Romans 16:1–16

Open and unguarded displays of affection are becoming increasingly rare in Christian circles. There are some wonderful exceptions, but they are few. In our touch-me-not, keep-your-distance culture, we can easily become isolated entities fenced on all sides by various boundaries of formality and cool professionalism. Unfortunately, churches are not immune. And when we ape our society, the consequences are dreadful: we begin to model an independent lifestyle of serious and efficient employees in a corporation instead of an affectionate and caring body of loving believers. In this unique section of Scripture, we discover the softer and gentler side of the brilliant and disciplined apostle Paul. Here he is overtly affectionate—to the point of admonishing his readers to kiss one another. It will be our joy in this lesson to find a biblical basis for affectionate love that is both authentic and demonstrable.

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