By Silvanus, a faithful brother unto you, as I suppose, I have written briefly, exhorting, and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand. The church that is at Babylon, elected together with you, saluteth you; and so doth Marcus my son. Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. (1 Peter 5:13-14)
Peter faces saints both with encouragement and with admiration. As above, he ends up with ‘greet ye one another with a kiss of charity.’ As we know, Westerners don’t mind light kiss between saints. It is related to their culture. However, if we apply it to Korean, many people would be confused, especially between the other sexes.
We know well that the words of Peter don’t mean the physical ‘kiss.’ It means that saints have to advance to deeper relationship in Christ. Yes, they need to make their relationship deeper. They are nation in the kingdom of God and body in churches of the Lord. What is ‘the body of churches’? It means that one isn’t his own. Sound body moves together in one body. So each saint has to respect, love, and cherish one another because those actions make me more plentiful. Look at the commandments of Jesus. He said ‘love God first, and love your neighbors’. How? He said ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’ because our neighbors can’t be a stranger in Christ.
Saints have to maintain the relationship of deep love each other and greet with the love. If one has an uncomfortable feeling to someone in church, he also has those feeling to the church. It can never be a desirable thing. Enjoy a happy life in church is the very thing of great value. Peter ended up his words with ‘peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus.’ As he desired, I hope our life to be full of peace of the Lord.
