1 Peter 5:14

Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(14) Kiss of charity.—Not only does he wish them to receive the greetings of the Roman Church, but to display their brotherly love to each other as well. On the kiss of charity, see 1Thessalonians 5:26. The “peace” which he wishes to them includes, though it is not limited to, peace amongst themselves.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

5:10-14 In conclusion, the apostle prays to God for them, as the God of all grace. Perfect implies their progress towards perfection. Stablish imports the curing of our natural lightness and inconstancy. Strengthen has respect to the growth of graces, especially where weakest and lowest. Settle signifies to fix upon a sure foundation, and may refer to Him who is the Foundation and Strength of believers. These expressions show that perseverance and progress in grace are first to be sought after by every Christian. The power of these doctrines on the hearts, and the fruits in the lives, showed who are partakers of the grace of God. The cherishing and increase of Christian love, and of affection one to another, is no matter of empty compliment, but the stamp and badge of Jesus Christ on his followers. Others may have a false peace for a time, and wicked men may wish for it to themselves and to one another; but theirs is a vain hope, and will come to nought. All solid peace is founded on Christ, and flows from him.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity - A kiss of love; a common method of affectionate salutation in the times of the apostles. See the notes at Romans 16:16.

Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus - That are true Christians. See the Ephesians 6:23 note; Philippians 4:7 note.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

14. kiss of charity—Ro 16:16, "an holy kiss": the token of love to God and the brethren. Love and holiness are inseparable. Compare the instance, Ac 20:37.

Peace—Peter's closing salutation; as Paul's is, "Grace be with you," though he accompanies it with "peace be to the brethren." "Peace" (flowing from salvation) was Christ's own salutation after the resurrection, and from Him Peter derives it.

be with you all that are in Christ Jesus—The oldest manuscripts omit "Jesus." In Eph 6:24, addressed to the same region, the same limitation of the salutation occurs, whence, perhaps, Peter here adopts it. Contrast, "Be with you all," Ro 16:24; 1Co 16:23.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity: see Romans 16:16 1 Corinthians 16:20 2 Corinthians 13:12.

In Christ Jesus; united to him by faith, and members of him.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity,.... The Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Arabic versions read, "with an holy kiss"; and so some copies, as in Romans 16:16 and elsewhere; See Gill on Romans 16:16; and intends such a kiss, as is not only opposite to everything that is lascivious and impure, but is expressive of true love and affection, and is hearty and sincere: and such a love the Jews call, as the apostle does here, , "a kiss of love" (i); for as Philo the Jew (k) observes, a kiss and love differ, the one may be without the other, a mere compliment, a show of friendship, and not arise from sincere love.

Peace with you all, that are in Christ Jesus; who were chosen in him before the foundation of the world; and appeared to be in him by the effectual calling; and were at least by profession in him, and were in Christ mystical, and incorporated in a Gospel church; the Arabic version reads, "who are in the love of Jesus Christ". To these the apostle wishes peace, temporal, spiritual, and eternal. The Vulgate Latin reads "grace", which is most usual in Paul's epistles. The epistle is closed with

Amen, as is common; the apostle wishing that this might be the case, and believing that it would be.

(i) Zohar in Exod. fol. 60. 3, 4. (k) Quis rerum divin. Haeres. p. 486, 487.

Geneva Study Bible

Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Meyer's NT Commentary

1 Peter 5:14. ἀσπάσασθε ἀλλήλους ἐν φιλήματι ἀγάπης] Paul uses a similar expression, Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26. The members of the church are by turns to greet one another (not each other in Peter’s name) with the kiss of charity, thus testifying to their brotherly love for each other (see Meyer on 1 Corinthians 16:20). Instead of the Pauline: ἐν ἁγίῳ φιλ., there is here: ἐν φιλ. ἀγάπης, “with the kiss of love,” i.e. the kiss, which is the type and expression of Christian brotherly love.

The final benediction is likewise similar to those in the epistles of Paul; only that in these χάρις stands in the place of εἰρήνη (Ephesians 6:23-24, both occur; cf. too, 3 John 15). By the addition of τοῖς ἐν Χρ., the πάντες are designated according to their nature as such, who live in union with Christ, and to whom, therefore, the benediction here pronounced belongs.

Expositor's Greek Testament

1 Peter 5:14. φιλήματι ἀγάπης. So St. Paul concludes 1 Thess. with greet all the brethren with an holy kiss (1 Thessalonians 5:26; cf. 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; Romans 16:16). “Hence,” says Origen, “the custom was handed down to the Churches that after prayers (so Justin Apol., i. 65) the brethren should welcome one another with a kiss.” Chrysostom (on Rom. l.c.) calls it “the peace by which the Apostle expels all disturbing thought and beginning of smallmindedness … this kiss softens and levels”. But the practice was obviously liable to abuse as Clement of Alexandria shows, “love is judged not in a kiss but in good will. Some do nothing but fill the the Churches with noise of kissing … There is another—an impure—kiss full of venom pretending to holiness” (Paed., iii. 301 P.). Therefore it was regulated (Apost. Const., ii. 57, 12, men kiss men only) and gradually dwindled.—εἰρήνη. The simple Hebrew salutation is proper to Peter’s autograph postscript and links it with the beginning.—τοῖς ἐν Χριστῷ, cf. 1 Peter 3:16, 1 Peter 5:10, and the saying, Thus have I spoken to you that in me ye might have peace: in the world ye have tribulation but be of good cheer I have conquered the world (John 16:33).

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

14. Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity] Rather, a kiss of love. The tense of the Greek verb implies that it was to be done, not as a normal practice of the Church, but as a single act, probably when the Epistle had been read publicly, in token of the unity of feeling among all members of the Church. The practice would seem, from Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12, to have been common on such occasions in most of the Churches of the Apostolic age. The separation of the sexes when the Church met for worship, which was probably inherited from the Jewish synagogue, was a safeguard against the scandal which the practice might otherwise have occasioned. In the second or third century the “kiss of peace” became a stereotyped rubric in the Liturgies of the Church, the bishops and priests kissing each other on the cheek, and the laity following their example. Later on, in the thirteenth century, when the sexes were no longer separated, the practice was discontinued, but traces of it still survived in the use of the Osculatorium, or kissing token, known as the Pax (sometimes a relic, sometimes an ivory or metal tablet with sacred symbols cut on it), which was passed through the congregation, and kissed by each in turn. (Bingham, Eccl. Ant. xv. 3. Wetzer und Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, Art. Friedenskuss.)

Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus] There is something, perhaps, significant in the fact that while the final benediction of the Apostle of the Gentiles is “Grace be with you all” (Romans 16:24; 1 Corinthians 16:23; 2 Corinthians 13:14; and in all his Epistles), that of the Apostle of the Circumcision is the old Hebrew “peace,” as in Matthew 10:13, in all the fulness of its meaning.

Bengel's Gnomen

1 Peter 5:14. Ἀγάπης) of sacred love.—εἰρήνη, peace) שלום, that is, I pray for your salvation: farewell.[44]

[44] Bengel, J. A. (1866). Vol. 5: Gnomon of the New Testament (M. E. Bengel & J. C. F. Steudel, Ed.) (W. Fletcher, Trans.) (43–83). Edinburgh: T&T Clark.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 14. - Greet ye one another with a kiss of charity. St. Paul gives the same direction in four places (Romans 16:16; 1 Corinthians 16:20; 2 Corinthians 13:12; 1 Thessalonians 5:26). The practice seems to have been universal in early times; it is mentioned by Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Chrysostom, Augustine, and other ancient writers (see Bingham's 'Antiquities,' 15. 3. 3). It is now used only in the Coptic Church of Egypt. Rites and ceremonies may be changed "according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners;" the sacred duty of brotherly love remains unchanged forever. Peace be with you all that are in Christ Jesus. Amen. The most ancient manuscripts omit the word "Jesus" here and the "Amen? St. Paul's blessing at the end of his Epistles is usually "grace" (in the Epistle to the Ephesians he adds "peace"). St. Peter ends his Epistle with the benediction which he had so often heard from the Savior's lips. That blessed gift of peace is granted to all who are "in Christ," who is our Peace (Ephesians 2:14).



1 Peter 5:14

Vincent's Word Studies

Kiss of charity

Compare 1 Corinthians 16:20.