Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen.
There was to be an absence of formality and hypocrisy, a freedom from prejudice arising from social distinction, from discrimination against the poor, from partiality towards the well-to-do. In the churches masters and servants would thus salute one another with out any attitude of condescension on the one part or disrespect on the other. The kiss took place thus between persons of the same sex. In the "Apostolic Constitutions," a writing compiled in the 4th century, A.D., there is a reference to the custom whereby men sat on one side of the room where a meeting was held, and women on the other side of the room (as is frequently the case still in parts of Europe and Asia), and the men are bidden to salute the men, and the women the women, with "the kiss of the Lord."