X's and O's, continued

 

We began on Valentine's Day being spectators to some "bad" kisses; we have more kisses to look at, and some will be negative while others are positive.

Let's dig in again!

One of the most famous kisses in the Bible was a truly infamous one: Judas' kiss for our Savior, Jesus Christ.

While he was still speaking a crowd came up, and the man who was called Judas, one of the Twelve, was leading them. He approached Jesus to kiss him,but Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” (Luke 22:47-48)

This was truly a kiss of hypocrisy . . . not only was Judas identifying Jesus as the one to be arrested, but he was pretending he had affection for Jesus. The Lord called Judas on it, and asked if he was betraying Him, which of course, he was. In Proverbs we read that the "wounds of a friend" are faithful, but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful. It's true: the kisses (the affection) of a false friend hurt very deeply when that false relationship is uncovered. Talk about hurting in your heart! So much pain when we find a person whom we thought was our friend and confidant is actually our enemy. Betrayal in any relationship is evil, whether in marriage, in business, or in secular friendships; Satan will use every trick he can to deceive us and bring us low, so beware of the wolf in sheep's clothing!

Remember when Jesus was having dinner at the Pharisee's house?

A woman in that town who lived a sinful life learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house, so she came there with an alabaster jar of perfume. As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. (Luke 7:37-38)

Simon the Pharisee was upset by all of this. Jesus used it as an opportunity to teach him about forgiveness. The woman had taken it upon herself to honor Jesus.

When we receive salvation from God through Jesus, His Son, there is a difference in our heart. In our soul. In our lives. We look for ways to honor Christ with our life, and each of our attempts to honor Him, to bring glory to His name, are our ways of showing our affection. Are we too "grown up" to show Him affection? Have we lost the first, glowing relationship where we wanted to badly to show Him honor? I hope we never get tired of showing our affection to the Lord.

There are sad kisses, too.

When Paul had finished speaking, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. What grieved them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship. (Acts 20:36-38)

The Christians in Ephesus surely did love Paul! They had followed his teachings and received salvation. They had hung on his every word and learned and grown. Saying goodbye brought sorrow to them, and they hugged and kissed him goodbye. We do have to say goodbye sometimes. Our son or daughter heads off to school or to a job in another state. Maybe our child or spouse is going to serve as a soldier or sailor and is headed to a foreign land. Perhaps a friend is headed toward the mission field. And sadly, sometimes we are standing by the coffin of a loved one to say goodbye. A goodbye kiss is one we remember for a long, long time.

We'll finish our study tomorrow . . . .