Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.
Greet one another with a holy kiss. vv.11-12
Read chapter 13
We're at the farewell of this letter. And as Paul has been encouraged by their change in the Corinthians from his first letter to his second, he also encouraged them. A lesson we all ought to live by as well that just as we need encouragement in things of this life, so we should encourage others, for we may not realize the magnitude of the blessings encouraging someone can bring them. When has someone encouraging you made a dramatic impact? Who do you think could use some encouraging today?
When I lived abroad (in various countries) there was always a greeting and a farewell by kissing one another on the cheek. It wasn't an uncomfortable awkward thing, but a show of concern for one another and an enduring gesture. In this time of the Corinthians the kiss was exchange between members of the same sex and is called a "holy kiss" for their devotion to Jesus Christ. We that live in the U.S are missing out on how much a farewell of such a gesture can impact one another (although because of our culture today if you tried it could be filed as sexual harassment). So how can our farewells today be an act of concern for one another and with the devotion of Jesus?
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