Luke 22:48 – “Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?”
The words Jesus spoke to Judas in the garden cut deep. A kiss—a sign of love and trust—became the signal of betrayal. The one who walked with Christ, ate with Him, and called Him Master handed Him over to death with an act of affection. It’s a moment that shocks us, yet it echoes beyond Gethsemane into our own lives.
How often do we, too, betray our Savior with the very things that seem to honor Him?
Spurgeon reflects on this chilling scene, warning that “the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” He urges us to beware when the world puts on a loving face, for it often hides a dagger aimed at faith.
Hypocrisy, he says, is the armor-bearer of heresy, and we must be wise as serpents to detect it. The young man in Proverbs fell to the strange woman’s kiss through folly—we pray we’d be spared such a fate by the Holy Spirit’s guidance, resisting the fair speech of a deceitful world.
But the sting deepens when we turn the mirror on ourselves. Spurgeon asks a haunting question:
What if I am the Judas?
I’ve been baptized into Christ, I partake at His table, I profess His name—these are kisses of my lips.
Yet if my heart is insincere, if I live carelessly like the world while claiming to follow Jesus, am I not a traitor too?
He fears the inconsistency that ridicules faith and grieves Christ, pleading, “O Lord, make me sincere and true. Never let me betray my Savior with a kiss.”
This isn’t just Judas’ story—it’s ours to wrestle with. Do we honor Jesus with our lips while our lives deny Him? The world’s flattery may tempt us, but worse still is our own hypocrisy.
[ Brennan Manning:
The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today
Is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips
Then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle
That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.]
Yet there’s hope. Hope clings to love for Jesus, desiring to remain faithful despite failings, and so can we. The One betrayed with a kiss still offers grace to make us true.
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
II Timothy 2:15
Let’s pray : Lord, keep us from false ways. May our faith be real, our love steadfast, that we never betray You—not even with a kiss.
Freedom Calls 
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