said unto him, You have rightly judged. And turning to the woman, this is fascinating, turning to the woman.

60:58 He said unto Simon, His gaze is fixed on the woman. He said unto Simon, Do you see this woman? I entered your house. You gave me no water for my feet, but she has wetted my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You gave me no kiss, but she, since the time

61:21 I came in, has not ceased to kiss my feet. My head with oil you did not anoint, but she has anointed me with the ointment. And he said unto him, You have rightly judged. And I have anointed my feet with ointment. Wherefore, I say unto you, her sins which are many are

61:34 forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little. Now there's much in the passage that I'd like to open up, but I want to focus on this one principle. Jesus was fully aware that in a common, ordinary, middle-class, Palestinian cultural setting, when you came as a guest into someone's home, there would be three acts of kindness and goodwill shown to you for no other reason than that you were a fellow Jew. You would have had your head anointed, your feet, and you would have been given the

62:16 kiss of a warm greeting. That was not something special. That's what you gave any ordinary Palestinian Jew that came as your guest. Jesus was an invited guest. Jesus knew the existing

62:33 customs. He knew the existing customs. He knew the existing customs. He knew the existing customs. Now follow. He expected those customs to be respected as an expression of nothing

62:43 more of at least respect for him, if not love for him. For Jesus to judge this man's heart from his actions? No. He knew his heart. But when he goes to his conscience, he doesn't

63:04 say, I know your heart. It's devoid of love. He says, you gave me. No water, no oil, no kiss. You snubbed me. Your actions validate your heart. It's a hard

63:21 heart that's never been softened by the knowledge of the forgiveness of sin. This woman has given me as the expression of her soft heart, suffused with love for me as the receiver of sinners. She has washed my feet with her tears, wiped them with her hair, anointed me with oil, and she has kissed me. See, the Lord Jesus was not a Platonist. What's that

63:54 mean? That means if you refuse to give to one another those discernible expressions of goodwill and love, your brothers and sisters have the right to assume there's something wrong in here. Now, is that the message you want to send out? I don't want to send it out. I don't want to send out that message. So what's that mean? I must feel the love

64:22 of personal pressure of the biblical mandate. Greet one another. That's why I kneel when your kids come by. That's why I won't let strangers accost me at the door and engage in counseling sessions. Why? I want to get to as many of you, every Lord's day, that

64:41 physically and verbally you know the love of my heart for you. And if I preached and ran off to protect myself, you'd have every reason to say, does he really love me? And that would not be sinful. It would be sinful for you to assume on any given Sunday when I might disappear, I might have made a commitment to some believing sheep to go right from the pulpit into the back room. But if it becomes a pattern, it would not be wicked for you

65:10 to begin to wonder, do you love me? How about you wives? Do you buy it when your husband hasn't held your hand for weeks, hasn't said the words, I love you, in weeks? Do you buy it when he says, oh, well, you know I love you. Why do I need to hold your hand and tell

65:28 you before? Do you accept that? I hope you don't. And I hope you husbands don't try to con your wives into thinking they should. There's a little ritual my wife and I have

65:42 that I find so salutary, and it underscores this principle. And I'm not saying you must do this. I'm just using it as an illustration. And we go to pray together at night. I take

65:54 her hand. And if there's any burr in our relationship, if I've spoken an unkind word that's not been

66:03 said, it's less than gracious to me. We can't pray. My hand feels dirty when I take her. There's something about what the hand clasp is saying. It's saying, I love you, dear. We're one as

66:16 we come to the throne of grace. Nothing between us, nothing between us and our God. Holding that hand is either a lie or an expression of the state of the heart. You see, once we're committed then, that we are going to treat one another with the equivalence of a holy kiss. Whatever it is for you, all right? Whatever it is for you. Maybe a handshake

66:38 way out here. Let it be a good smile on your face. And occasionally saying, I'm just not a hugger, but in my heart I'm hugging you. Do it your own way. But make conscience of

66:50 doing it. And then when there's someone that you can't give them a holy Christian handshake, you can't give them a holy wink, it's God's call to deal with it there and now or as soon as possible. We'll breathe and quench the Holy Spirit. See, God's wiser than we are. He's not quite

The Prodigal Son: The Father's Tangible Love

67:11 as spiritual as we are. Because he knows we need the concreteness and the tangible touchiness of really being honest about the state of our hearts. Luke 15. I said there were two passages in Luke, didn't I? And then we're done. Didn't I say two? Okay, I want to make

67:36 sure I didn't fabricate, because I did want to say two. The prodigal and his return. It struck me afresh in my preparation as many times as I've read it and preached on it. The son is in the far country. The father's heart follows him there, yearns over him there.

67:57 And then the son gets his speech all prepared, says, I'm going to go back, verse 18, say to my father, I've sinned. I'm no more worthy to be called one of your sons. Make me as one of your high servants. He arose, came to his father. Now look, while he was yet

68:14 afar off. Notice the emphasis. His father saw him and was moved with compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kicked him. The first one to speak is not the father, it's the son.

68:34 And the son said unto him, the father let his feet and his hands and his teeth and his lips speak all that needed to be spoken. And the father said unto him, I'm going to go back, verse 18, say, I've sinned. The son is in the far country. The father's heart follows him there, yearns over him there. And the son gets his speech all prepared,

68:50 says, I'm going to go back, verse 18, say, I'm going to go back, verse 18, say, I'm going to go back, verse 18, say, I'm going to go back, verse 18, say, I'm going to go back, until the son owns his sin. With our hands, with our lips, with our tears. And many times they speak more eloquently than our words. You see, you who are not Christians, you sit here tonight and you say, what in the world is all this about? And I'm not surprised that

Conclusion: A Call to Genuine Christian Love and Prayer

69:19 that's what you think. Because Titus 3.3 describes us all in our natural state. Paul says, we ourselves one time were deceived. And then he goes on to describe the very nature

69:30 and the various manifestations of sin. And then he includes this hateful and hating one another. As an unconverted person, you sit here tonight and say, look, I want to mark out the turf of the people that I'm going to get along with, my kind, on my terms, period. And that's not surprising to me, because God says that's exactly the way you are in your state of self-centeredness and sin. And until you know what it is for God to give you a

70:00 new heart. And place his spirit within you, you'll never make sense out of what you've heard from this pulpit tonight. It'll seem like wacko, far out nonsense. Well, I trust the day will come when you say, now I understand. I love them too. God's people are my people. What my wife

70:22 likes to call my forever family. And I tell you, I want to give greetings to my forever family that have something about them that is more and glorious. And exceed what I'm obligated to give to sinners who reject my Christ and love not my Savior. They're not headed to the place where we are headed. May God help us, dear

70:49 people, to take seriously what Peter, by the Spirit of God, put in his little postscript.

70:57 Greet one another with a kiss. Our Father, we never cease to marvel at how fully you know us. And we're ashamed at how often we refuse to know ourselves. Forgive us and help us that we will come to grips with your truth, with our own hearts, and that we may seek and find in you the grace to be and to do that which will manifest the great truth that we are

71:40 the new humanity in Christ. That we do not operate by the world's standards. That we are a people bound. Over to Christ, O Lord, help us. And we pray that the present measure of love and goodwill

71:56 that is resident among your people here may deepen and expand and find more and more tangible biblical conduits of expression. Lord, deliver us from all of our hang-ups rooted in our fallenness. And liberate us to be all that you need us to be in Christ. Amen.

72:18 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:18 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:19 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:19 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:19 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:23 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:25 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:26 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:28 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:28 Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

72:29 And goodwill of your people and contrast it with the dog eat dog coarse harsh cruel world around them may they become jealous to know that blessed reality in their own hearts. Be gracious to us our father keep us we pray from pharisaic legalistic outworking the law workings of the things we've meditated upon. Keep us, we pray, from carnal rationalization and hiding behind this, that, or the other. Lord, enable us by your grace to stand naked and stripped before you, prepared by your grace to do and to be what your word commands

73:10 us to do and to be. Thank you for this day in your courts. We pray your blessing will be upon us as we leave, that you would watch over your people as they go into another week, many to the places of work and neighborhoods, those that will be going on vacation. Watch over them, protect them, keep them close to yourselves, for the visitors among us will be traveling soon back to their own homes and places of dwelling. May they return refreshed

73:40 because of their fellowship among your people here today. Accept our thanks. Hear our prayers as we offer them to our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.