Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – 1 Thessalonians 5:25-28

Please stand for the reading of God’s command word. 1 Thessalonians 5:25-28. “Brethren, pray for us. Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss. I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” You may be seated.

Well, we’re actually going to finish up the epistle to the first epistle to the Thessalonians written by the Apostle Paul today. This will be the 48th sermon, I believe, going through this relatively short epistle. And it will be our final one. We began roughly a year and a half ago. I believe it was Thanksgiving of 1982. And I think I hope it’s been helpful to you and a challenge to you to understand that even such a small epistle can contain a tremendous amount of information, exhortation, admonition, and assurance from God.

And so we can conclude now with some concluding remarks normally called pastoral remarks by the Apostle Paul. And yet they’re very important. And so we’re going to spend some time looking at these concluding remarks instead of just glossing over and not touching on them. I might just mention that when we move into the new facility, the first Sunday, I believe the second Sunday in April, I’ll begin to go through the book of Joshua.

And we’ll go at a completely different pace. I’m going to try to cover roughly a chapter, a sermon so we can move through a book very quickly. And that’s another way that’s completely appropriate to move through one of the books of God’s word. So, be praying for me as I prepare that series of messages, please. But now, we’re going to conclude with First Thessalonians with these concluding remarks, the last four verses.

And we essentially here have some more commands or more demands by Paul. Remember we said last week, the Christian life is not an easy life. It is not a bed of roses, so to speak. It is a path of blessing, but it’s not easy. It’s hard, and it’s difficult to apply what God’s word tells us to apply. And in this short epistle, we’ve seen the tremendous power of God’s word. It is a sharp two-edged sword, and it does divide, and it does cut us in half and reconstitutes those who are called to faithfulness in Jesus Christ in the elect community.

It has its effect upon a group of people when it is preached in its fullness. When it is received as the inspired word of God, it has an effect upon our lives. That effect can be good in most cases. It always brings blessing to the elect. But it also can point up areas of difficulty and areas of lack of faith and weak faith in us as well. And so the word is a very dangerous thing to have handled. It’s a wonderful gift of course from God, a gracious gift to cause us to grow.

But never forget that it is a word of power and it is a word effectual to God’s purposes. And that purpose is to shape all things in created history and over time so that only the things that cannot be shaken—his kingdom and those called to the kingdom—stand firm in the Lord Jesus Christ. And God’s word is effectual to that end.

This contains, as I said, more commands or demands by Paul. Three explicit commands—I think the fourth statement, the fourth verse, contains an implicit command. He tells people to pray: “Brethren, pray for us.” That’s the first command. Second one is: “Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.” Third one is: “I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.”

And then finally, he gives a word of assurance at the end of the epistle: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.” And this is essentially then in its explicit statement—three commands or demands and then one statement of assurance.

Very significantly, these final closing portions of this epistle are again directed to and related to community life—to life in the Christian community as opposed to the individual personal devotional life. The personal devotional life has, as we said in a couple of verses earlier in this chapter, been touched upon in this epistle. But repeatedly throughout the scriptures, we see the personal devotional life taking second seat, so to speak, to the community life and the exhortations to correct community living in the context of the body of Jesus Christ. That’s a very important distinction that we should understand here.

The responsibilities touched on in the section of scripture that we’ll be dealing with today are responsibilities to the church, the entire body of Jesus Christ. And essentially here we have a command in terms of intercession. And then we have a command in terms of the demonstration of affection or loving kindness. Then we have a command that involves exhortation. And then we have assurance at the end of these four verses. And that’s the way we’ll deal with them.

## First Command: Prayer for Ministers

First of all, the command to the local church to continually pray for ministers. Verse 25: “Brethren, pray for us.”

This, as I said, is a command of intercession. It is the only instance in the epistle where the term “brethren” is placed at the beginning of the Greek sentence structure. In other words, when you see that happen in a Greek sentence, that is normally for emphasis. So this is the only place where “brethren” is placed forward for emphasis, and so it’s to be understood as a command issued to them corporately—of course it has individual implications as well, but there is an aspect here in which he is telling them to pray corporately for ministers as well.

The term “pray for us” is given in the present tense. So it doesn’t mean pray for us once and then stop. It means continually pray for us. That is, those people that have brought the word of God to you.

The epistles in this epistle usually begin with statements of the prayers on the part of the apostles or on the part of Paul and his fellow laborers for the believers. And epistles typically close with the request that the believers then pray for Paul. And so that’s usually the pattern, and we saw it here in the first couple of chapters. He talked a lot about his prayer for the Thessalonians and now at the end he’s asking them to pray for him.

Matthew Henry in commenting on this—that people should pray continually for their ministers—said the following: “Ministers themselves stand in much need of their people’s prayers. The more people pray for their ministers, the more good ministers may have from God, and the more benefit then the people may receive by their ministers.” So it’s kind of a chain. It is very important not to gloss over this, but it’s very important to pray for ministers, and that’s what Paul has asked him to do for him in the context of this particular epistle.

Now we could spend a whole couple of sermons probably on the various requests of Paul that he’d be prayed for, analyzing what they are. But I just want to turn to one real briefly, and that’s in the next epistle to the Thessalonians—the second epistle, 3:1 and 2.

In those two verses we read the following from Paul: “Finally brethren, pray for us. So it’s the same command but with more explanation here. And he explains two things to be prayed for. ‘Pray for us first that the word of the Lord may have free course and be glorified even as it is with you.’ So he prays that him as a minister of Christ might be able to preach the gospel and that the gospel may have free course.

Remember it was the Jews being instigated by the pagans, or excuse me, the pagans being instigated by the Jews who are trying to impede the flow of the gospel and impede Paul’s progress physically so the gospel couldn’t proceed. So he prays that the word of God might have free course. And then second, he says, ‘And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for all men have not faith.’

Not everybody’s going to believe. Not everybody has faith. And those that don’t have faith, Paul is essentially equating them here with being unreasonable and wicked. And in the terms of the propagation of the gospel, the development of Christian communities, you’re going to have people who are unreasonable and wicked trying to impede the progress of ministers. It’s a normal occurrence. And Paul specifically asked for prayer in terms of that in the second epistle to the Thessalonians, and it’s one of the areas in which a minister should be prayed for on a regular basis.

I can tell you by personal experience that this is a prayer I would ask for from you on a continual basis as well. Indeed, it is the opposition of men that give us much problems in life in terms of ministering the gospel. And so it’s important that we understand that one of the secondary means that the sovereign Lord of creation gives us to help ministers proceed in spite of the face of opposition from those both within and without the church—as Paul received it as well.

One of the secondary means that the gospel might be preached forward and communities might be established is the prayer of those communities. And so I’d ask you all as a congregation to pray for myself, pray for Richard, and pray for the deacons as well. You know, Elder Mayheart has had quite a baptism by fire. I can say this because he’s not here today. He’s up in Seattle preaching. But as you know, he’s had quite a baptism by fire—quite an inauguration into office. And believe me, he needs to be prayed for and supported as he continues to minister the word in the context of this church and the Seattle church as well.

This is a very simple thing to understand and it’s a simple thing really to evaluate as well. A lot of times you read a scripture that tells you to do something, and maybe you can’t figure out if you’re doing it quite enough, not enough, etc. This is real easy to evaluate. You just ask yourselves now for just a moment: Do you pray for each other, of course, in the context of the body of Christ? But then also, do you pray specifically for the ministers, the church officers, and each of the local bodies as well? Do you pray for me? Do you pray for Elder Mayheart? Do you pray for the deacons?

And if not, I would ask you to make a commitment today in terms of God’s command word to us that you say, “Yes, I’m going to obey the scripture.” And I would ask you to do one other thing, and that is to make a little tick mark in your calendar, maybe in two weeks from today, and write a little note someplace to yourself to look at in two weeks. Did I do it? Did I follow up on that commitment to pray for the ministers of the gospel that God has brought into my life?

That’s the first—one more demand that God gives us in this epistle: a command that the local church continually pray for ministers.

## Second Command: Greeting with a Holy Kiss

Secondly, the second command is the command to demonstrate love, loyalty, and submission to all within the local church. So the command dealt with functional superiors. This one deals with people on a horizontal level within the context of the local church and all the brethren.

Verse 26: “Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.”

And I’m going to spend a little bit of time on this one—a longer time on this particular middle section of this section of scripture—because it’s one that I’ve been asked to preach on actually several times by various people. We went through the regulative principle as it relates to worship. I was asked to preach on this and I didn’t think it fit in there very well. But I think it is good we take a little bit of time here.

Now, Verse 26 says, “Greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.” And some have said it’s kind of like Paul saying, “Kiss all the brothers for me.” So, it’s directed to the recipients of the letter. But I’ve listed some other scriptures—parallel scriptures for you from Romans and 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, and 1 Peter—where the command is to salute one another with a holy kiss.

And in Romans 16, for instance, “salute one another with a holy kiss.” 1 Corinthians 16, “greet ye one another with a holy kiss,” etc. So, it’s not a command related to a particular person who’s supposed to administer it to the body. Rather, it’s a command within the context of church life that you’re to greet one another with a holy kiss.

So, what does this mean? Are we going to start kissing today? So, we’re going to new course in kissing here at RCC?

Well, I want to explain in a little bit why I think this is a very pertinent command and why it’s important for us to understand and not just gloss over as some kind of nice little convention or custom of the New Testament times.

It is odd to us—the concept of kissing one another in terms of the public gathering. It’s an interesting fact though that kissing in the earliest literature that’s recorded, kissing had primary reference to familial kissing—kissing of family members on the cheek—kisses of respect. Later, kisses in terms of contractual obligations. The kiss was seen as something to sign and seal a covenant of friendship. For instance, the marriage covenant. In some ancient wedding ceremonies, the actual marriage is affected not by the ceremony nor by the conjugal relations of the couple, but rather by the kiss given at the end of the service. And without a kiss, some have said there is no marriage in earliest literature.

The kiss—another thing I’m trying to say here is the kiss was not primarily seen in an erotic or an amorous sense. The kiss in most ancient literature is far different than that, and the amorous or erotic kiss arises later in literature. Now as it does arise later in the history of men, it tends to take the prominence in some cultures over the kiss of friendship, but not always. That’s very significant, I think, because we understand that culture really has its roots in the creation and in God’s covenant people. And so, it’s important to see the origins of these things.

We may understand our perspective of what a kiss is and primarily being amorous or a love between a man and a woman, but that really is not the primary concept throughout history of what kisses were all about. The kiss, as I said, was a sign of fidelity, affecting a covenant in many cases, or the sign of affection or respect. The kiss, therefore, was normally in ancient literature upon a cheek or upon someone’s hand. And only later in literature was the kiss on the mouth spoken of because again, it had its primary roots in familial relationships and in covenants and respect.

### The Early Church Practice

Now, the early church—first of all, the origins isn’t what we think. Recognize that this is a command that Paul frequently gave to churches. And it also was a command that was actually literally carried out in the early centuries of the church. And I’m just going to read you several quotes here from various church fathers about this.

Early on, in the middle of the second century, Justin Martyr wrote the following. And now this is only about a hundred years after this epistle was written, probably less than 100 years. Justin Martyr said that in the context of worship, and specifically in the worship of the recipients of people in baptism—that after the baptized people were baptized, prayers for the one baptized would be said, then prayers for the whole church and then for all others in every place. And this was then followed by saluting one another with a holy kiss.

So that really follows the pattern here in 1 Thessalonians 5: brethren, pray for us and then greet each other with a holy kiss. That was literally followed within the first hundred years according to Justin Martyr.

Tertullian in 207 AD wrote the following. This is about 150 years after this epistle was written. He said, “Who,” and he’s talking here about an unbelieving husband—in other words, what unbelieving husband would without some suspicion dismiss her, that is his believing wife, to attend the Lord’s supper which they defame? Who would permit her to creep into prison to kiss a martyr’s bonds? Nay, indeed, to meet any one of the brothers, to exchange the kiss?”

So what you’re telling is saying, you know, well, we got a difficult situation when you got a believing wife and a non-believing husband, ’cause he’s not going to want to let her go to church because she’s going to end up going to church and kissing other brothers in terms of the holy kiss. So in that case it was actually between man and women and men to women, although usually in the early church it was men to men and women to women.

The apostolic constitutions in the 3rd century—I’ll read an extended quote here just so you’ll have a little bit of flavor of other things that were dealt with that we still have to deal with today. This is from the apostolic constitutions in the 3rd century of the church.

I’ll read this now. “And let the deacons be the disposer of the places. In other words, the deacons were supposed to determine where people would sit. That everyone who enters may go to his proper place and not sit at the entrance. They had a problem then with people sitting toward the back and not coming out to the front. One who enters may go to his proper place, not go to the entrance. In like manner, let his deacon watch the people that nobody whispers or sleeps or laughs or nods.”

And you know, you’ve heard this before, I’m sure, but the Puritans, of course, they would have men—I don’t know if they were the deacons or not—who would go about with these little rods with a little ball at the end and if people started to nod off during the sermon, they’d pop them one and wake them up, you know. And they would have little feathers for the gals to wake them up, much more gentle. My wife’s father actually had an experience along that line in Canada where he fell asleep as a young boy and was hit on the head with a rod such as the Puritans use. So, it’s fairly current this practice as well.

Anyway, after that, “Let all rise together and looking toward the east, pray to God eastward. Now, I don’t want to get into it, but there was that—wasn’t just superstition. That had to do with the orientation of the garden of Eden and where Adam and Eve were cast out. And so, that to pray to the east to God’s special presence in terms of his garden.

“Pray to God eastward. After the prayer is over, let some of the deacons attend upon the oblation of the Eucharist. Let other deacons watch the multitude and keep them silent. Deacons were real active on Sundays. But let that deacon who is at the high priest’s right hand say to the people: ‘Let no one have any dispute with another. Let no one come in hypocrisy.’ Then let the men give the men and the women the women the Lord’s kiss.”

This was just prior to communion. So there in the third century of the church we have the holy kiss being performed on a regular basis preceded by a statement: “Don’t be hypocritical about this, you know. Don’t have something against your brother or sister in the Lord.”

Clement of Alexandria contrasted proper kissing with those who make the church resound with the noises of kissing. She said it’s not a good thing, and these people don’t have love within themselves. “We dispense,” he says, “the affections of the soul by a chastened and closed mouth.”

Athanagoras warned against the abuse of the custom saying the following: “The logos has said, ‘If anyone kisses a second time because it is given him pleasure, he sins.’” So trying to move it back toward the earlier practice of the kiss being a sign of friendship, covenant, submission, etc., and now letting it slip over into the amorous type of kissing.

The kissing, the holy kiss, is still practiced apparently to this day—or at least as of 30 or 40 years ago—in the Coptic church in the portion of the world that we now know as Egypt. And the Eastern Church still practiced it in some places. And generally the Eastern Church has restricted the practice now to Easter. And it is interesting as well that the holy kiss was specifically omitted and has been for many centuries in the Eastern Church in the Good Friday celebration because of course the treacherous kiss of Judas.

The Western Church—the Latin church—abandoned the holy kiss in about the 13th century. So for nearly a thousand years, or over a thousand years, the church indeed actually followed up literally on the commands here in scripture to issue a holy kiss.

### The Holy Kiss and the Eucharist

Now one other thing I want to touch on in terms of this—I mentioned that it was seen usually in reference to communion of the Eucharist. And I want to just spend a little bit more time on that aspect of this.

In 1 Corinthians 16:20-22 and Revelation 22:20, we have some verses that some have interpreted to tie the holy kiss to the Eucharist. Marshall in his commentary on this section in 1 Corinthians says that it seems to presuppose that a kiss was given as a holy greeting at the time of the Eucharist in the Pauline churches. Perhaps the letter itself was to be read at the Eucharistic meal.

“The supper was preceded apparently by the kiss of peace, a sign of loving fellowship among the members. And this was accompanied by both a curse upon any who did not truly love the Lord and by the pronouncement of a blessing upon the Lord’s people.”

And so in 1 Corinthians 16 we read—and this is the section he was commenting on: “All the brethren greet you. Greet ye one another with a holy kiss. The salutation of me Paul with mine own hand. If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be anathema. Maranatha. Or in other words, Lord, come quickly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen.”

And so some sentences that we would interpret kind of like individual static sentences—early on in the history of the church, they saw this as a liturgical direction to go from the holy kiss leading up to the fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ with a warning that if it was not a holy kiss, if it was a treacherous kiss, then you were cursed by God at the coming of the Lord Jesus at communion.

Remember we talked about the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s definitely a coming of Christ at the end of all time. The scriptures plainly teach the bodily return of Christ, but it also plainly teaches that there are other advents, other comings in history. And indeed, each Lord’s day is a coming of the Lord to evaluate his people. And so 1 Corinthians 16 was interpreted as saying that if the holy kiss is given without being sincere, and if anybody doesn’t really love Jesus Christ and his subjects, and hence is kissing in a treacherous way, pray let him be accursed when the Lord comes and judges us now at communion. And on the other hand, if people really love the Lord and his people, let him receive a blessing—grace—from communion.

Okay, so it was commonly practiced in the early church and usually in reference to the Eucharist as a liturgical element of the worship service itself dealing with communion.

### The Kiss in the Old Testament

Now I’m going to back up a little bit and get back to the cultural practice in the Old Testament—earlier history. And as I said before, by as evidenced by ancient literature in the Old Testament, kisses are primarily seen in relationship to family members. The kisses, for instance, of the father and the son, the mother and the brother, the wife, the father or mother-in-law, wives of one son such as in Ruth 1:9, and fellow countrymen in 2 Samuel 15:5. So that kind of kissing was portrayed a lot in the scriptures. As well as the kisses of love recorded in the Song of Solomon and in Proverbs 7:13.

The importance—and I’m reading now from the Theological Word Book of the Old Testament: “The importance of a kiss in expressing love is seen in the proverb, ‘an honest answer is like a kiss on the lips.’” Proverbs 24:26. It’s, you know, it’s a good thing. But on the other hand, the kiss of a prostitute was something to be rejected according to Proverbs 7:13.

So, the Old Testament, we had a lot of a primary emphasis on the kiss of affection. But also the kiss of respect was also talked about, and we’ll talk about that in a couple of minutes here by giving you some scriptures there.

Song of Solomon 1:2: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” And then Proverbs 27:6: “Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.”

Now, those two verses are the only occurrence in the Old Testament of the noun “kisses.” Okay? Without being a verb or another part of speech, those are the only two occurrences. And it’s interesting because we have one example of a good kiss—the kiss of love and the kiss of essentially allegorically the church to Christ, but also the marriage relationship in the Song of Solomon. But then we also have a warning against the kisses of an enemy being deceitful in Proverbs 27:6.

So both kinds of kisses are talked about—sincere and insincere—in the Old Testament.

In any event, kissing was an Old Testament custom and so also would be a part of biblical custom and culture in the New Testament. In Luke 7:45, we read: Jesus says, “Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet.” He’s talking to a Pharisee who was saying, “You’re letting this prostitute kiss your feet.” And Jesus says, “Hey, since I came in here, you didn’t even give me a kiss.”

Now, the indication there seems to be that it was a cultural expectation that culturally he was expected to kiss a guest and particularly a special guest such as Jesus. So, we see from there as well as Acts 20:37, where Paul is kissed by the elders at Ephesus, we see there that in the New Testament times kissing a friendship respect kissing—both those two—were part of the common customs of New Testament times as well as Old Testament times.

Now I’m going somewhere. I’m going to try to wrap all this together as we get through these various scriptures. What I’m giving you here is a little bit of a theological overview of kissing in the Bible. And I think it’s important for understanding this command and its relevance to us today.

### The Kiss as Covenant and Submission

The next set of verses—Genesis 41:40, Psalm 2:12, and 1 Samuel 10:1—are very, very important.

Genesis 41:40: I’ll read you the King James version. “Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled. Only in the throne will I be greater than you.” This is Pharaoh talking to Joseph. And it doesn’t sound like it has much to do with kissing, but it does.

The word for kiss, the Hebrew word here that I’ve talked about in these other references is in this verse. Can you imagine where it is? He says, “according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled.” A more literal translation of that is “on your mouth all my people will kiss.” Pharaoh telling this to Joseph. Now that doesn’t mean people all that doesn’t mean all the people of Egypt would kiss him on the mouth. His mouth is the place of his command. Okay. So the Pharaoh is telling Joseph in his exalted position: what you tell people to do, they’ll kiss. They’ll kiss you. Okay. The kiss is a sign of respect and submission.

In other words, in terms of Genesis 41:40, in terms of Joseph and the greater Joseph described in Psalm 2:12, where we read, “Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” The kiss has a covenant submissive implication to it in Genesis 41 and certainly in Psalm 2.

And this is a very important part of how the scriptures define and use the word “kiss.” And when we get to the New Testament to the term “kiss,” there’s no reason to interpret kiss culturally. There’s every reason to interpret it as every other portion of scripture by the rest of the scriptures. And so if Paul is going to give the churches a command to kiss in a particular manner, he’s going to expect them to know what kissing is all about relative to the rest of the Bible and bring those meanings into his command to them.

And here we see that in the Old Testament, it had the context of covenant submission. The kiss—in this context as well—this covenant is also indicated in 1 Samuel 10:1.

In 1 Samuel 10:1: Samuel takes a vial of oil and pours it upon Saul’s head and he kisses him. The scripture says, “And is it not because the Lord hath anointed thee to be captain over his inheritance?” Upon the anointing of Saul to office by Samuel he is kissed. Okay. Kissed—of the cheek undoubtedly, maybe kiss on the hand—kiss of respect and submission to the Lord’s anointed and also a kiss affirming the covenant ordination of that man to office.

Now again, in going back to the early church—when bishops were consecrated, the bishop would be kissed at his ordination or consecration to office. And frequently in some of the liturgies, the kiss would come not just from the presbyters who appointed him to office but also from members of the congregation. Would come up—remember like our ordination service—existing office bearers as well as the congregation affirm the man’s call at the laying on of hands. Well, the same thing would be true of the kiss, and that’s based upon this text from 1 Samuel 10, where Samuel kisses Saul at his ordination or consecration to office.

So again we see the kiss having the idea of submission—covenantally—in the scriptures.

### Judas’s Kiss versus the Repentant Woman’s Kiss

Okay. And finally, I’ve given you a couple of scripture references here: Luke 22:47 and Luke 7:38.

In Luke 22:47 we read, “And while he yet spake, behold, a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.”

Luke 7:38: “And stood at his feet behind him weeping.” This is the prostitute who’d been forgiven of her sins. “And began to wash his feet with tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.”

We have Jesus receiving two kinds of kisses. And obviously the one that is commended by Jesus is the kiss of respect, the kiss of affection, and the kiss of covenantal submission to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Luke 7:38). We don’t know why Judas kissed Jesus. A lot of discussion in the commentaries about that. We don’t know why he kissed him. It’s kind of an odd thing. He had just seen him. Usually a kiss after parting would come after a long period of parting. There would be the kiss of affection when they got back together.

And we know this much: It gives us a perfect picture in God’s word of two kinds of kisses. A holy kiss recorded in Luke 7 and an unholy one by Judas.

### Synthesis: The Meaning of the Holy Kiss

Now, putting all this together, I think that the fact of the kiss, while important—and important to read into that kiss what the scriptures tell us about it—that it is a sign not of love in the amorous sense or erotic sense. It is the sign of affection. However, it’s the sign of fellowship. It’s the sign of unity. It’s a familial act more than anything else in the scriptures. Okay? Very important—a familial act.

And it’s a sign of the covenant—a pact of friendship or a covenant of some type—and submission one to the other in the body of Christ. Those things are all important. But it’s only important because the adjective “holy” is next to it. The important thing is not the kiss ultimately, although that’s important, but the holiness indicates that it is consecrated or set apart—from something to something.

Remember, we’re holy. We’re set apart. We’re called away from sin, but we’re called to righteousness. And our physical action of kissing in the context of Paul’s command means not the treacherous kissing of Judas, but the sincere kissing that really implies that submission, affection, a new family relationship in the household of God, the unity of the church, and mutual submission in terms of the covenant family.

That is what Paul is stressing here. In your kisses, which were ongoing a normal custom in New Testament times, understood biblically—a very proper custom in that kissing, make it holy. Don’t be feigned in it. Now, to the end that we in our day and age do not engage in that aspect of showing each other affection and kindness, this verse I think contains a warning to us.

The handshake some people have said is a modern equivalent to the kiss. It really isn’t because the kiss was exclusive. You didn’t kiss just anybody. You kissed family members, people you respected, people you had a covenant relationship to, people you were at peace with. Okay? So it wasn’t like the handshake.

But even in the handshake, this verse is an admonition against hypocrisy in relationships within the church. And what it says is that when we come together and affirm our affection one to the other, it better be sincere. We better not have talked about the other person. We better not be harboring a bad attitude toward the other person in the context of our relationships here. It better be sincere.

Now, Hendrickson in his commentary here says that it was holy because it was a symbol of spiritual oneness in Christ. It was moreover a seal of Christian affection, the feeling which members of one of the same spiritual household cherish for one another. Well, it’s pretty good except that I wouldn’t call it a feeling. It’s an obligation.

Because the other thing that Paul says here is not just that it should be a holy kiss—understanding all the implications of what the scriptures say about kissing and consecrated to a biblical concept of kissing—but he says to kiss “greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.” He stresses emphatically, not just greet the brethren, greet all the brethren with a holy kiss.

That means that there are brethren you’re not going to have much feeling for in terms of church at some point in time, right? The larger you get, you don’t know people that well. You might have a feeling for them, but you have a covenant relationship to them. You’re part of the same extended family of God and you’re part of a local congregation that manifests an extended family or household of God. And so, he’s telling you here that in your relationships in the context of the church, don’t be exclusive in terms of understanding your covenant obligation to other people in the body of Christ.

The usage of the term “brother” and “sister” in our conversations with one another is a real good thing. It’s a real good reminder to treat each other with the affection and love that we used to show brothers and sisters in our physical or biological families. Or some, you know, of course we still do, but you see what I’m saying—very important.

Two things in this verse I want you—well, three things. One: what kissing means. It means affection. It means covenantal loyalty. It means submission. It means relationship. And then, secondly, that you’re consecrated to that task in terms of the other believers. And, thirdly, that applies to all believers in the context of the local fellowship and not just some.

Neil in his commentary says that every one of the brothers, the fellowship of the church is to be all inclusive and no one is to be left out. The suggestion in the following verse is that some were for some reason or other absenting themselves from the meetings of the community. Or through their own shortcomings were rather frowned upon by the rest of the congregation. Paul’s emphasis in both cases is on the unity of the fellowship.

One final quote on this. Marshall said, “What is important is that the members of the church should have some way of expressing visibly and concretely the love which they have for one another as fellow members of the body of Christ. The manner of expression may vary in differing cultures, but it is doubtful whether doing nothing at all, as modern western Christians tend to do, really fulfills the spirit of this injunction.”

Amen. I mean, we live in a western culture now that keeps away from physical contact. You know, you want your space and so you kind of keep yourself—you know, it’s particularly in America, the independent western man, you know, and you don’t want to tread on me and that kind of stuff. And so, you’re all kind of isolated and everything. And we don’t have these kinds of familial physical contact in terms of kissing that other cultures have had.

And I think it’s to our detriment. I think it’s to our detriment. I think that this scripture tells us that indeed there should be some aspect—and for 6,000 years or 5,000 years it’s been kissing on the cheek. There should be some aspect that reminds us in terms of our worship of what we preach and teach and stress at our agape or love feast and our communion time together—all being wrapped up in one extended household of God committed to one another.

Unfeigned love of the brethren is what it’s all talking about there and covenantal submission one to the other. And I think that you know a proper—a proper beginning walk back to an actual literal fulfillment of this verse is a good thing for the churches in America to take upon themselves. It’s a good thing for us to begin to consider as well.

## Third Command: Reading the Epistle

Okay. So first we had a command by Paul to the local church to continually pray for ministers. Now we have a command to demonstrate love, loyalty and submission to all within the local church.

Very important. And then, third, Paul gives the third command that is a strong command to provide the means of grace to all within the local church.

Verse 27: “I charge you by the Lord that this epistle be read unto all the holy brethren.”

Okay. Now when he says “I charge you” here—this is a very strong word. This is the only place in the epistles where Paul uses this word. It means—it has two parts to it. It’s what they call a double accusative. The first accusative means that Paul intends to extract an oath from the recipients of the letter. The second accusative indicates the thing or person that the addressee was to swear by. And in this case, it is by the Lord Jesus Christ himself that you’re supposed to swear to do this thing that he’s extracting from the recipients of this letter. It is a strong term.

Now, why does he issue this? And again, this has been the subject of many people thinking different things about this particular verse. Why does he adjure them in such strong terms to have this letter read to all believers, all the holy brethren, rather that in the context means at the church in Thessalonica?

Well, some people say maybe the recipients of the letter wanted to not give it to some people. I don’t think that sounds too good. But maybe there were some in the context of the local church who knew that the letter might have admonitions about them—you know, in terms of their slothfulness or disorderliness—and maybe they didn’t want to hear it. So maybe they didn’t want to go to church that day that the epistle was read or at the communion service, whatever it was. And Paul is saying, “If there are people absent, you make sure they hear this letter.” And that’s certainly true—that’s certainly one of the implications of the verse—to make sure that all people are present or not when this letter is read. You make sure you get over to them and read it to them. He wants everybody to hear it.

And that may be true, too. I think another important thing though in the context of the writing of the New Testament is that this—as we said, and we began this epistle, it’s probably the first epistle that Paul wrote. Galatians possibly before, but probably this is the first one. And so Paul may well, here, as some commentators have said, may be setting up the procedure. They may not have known what to do with this first epistle they got from Paul. And so he instructs them: this epistle is to be read in the context of the congregated host. It is important part of your worship service. And so he adjures them and puts them under an oath to the Lord Jesus to make sure it is read.

Well, we don’t know exactly what reasons there were, but it is important that we see that this is a command to the local church to—by way of application now—that they make the epistles readily available, that they make the word of God, which is a means of grace, available and publish it to all within the context of the church.

Now, if we believe that—certainly secondary to the inspired word of scripture—but that the preaching of the word of God is an important transmission belt for these truths, it means that we should thank God that we’re in the context of a technology today where we can make the preaching of God’s word and its reading available to people who are apart from have to, for whatever reason—illness or whatever else—absent themselves from Lord’s day services. That is a good thing that we can do. There’s another great aspect that we should be greatly thankful to God for. And that is that we live in a day and age in which the Bible itself—that Paul is by first application referring to here—is available in our native tongue. Such has not always been the case.

But see, if you restrict the scriptures by keeping them, by not translating them into the vernacular, into the common language of the people, there’s no way to obey this admonition from the Apostle Paul. So Paul tells us here, by way of application, he gives us a strong command to provide the means of grace in terms of the scriptures to all within the local church. And again, he uses inclusive language in terms of all the congregation.

## Fourth Element: Assurance of Grace

So those are the three commands. Fourth, he gives them an assurance of Christ’s abiding grace at the end of the letter.

Verse 28: “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.”

And this is properly the real benediction in terms of the conclusion of the letter here. This epistle ends as it began—it began with grace and he ends now with the citation of grace as well.

Grace is the unmerited favor that has been given to us in the person and work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry commenting on this said: “We need no more to make us happy than to know that great grace which our Lord Jesus Christ has manifested. Be interested in that grace which he has purchased and partake of that grace which dwells in him as the head of the church. This is an overflowing and ever-filling fountain of grace to supply all of our wants.”

Very appropriately put.

In the opening verses of the epistle, Paul said, “Grace and peace to you.” Remember that. So we began many moons ago. But it ends with “grace with you.” A different grammatical construction. He begins by saying “grace to you” and he ends at the end of the letter by saying “grace with you”—in terms of our Lord Jesus Christ. “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.”

The epistle itself is the means of grace that Paul has given them and the means whereby the Lord Jesus Christ causes his people to grow in a knowledge and understanding and apprehension of that tremendous grace of his given to us.

### Model for Community Life

In 1 Thessalonians 2:11 we read the following: “As you know how he exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a father doth his children.”

Remember that the father in terms of his children exhorts, comforts, and charges them. Well, Paul has just done the same thing in these concluding verses, hasn’t he? Hasn’t he? He’s exhorted them to pray. He’s exhorted them to demonstrate covenantal loyalty and love toward each other in terms of the holy kiss. He’s charged them that the epistle, the means of grace, be made available to all. And he’s comforted them at the end of all these instructions.

He comforts them with the knowledge that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is indeed with them. And that’s a model for us as well in terms of our horizontal relationships. We should be thinking in terms of exhorting each other in terms of prayer, community, and fellowship, the means of grace, reading God’s word. We should charge each other in terms of the need to grow in grace and the understanding of God’s word. And we should comfort one another as well in the assurance of grace that we receive from the scriptures and from this scripture. We should assure each other with that grace as well. So, it’s a model for us.

## Conclusion: The Emphasis on Community

Now, I want to conclude by noting a couple of things here that these verses have in common.

One thing basically—in each of these verses, Paul stresses the plural, the community. That’s what I said at the beginning of this talk. In verse 25, he stressed the plural. In verse 26, he talked about “all the brethren.” In verse 27, he wanted this epistle read to “all the brethren.” And then the grace of Jesus Christ is with “you all.” That grace is with us to the end that we exercise proper community life in the body of Christ. And it is also extended in terms of that corporate community life that we have in the local church.

In other words, it is a fearful thing to fall away from the local church because the grace is addressed here in the context of that body of Christ, of that new family of God.

In Matthew 12:46 and following, we read the following: “While he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brother stood without desiring to speak with him. Then one said unto him, Behold, thy mother and thy brother, they stand without desiring to speak with thee. But he answered and said unto him that told him, Who is my mother, and who are my brethren? And he stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren.”

The Lord Jesus Christ here was talking about the preeminence of the household of faith as opposed to the household of flesh. The biological family, the family of faith takes precedent over the biological family that God has called us to do. Now, our families are very important in terms of the biological sense. The covenantal family as well is extremely important. But the scriptures tell us that the household of faith has great importance as well. The family of God is extremely important in terms of our connections and our ties.

### The Benediction and God’s War

Now, this concluding verse is a benediction. And again, if we want to understand benedictions, we should look back at the beginning of benedictions that we remind ourselves of every Lord’s day—Numbers 6. The benediction there is a model of this ever-flowing and overflowing fountain of grace from God. Remember we talked about how it’s a torrent of blessing. The way that Numbers 6, those three verses of the blessing read, it’s a doubling effect. Each verse gets longer in number of syllables, number of words, etc. And it gets longer in the force of the peace of God that’s given to us, the shalom of God, his grace and blessing upon us.

And remember, too, very importantly, that Numbers 6 has as its context the preparation of the army of God for moving into the promised land. So it has the context again of addressing people as a group, as a family, and as an army on the march for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, Hendrickson in his concluding remarks to his commentary on First Thessalonians says that a close study of this epistle reveals the fact that a mighty conflict between the forces of light and those of darkness is presupposed throughout the epistle. On one side, we have God—we have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We have Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy. And then the rest of the believers that he addresses, the brotherhood at Thessalonica.

On the other side, we have Satan. We have the false idols. We have the pagans who afflict believers and those who instigate the pagans and their actions against the believers. That is the false church.