All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with an holy kiss.
The word holy means perfectly pure and complete in moral character, so the greeting must be free from impurity and defilement such as tobacco, including its smell and taint on the breath, lips, and beard. The holy kiss was an ancient Christian practice that later became obscured, and recovering it was part of restoring biblical practices to their original form. It expressed singular love for fellow believers and willingness to acknowledge them even before enemies of the faith, and it could be used publicly before or after prayer, love feasts, or the Lord's Supper as a sign of unity, love, sincere affection, and freedom from prejudice, jealousy, and malice.
The custom in Paul's time expressed stronger affection than an ordinary handshake. The verse commands believers to greet one another with a holy kiss, a command repeated often to the apostolic churches. The instruction carries the authority of Christ as an injunction given through his apostles. The command stands with immersion, keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, feet-washing, and anointing the sick with oil, so obeying it to the letter is doing exactly as Christ and the apostles did rather than following whim or convenience, and whether it binds after the apostolic age is the same question in principle as with immersion and the Sabbath, so to dismiss it as a custom peculiar to the apostolic age is to choose which divine commands to obey.
The greeting is still proper to practice, with the time and occasion left to those who practice it, whether at all times or only at communion. By contrast, the verse does not make the custom mandatory, a conclusion discussed in comparison with sharing a communion cup and noting possible health risks depending on where the kiss is given. To avoid jealousy the greeting is not promiscuous between the sexes, but brethren greet brethren and sisters greet sisters, belonging in the home and in fellowship between men and men or women and women, not in general society. The holy kiss belongs among believers as a greeting within pure Christian fellowship, not as a social or romantic claim between a young man and woman, and it is not a plea for promiscuous kissing, which should be avoided even to the point of avoiding the appearance of evil. The verse's call applies to welcoming others with genuine Christian feeling, which benefits both people and helps a stranger feel welcomed by the church.
The word holy means perfectly pure and complete in moral character, so the greeting must be free from impurity and defilement such as tobacco, including its smell and taint on the breath, lips, and beard. The holy kiss was an ancient Christian practice that later became obscured, and recovering it was part of restoring biblical practices to their original form. It expressed singular love for fellow believers and willingness to acknowledge them even before enemies of the faith, and it could be used publicly before or after prayer, love feasts, or the Lord's Supper as a sign of unity, love, sincere affection, and freedom from prejudice, jealousy, and malice.
The custom in Paul's time expressed stronger affection than an ordinary handshake. The verse commands believers to greet one another with a holy kiss, a command repeated often to the apostolic churches. The instruction carries the authority of Christ as an injunction given through his apostles. The command stands with immersion, keeping the seventh-day Sabbath, feet-washing, and anointing the sick with oil, so obeying it to the letter is doing exactly as Christ and the apostles did rather than following whim or convenience, and whether it binds after the apostolic age is the same question in principle as with immersion and the Sabbath, so to dismiss it as a custom peculiar to the apostolic age is to choose which divine commands to obey.
The greeting is still proper to practice, with the time and occasion left to those who practice it, whether at all times or only at communion. By contrast, the verse does not make the custom mandatory, a conclusion discussed in comparison with sharing a communion cup and noting possible health risks depending on where the kiss is given. To avoid jealousy the greeting is not promiscuous between the sexes, but brethren greet brethren and sisters greet sisters, belonging in the home and in fellowship between men and men or women and women, not in general society. The holy kiss belongs among believers as a greeting within pure Christian fellowship, not as a social or romantic claim between a young man and woman, and it is not a plea for promiscuous kissing, which should be avoided even to the point of avoiding the appearance of evil. The verse's call applies to welcoming others with genuine Christian feeling, which benefits both people and helps a stranger feel welcomed by the church.