The king kissed Barzillai and gave him his blessing (II Sam. 19:39).
The kiss of friendship is a wonderful and heartwarming token of our practical fellowship in the Truth. Barzillai was eighty years old. Nevertheless, he could not bear to see a dear friend and brother in distress and not open his heart and wallet to help. He brought bedding and bowls and articles of pottery, wheat and barley, flour and roasted grain, beans and lentils, honey and curds, sheep and cheese from cow’s milk for David and his people to eat. His thought was, “The people have become hungry and tired and thirsty in the desert” (II Sam. 17:27-29).
That is true friendship. That is real fellowship in the bonds of the faith: ample, timely help, given ungrudgingly.
A kiss of gratitude
Friends know our strengths and weaknesses, as Barzillai must have done, but they show love just the same.
Brother, sister: please ask yourself, “Who has been a Barzillai to me?” Then note how David acknowledged Barzillai’s practical friendship — by generosity in return; and when, in part, that was impractical, a warm kiss of friendship.
Brother, sister: do you always acknowledge your Barzillais? flow do you show it practically? A beautiful greeting card with carefully chosen words? A brief letter of thanks? A visit of cheer at an appropriate time?
To mark his conversion, Levi Matthew threw a party for his co-workers, to introduce them to Jesus, his new friend. What a joyful occasion it was! And the chief and most joyful and appreciative guest was the greatest of all friends (Luke 5:29).
Showing friendship
The kiss of friendship must always have been the typical greeting among Jesus and his disciples, as it is today among Caribbean Christadelphians. Otherwise Judas would not have used it in his dastardly way to identify his Master. Are we worthy of our Master’s friendship?
Five times the New Testament epistles exhort us to greet each other with “the holy kiss.” It rises above race, tradition and culture. It symbolizes the bond of a friendship that only the children of God can experience.
Luke 7:45 would indicate that at the Lord’s table, Jesus as the host welcomed each disciple with the kiss of friendship. Matthew 18:20 and Song of Songs 1:1 would imply that even during the absence of our Bridegroom, in a spiritual sense, in heart and mind and in our imagination, at the Lord’s table we will be greeted still with his warm kiss of friendship.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One