Holy Kissing - 1

Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you. (Romans 16:16)

I can well remember when I was a teenager thinking that this verse was one of my potential favorites. I had an inclination to try to use this verse as a means of reminding those in power that their prohibitions against expressions of open affection between young people were out of line with the words of God expressed in the Bible and that we should be allowed to kiss whenever and whomever we wanted to greet in the name of God.

Of course there were too many obstacles and far too much opposing logic that I never attempted such an argument except maybe in the privacy of my room with friends who were like-minded as me. And then there was always this problem of the word “holy” inserted in the text that we knew would be used to shoot down any such propositions if we were to make such a claim.

In addition to knowing that the adults in charge of our lives would never even consider buying into such logic, it was also pretty realistic that most all of the girls (we had our preferences of gender after all) that we might want to greet in “obedience” to these words would likely react with less than enthusiasm should they ever be confronted in such an affectionate way. And beyond all of these problems the final argument that drained all the authority out of this verse for us, the argument that was sure to arise was that this was simply a cultural practice that has long since disappeared and no longer applies to us today. (Sounds a lot like what many people claim about the law of God.)

So each time I came across this verse I knew that I would have to reluctantly give up all my ambitions and desires to greet my “friends” with a kiss, holy or otherwise, without getting myself into a great deal of trouble. I had to relegate this verse to the rest of the problematic verses that simply could not be explained within the context of the traditions that controlled our lives and our religion. And even though our leaders and teachers insisted that “every word of the Bible is true”, somehow this verse was supposed to be less true at its face value than most of the others.

Well, here I am back at the same text but in a much different state of affairs, much older and much more inclined to reexamine the traditions of the elders. Does that mean that I can now revive my hopes of being able to freely kiss others whenever I greet them? Does that mean if I can figure out how to satisfy this qualifier of the word “holy” that I can then indulge my latent desires to show more affection to others than what is commonly acceptable? Am I now willing to risk getting my reputation into deep trouble by claiming exemption to my religious society's inhibitions by claiming the Word of God as my excuse for satisfying me needs for affection? That still makes me quite uncomfortable and I really think there is something much deeper here.

What I do find inside of me as I choose to meditate on this verse is that I am still not completely satisfied with the typical explanations used to explain away this verse by most religious people. And while I am aware of the pitfalls of uninhibited expressions of affection to whomever I feel inclined, even if it stops at just kissing them, I still sense in my spirit that there is something here important that I am still missing. I can't subscribe to the argument that this is now obsolete because of a change in culture; I never have been able to swallow that argument satisfactorily. And while I realize that this text could easily be abused and misused to justify activities that could quickly lead to emotional troubles and improper attachments that would dishonor the name of Jesus, I think that there may be something very important here that I might learn that could bless my life if I listen carefully and humbly to what the Spirit might have waiting for those who are honest and open and hungry for truth.

(next in series)