“Greet one another with a holy kiss.” Paul gave these instructions to the Romans and repeated them to other churches. Twice to the Corinthians (1 Cor. 16:20 and 2 Cor. 13:12); and then to the Thessalonians (1 Thess. 5:26). Peter flew the friendliness flag as well in his first epistle (1 Peter 5:14) when he said, “Greet one another with a kiss of love.”
We tend to overlook these passages. Why the big deal? Why should we be careful to greet one another? The answer is out of respect. Respect is a mindfulness of another person’s situation. Respect says “Hello” to the new kid in class. Respect says “Good afternoon” to the cashier at the checkout stand. A greeting in its purest sense is a gesture of goodwill. Simply greeting one another is not that hard. But it makes a significant difference. And this is how happiness happens.
