I. Introduction

A. Illustration - Melvin Newland writes, I like the story about a rather legalistic Seminary student who wanted to have a scriptural basis for everything he did. He felt he was on solid ground if he could quote Bible book, chapter & verse to okay his actions. He did all right with that until he began to fall in love with a beautiful co-ed. He wanted very much to kiss her, but he just couldn’t find a scripture to okay it. So, true to his conscience, he would simply walk her to the dormitory each night, look at her longingly, & then say "Good night." This went on for several weeks, & all the time he was searching the Bible, trying to find some scripture to okay kissing her good night. But he couldn’t find one, until finally he came across that passage in Romans that says, "Greet each other with a holy kiss." He thought, "At last, I have scriptural authority for kissing her good night." But to be sure, he went to his hermeneutics professor to check it out. After talking with the professor, he realized that the passage dealt more with a church setting than with a dating situation. So once again he simply didn’t have a passage of scripture to okay kissing his girl good night. That evening he walked her to the dormitory & once again started to bid her "good night." But as he did, she grabbed him, pulled him toward her, & planted a 10-second kiss right on his lips. At the end of the kiss, the Seminary student gasped for air, & stammered, "Bible verse, Bible verse." The girl grabbed him a 2nd time, & just before kissing him again, said, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" (as cited on SermonCentral.com). Isn’t this a great example of how hard it can be to apply Scripture to our lives? This morning we’re looking at a passage that could cause us a few problems if we misunderstand it. So let’s read Romans 16:16-20 together, and I’m reading from the New International Version.

B. Romans 16:16-20 from the NIV – Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ send greetings. 17 I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naïve people. 19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

C. Learning how to put this passage into practice in our everyday lives is a lifelong process. How do we begin? Let’s start out by figuring out what the word “greet” means.

II. Respecting One Another

A. My dictionary defines greet as “to address in a friendly and respectful way; welcome… to receive with a specified reaction.” Did you know that greet appears seventeen times in chapter 16 of Romans? Either Paul is just being friendly, or he’s trying to make a point. And if he’s making a point, what is it, and what does it mean to us? We live in a world that is very disconnected, very disjointed, very superficial. Many of us grew up in dysfunctional homes; actually I’d say all of us, because every human being on earth is dysfunctional in some way. Why? We’re all corrupted by sin. That means that we’ve been born into a relationship with God that is severed by sin. The image of God within us has been distorted by sin from the moment of our birth. Our parents were sinful and we’re sinful – in fact, sin has been passed down the generation since Adam and Eve. In theological terms it’s called original sin. What does this have to do with our disconnectedness? Sin corrupts every single part of our beings, including our relationships with one another. That corruption keeps us from being friendly and respectful and welcoming to one another in much more than a superficial way. But Paul also says there is hope.

B. Paul commands us to greet one another with a holy kiss. He’s telling us to build such close and friendly and respectful and welcoming relationships with one another that we’d kiss each other if it were culturally acceptable. In our day and age, those kinds of relationships are like a breath of fresh air, because our culture focuses on the superficial. Our culture focuses on how we look and who we know and what kind of jobs and cars and houses we have. Our culture focuses a whole lot more on who we hang with than who we are inside. Paul is telling us that the cure for the disconnection that sin has caused isn’t to pull away from each other. The solution is to draw closer to God and to one another. To build those close relationships with God and with each other. The answer isn’t isolation, it’s community.

C. Because these relationships are so important, right after this command Paul includes the main reason we don’t enter into them. We don’t enter into close relationships with one another because Satan fights so diligently against these relationships, and we haven’t figured that out yet. Look at verse 17 – I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. Now who would be the one with all the motivation in the universe to cause divisions and obstacles in God’s Church? Satan. He’s got a vested interest in destroying God’s Church – he hates God. And since he hates God, he hates God’s people – us! He’s working overtime to deceive people, ordinary good people, into causing divisions in the church and putting obstacles between people and God. People who cause divisions may be a pain, but they are not the enemy – Satan is. They are merely deceived. And because they are deceived and cannot see the truth, they will continue to cause divisions and obstacles until either God gets through to them or they leave the church. Verse 18 – For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naïve people. Satan deceives them into believing that their own interests are more important than anything else, including unity and close relationships in the church. And we’re naïve if we think it can’t happen to us, because all of us are susceptible to deception. All of us have our weak points. That’s one big reason why we need one another – so that our strengths can cover others’ weaknesses and their strengths can cover our weaknesses.

D. Verse 19 – Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I am full of joy over you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. 20 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. In spite of their dysfunctionality, the Roman Christians had parts of their lives where they were walking in obedience to God. That much is obvious from Paul’s comment. Likewise, in spite of our dysfunctionality, we have parts of our lives where we’re walking in obedience to God. And that is cause for much rejoicing on our part. It gives God great joy when we walk in obedience to Him. But Paul still warns us to know and put into practice God’s wisdom and goodness, and to run from anything that masquerades as being godly but is evil. Satan will always try to disguise evil as good, darkness as light, division as “caring concern.” God is calling us to on our toes when it comes to recognizing who is behind division and obstacles – Satan.

E. There’s a reason Paul wrote verse 20 - The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. The only way we can build close relationships with God and with one another is by His grace. When we sing “Grace Alone” we’re acknowledging that we all have our part to do, but ultimately it’s God’s grace that enables us to do His will. It’s God’s will that we greet one another with a holy kiss, that we treat one another with respect and friendliness and in a welcoming way. His grace will help us as we walk in obedience. God’s grace, His unmerited favor, saves us, but then our obedience enables Him to pour more grace out upon us by the power of the Holy Spirit. His grace enables His love to overflow from our hearts onto others by the power of the Holy Spirit. When it comes to greeting one another with a holy kiss, as in all other commands in the Bible, grace and obedience go hand in hand. One of my favorite passages of Scripture is Ephesians 2:8-10 - For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. We love verses eight and nine – who wouldn’t – that tell us that salvation is through the grace of God as we believe Him and accept His gift. But we often forget about verse ten - For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. God has prepared for us to do good works, which includes building close relationships with one another and with God, that He created us to do. Powerful stuff! And we’re going to start putting it into practice in just a moment. But first I want to share a story with you.

F. Illustration – Jim Kane writes, “A pastor saw Robert Schuller’s TV program “Hour of Power.” One of the things that impressed him the most during the program was watching everyone turning around to shake hands with and greet other worshippers seated near them. The pastor felt that his church was a bit stuffy and could use a bit of friendliness. So, at Sunday morning worship he announced that next week they would initiate this custom of greeting one another. At the close of this same worship service one man turned around to the lady behind him and said a cheerful, “Good morning!” She looked back at him with shock at his boldness and said, “I beg your pardon! That friendliness business doesn’t start until next Sunday!” (as cited on SermonCentral.com)

G. We laugh because that woman didn’t get it, but let’s make sure today that we all get it. That we all understand the truth that God is calling us to build close personal relationships with Himself and with one another.

III. Conclusion

A. That being the case, we’re going to close a little differently than usual today. On your bulletin insert you’ll see some numbered blanks at the end of the sermon notes and before the homework. Go find someone here that you don’t know that well. Write their name on blank number one. On blank two, write down what they do for a living. On blank three, write down their favorite food. On blank four, write down their favorite hobby. On blank five, write down the names of family members they live with. On blank six, write down one thing that they’d like you to pray for them about for the next week. Your responsibility is to pray for them daily for the next week, and then ask them next week how that need is turning out. This exercise will be just a start in building closer relationships with one another so we can truly greet one another with a holy kiss. Take several minutes to do this. Let’s get started now.

B. Let’s pray together.