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

Fellowship within a church and fellowship between churches commands a place in Paul’s magisterial opus on righteousness. Make no mistake: while the first 11 chapters of Romans present the deeply theological underpinnings of our Christian faith, the last five chapters are not afterthoughts or lesser truths. Application is just as important as information, both entailing truth. The foundational verse of the book of Romans can arguably be identified as this: “For in it [the Gospel] the righteousness of God is revealed; as it is written, ‘But the righteous man shall live by faith’” (Rom 1:17).

Righteousness has to do not only with relationship to God, but also with our daily interactions with other Christians. Therefore, “Greet one another with a holy kiss.” Paul repeats this admonition in three other places (1 Cor 16:20, 2 Cor 13:12, 1 Thess 5:26, see also 1 Peter 5:14). Should we take this literally? In our Western culture we might enjoy a friendly handshake or a “holy” hug. Europeans would probably feel more comfortable with a kiss of fellowship. But should this not be taken literally, as we do with other portions of Scripture that may contravene accepted cultural norms, like the length of a man’s hair or a woman’s head covering (1 Cor 11), raising hands in worship and praise, baptism by immersion rather than sprinkling, taking bread and wine in remembrance of the Lord?

Armchair theologians debate these issues incessantly, but it behooves us to seek a consistent hermeneutic (system of interpretation). While adequate comment about this goes beyond the scope of this page, let the reader be convinced in his own mind by Scripture and consistent reasoning. But we must not miss the point: we should practice our affection to each other in tangible ways. Let our love not be just words only, but also practical expressions.

Finally, righteous living is not confined to isolated communities of believers. We need interconnectedness between churches. Paul “sends” greetings to them from all the churches. Possibly the leaders from churches he had recently visited expressly asked him to include their greetings. Maybe even some of the believers in Rome had come from some of these churches, so the interest was natural. To be sure, in the Christian movement, churches have always been concerned about other churches. Although the history of Christianity has included competition and conflict between churches, we must ask ourselves today, how can we foster more interconnectedness and support between churches and across denominations?

Lord, help me be a blessing to Christians outside of my own circle of fellowship.