A HOLY KISS
[p. 380] A HOLY KISS
Romans 16:16; Luke 15:20; Luke 7:38;Genesis 27:26,27: Genesis 45:15
What I have in mind to dwell upon particularly is the exhortation read from the epistle to the Romans, “Salute one another with a holy kiss”. This exhortation is found in other epistles, and is therefore the more significant, directing us as to the respect in which we are to regard each other as Christians, and the holiness entering into our salutations one with another.
To bring out the force of this passage, and the power and instruction behind it, I have read the other scriptures. Luke 15 brings God in, parabolically, as kissing. How He does it we have to discover in a spiritual sense, but He does it, and in that sense furnishes a lead for us in the exercise of this well-known way of conveying love. The more we advance in the knowledge of God, the more spiritual we are, not only in feeling, but in understanding, so that by the Spirit we arrive at meanings and definitions. Meanings are sometimes indefinable, and especially so in what God does. What we hear, of course, takes form in our minds, for the ear tries words, and the mind has power to distinguish their meaning. But there is the reception of what is conveyed, apart from which what is heard fails of its object. It is what is received with meekness that bears fruit.
In this instance we have conveyed to us parabolically the idea of God kissing, and we have to learn from Him. It is, I need not say, a holy kiss, and the word implies kissing ardently or caressingly. The father covered him with kisses. The impression is conveyed that it is not a mere matter of formal greeting; it is much more than that. Nor is the thought conveyed of any evident lovableness in the person. Not that he was not lovable, for a repentant sinner is lovable. Repentance is one of the most interesting items on earth [p. 381] in the eyes of heaven, and here it goes further. He came to himself and spoke to himself about his father, his father’s house. The Father (I speak now of God, which the parable conveys) was perfectly, conversant with the history that lay behind and underneath those garments in which the son appeared. History lay behind those garments, history well known in heaven, chronicled there. We have under David’s regime both “the chronicler” and “the scribe”, pointing to the accuracy of history noted down in the divine system. We may be sure these officials, so to speak, had been employed in regard to this remarkable history. So that the kiss was not merely overcoming evil with good; there was some moral beauty in the one that was kissed. He was not yet fit for the father’s house; much had to intervene before the house is mentioned, and the music and the dancing in it. But the kisses were given at once; they were lavished upon him as he was. That he appeared much more lovable later is unquestionable, for in the doctrine entering into this chapter we have sonship, and sons are to be conformed to the image of Christ, and made lovable as He is, relatively. The Song of Songs develops the thought of lovableness, for all the sons of God are not only to be loved in the abstract, but because they are actually lovable, and heaven knows it. Heaven announces its appreciation of the Lord Jesus from this point of view in the well-known words, “Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I have found my delight” (Mark 1:11). Not a kiss in the sense in which I speak of it, but it was the expression of affection by One in heaven for One upon earth, not because of any abstract greatness only, but because of what heaven found in Him. And room is made in the wording for all the sons to come in, for it is not said, ‘I have found all my delight’, but “my delight”, and all the sons come under that. In the eternal state of things there can be no doubt that God being all in all will revel in this, in the delightfulness under His eye of the Son and the [p. 382] sons, the One pre-eminent amongst them, “the firstborn among many brethren” (Romans 8:29).
Nevertheless we have here a love that expresses itself not exactly because of lovableness, but love as in God. We are to understand that down here, what love is as in God, how He loves although there be no apparent lovableness. He loves according to what He knows divinely, whereas the full thought is, what is found. Here He kisses ardently. He covers the returning one, as if the whole person is so under the eye of love that every part of him must feel the embrace of love. Would the prodigal ever forget it? Never! Never would that young man forget the impress so lavishly imparted from the father’s lips.
I go on to the next scripture. Genesis 27, in order to bring out how return is expected. God expresses His love for its objects, even before there may be much that is lovable, as I said. There is potentiality of lovableness, but the external conditions may not correspond. Now the point is return. We have to regard Isaac here as representative of God. A very poor representative, you may say, a deceived old man, how can he be a representative of God? He represents God as having power to bless in the sense in which blessing appears here. We need spiritual understanding to place this thought, but power to bless lies in representation of God. Blessing must emanate from God, hence the representation in the one who blesses; and Isaac says of Jacob, “blessed he shall be”. It was irrevocable, it was of God. Hence Isaac says, “Come near, now, and kiss me, my son”. Many receive the divine favours and the divine kisses and never think of a return, but God has a return in His mind. So Jacob came near and kissed his father. This is a very important matter for young Christians — return; and return in this intimate way, coming near to God. “Draw nigh to God”, we are told, “and he will draw nigh to you” (James 4:8). He looks for a return, and Jacob was equal to it.
Then Isaac said, “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed”. This is another thing; a great potentiality is in mind, God as it were recognising the one that draws near to kiss. Have we all thought of drawing so near as that, to share such holy familiarity with God? He encourages it. It has to be understood even as the divine kiss has to be understood, so has the return, the answer, to be understood. I think the divine kiss is the shedding abroad of the love of God in our hearts by the Spirit, that is Romans 5; and in Romans 8 the Spirit is on our side that we may use Him — use Him to draw near to God. Through Christ “we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father”, (Ephesians 2:18). It is by the Spirit subjectively that I draw near in this sense to express my reciprocal affection with a kiss, as it were. God is looking for that. If there is one thing more than another that is actuating God (I speak reverently) at the present time, it is the securing of this return. His people returning to Him in a reciprocal way to express their affections, and to do it properly as understood from Him. It is done from His side by the Spirit, and it is done from our side by the Spirit. God would say of one who does that. That young Christian is going to be very fruitful. “See, the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed”. What potentialities are there! Would Jacob ever forget that? I do not believe he ever forgot it in all his wanderings. He was to be fruitful, and he was. He knew how to return — if not at the beginning, certainly at the end; as we are told in the New Testament that he “worshipped on the top of his staff” (Hebrews 11:21). The field was there yielding fruit, dear brethren.
I now go on to Luke 7 to bring out another thought, namely, how this return qualifies one to have a status, a spiritual identity here below, to be a trusted spiritual entity, if I may so say. It is said in the verse that we have read that the woman kissed the Lord’s feet. She [p. 384] was doing it, as the original conveys. It was not just one act. The Lord Himself says, “She from the time I came in has not ceased kissing my feet” (Luke 7:45). It is misleading and damaging to assume that a thing once done is characteristic. One act is not characteristic, it is what is continuous in these matters. Even in regard to repentance, it is a repenting sinner. So in regard to kissing here, it is a kissing one. She “has not ceased kissing”. We have to understand that the idea of a fruitful field enters into this too. In Jacob’s case there was not at first much trustworthiness, he deflected not a little, after this kiss; but this woman, from the facts recorded by the Spirit of God, represents a trustworthy person. Nothing in a way is more important in regard to assembly matters than trustworthiness. It is foundational really, that God can trust us and that we can trust one another. The real difficulty largely amongst brethren is want of simple confidence in one another. The Lord says of her, “she loved much”. It is a love that springs from grace. She is a characteristic outcome of the dispensation, I may say; the dispensation is one of grace. She loved much. Why? Because she was forgiven much. She understood grace and she responded to it. The Lord turns to her — that is a thing to be noticed. Think of the eye of heaven being turned on you or on me in regard of any matter, not rebukingly, but in confidence and complacency! He turned to her to speak about her.
I believe, dear brethren, the Lord would speak about us to each other. We do not know each other enough. I would desire for myself that I might really know the brethren. Why should I not know them — learn their measure and correspondingly confide in them? He turned to the woman and He spoke to Simon. There was nothing in Simon to attract Him, but she is in His mind, and He conveys His mind regarding one like that. Would the Lord not do that for us? I believe He would, and it would settle a lot of matters, were we [p. 385] to seek His mind as to each other. Jehovah said to Moses, “Is not Aaron the Levite thy brother? I know that he can speak well. And also behold, he goeth out to meet thee; and when he seeth thee he will be glad in his heart” (Exodus 4:14). Moses would not have the same regard for Aaron (in spite of his knowledge of him as his brother) were it not for the divine introduction. You may be sure the divine introduction stamped itself on their relations thereafter. “When he seeth thee he will be glad in his heart” (Exodus 4:14); and when Aaron saw Moses he kissed him — he justified the divine word exactly. That was at the mount of Jehovah. In other words, Moses had a provision in his brother. “On the mount of Jehovah will be provided” (Genesis 22:14). And, in a sense, what is more needed than the brethren? We cannot get on without them; every one has to be known, has to be valued. The Lord tells me about myself and he tells me about others. He told Peter about himself — “Thou art Peter”; and He told Ananias about Saul. The Lord is ready to serve us in this respect.
So I believe this woman that we have so often spoken of in gospel testimony is an entity of the dispensation, she is the kind that is needed. She knew grace, she loved because of grace, and she expressed the love in the continuous kissing of the Lord’s feet. She valued what those feet had brought to her, she respected and loved the One who had brought it. And the Lord calls attention to her: “Seest thou this woman?” Suppose she applies, as we say, for fellowship; well, here are the facts relative to her, the Lord would tell us about them. Then He says, “Thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace” (Luke 7:50). He tells Simon about her love, but He sends her away with the understanding from Himself that she had faith — such faith that He calls it her faith, and it had saved her. You may say. The Lord saved her. True, but in every crisis in that woman’s history this would come out — ‘Why should I not exercise faith? It saved me at the beginning, it will save me now’. Of [p. 386] course, God saves us, Christ saves us, but the Lord says here, “Thy faith hath saved thee” (Luke 7:50). She is a striking expression of the dispensation; as I said, a trustworthy person. The Lord’s words as to her indicate that anything that might come up in regard of Him, He could trust her as to it, corresponding to another woman of whom He said, “What she could she has done”, (Mark 14:8).
I come now to Genesis 45. Speaking of Joseph and his brethren, it says, he kissed them all. I do not deny that we are to discriminate. We are to respect spiritual measure amongst us. Heaven weighs us; we are often reminded that we are weighed as well as counted; but Joseph kissed all his brethren. Before he kissed them he spoke much about his father. The family side is brought in, the kiss is given in the light of the father. He spoke, too, about himself, what he was in Egypt, the glory he had. It was that great personage who kissed them all, as much as to say, You are all my brethren, I make no distinction in regard to this. At the same time, he had already fallen on Benjamin’s neck. He loved him specially; there is always that disciple whom Jesus loves. There is what is really lovable, and why should I not afford to Him the right to value and to love what is lovable? I think every one of us is lovable really as the Spirit forms us, and in heaven eternally we shall be so. Because of this there will be the going out of divine affections eternally; that is what is before us, and we are being brought into it now. He kissed them all, and the result was they talked with him. That is the principle, their affections and confidence were released, his kiss drew out from them speaking. The Lord says, “Let me hear thy voice” (Song of Songs 2:14). One hears of brethren here and there who do not say anything in the assembly, it is most distressing. We feel it, but how much more the Lord. He wants to hear the voice: “Let me see thy countenance, let me hear thy voice” (Song of Songs 2:14). He says.
[p. 387] Now I come back to the first scripture read (Romans 16). The word salute is very frequent in the chapter — twenty-one times. It is designedly set in this epistle. Nowhere else are there such a number of salutations and such distinctions of brethren mentioned together. It is in the great foundational epistle to the Romans. What does it mean? That at the very foundation of our relations with one another there is to be respect and discerning of our respective qualities, and we are to love one another and salute one another with a holy kiss. A holy kiss is divine, whether in God or in us; I mean it is according to God. We do not use this form of greeting in this country much, although evidently they did so in the early days of Christianity. But whatever the form of salutation, dear brethren, let it be holy, let it be sincere, let it be the expression of confidence, the right hand of fellowship and confidence in one another. We shall never get on in assembly unless we are foundationally right. We speak now of love in its basic principles, that we learn from God first. “We love because he has first loved us(1 John 4:19)”. “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life” (1 John 3:16) — as though love were not known before. It was not really, it has to be learned from God, and it is learned according to the Scriptures because He first loved. “Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives” (1 John 3:16).
These passages give us the idea of examples, of a lead given to us in this great matter of love. If I learn it from God and from Christ I love the brethren, and salute them with a holy kiss. “Salute one another” — not special friends. Special friendships are another baneful element amongst the brethren. The love we extend to each other is to be holy, it is to be apart from personal natural feelings or predilections, it is to be governed entirely by divine love. If a person is not particularly lovable, well, I can fall back on Luke 15, as to how God loves. If it be a person who is particularly [p. 388] lovable, I do not fail to make it known. Of course, we have to avoid flattery, but it is certainly right that lovableness should be acknowledged. But we are always to regard each other with respect and with an expression of affection, a holy kiss.
That is what I had in mind, and I commend it to the brethren, that there may be a more easy way with us in our deliberations one with another in administrative matters, that there be amenableness to each other’s exercises, that what each has of God may be made the most of; that we may be helpers one of another. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us!