That Which Edifies

During the course of every week lately, I pray and hope to find something from the Word which edifies us in Christ. In one sense, just about anything from God’s word edifies, because, as Jesus said, “they speak of Me!”

But I hope to find that which would build us up together, as the Lord wills, of course.

Jesus came to edify... before the cross and after the cross. If the scriptures, in their entirety, speak of Jesus, it’s for the purpose of edification. Nothing that God does for us through and by Jesus excludes edification.

“Edify” means “to build up.”

In Phil. 2:12-13 Paul says, (In my absence) continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you to will and to act on behalf of His good purpose. “Working out our salvation” means allowing God to edify us to build up the Body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ. Eph. 4:12-13

Some of us... those who are as old as I am, remember when building a house on sight took a long time. I have always loved watching the process of framing. Back when they used to pound each nail in by hand, and each carpenter worked on a different part of the house, the strike of each hammer created, for me, a well-balanced concert of unity, because they were all working in one accord. I would sometimes just sit and watch for quite a while to appreciate the progress.

We too are being framed and built. God could not “renovate” us like a fixer upper. He had to begin with a NEW foundation, a NEW frame, a NEW structure, a NEW man. And that new man is CHRIST.

Eph. 2:20-22 says, (We) are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the Lord: in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit.

Paul here is addressing Gentiles specifically in verses 11-13.

We are built, being “fitly framed together.” Together is the important word there. According to the Blue Letter concordance, we are like parts of the church or the house, being JOINED together. There are carpenters working on the house in the  living room, the kitchen, the bedroom, the bathroom, the roof, and the garage. But imagine if there was no framing connecting each room. It wouldn’t be a house. We are being fitly framed together as members of the same body, which is Christ.

Eph. 4:15-16 says, Being truthful in love, let us grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the edifying (building up) of itself in love.

Gal. 5:22-23 says, The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law. The indwelling Spirit gives evidence of our new life by producing the fruit of the Spirit in the believer's life. These fruits must abide in this house, this temple, this body.

So let us consider and meditate on this unfathomable fact, God, 2 Cor. 6:16; the Holy Spirit, 1 Cor. 6:19; the Spirit of Christ, Rom. 8:9, would live in us. Be careful, though, to consider also that in the flesh dwells no good thing, Rom. 7:18. The flesh is the Adamic nature which chooses to sin. The Spirit of God does not live in Adam, but in Christ. The new man in us is Christ. So it is the new creation in us, the new man, fashioned after Christ that needs the edifying to mature into the full measure of the stature of Christ. The old man cannot be “refurbished.” We will require a new glorious body, at the Resurrection, which Jesus’ substitutionary death has provided. He IS the Resurrection and the Life. John 11:25

Eph. 4:29 says, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.

In this one verse, we have both that which Jesus taught regarding what comes out of a man’s mouth (which defiles), and that which comes out of a man’s mouth to edify.

James taught the same thing, Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. 3:10.

So what is the text talking about? Well, in Benson’s Commentary I read, “All discourse that is not either about necessary business, or does not edify — that is... calculated to instruct, or to direct, or reprove, encourage, excite to duty, comfort, or in some way build up and minister grace to the hearers, is not good!”

It, Eph. 4:29, becomes even more interesting because the Greek for “communication” is LOGOS, and there is a lot of meaning and application in that word.

But the phrase “that which is good to the use of edifying” is itself edifying to the reader who comes to understand it. One commentator proposes that this “ministering of grace” is as Paul says in 1 Thess. 3:10, to perfect what is lacking in your faith.

And in 1 Cor 15:10 he says, By the grace of God I am what I am, and I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me.

God gives each one of us that measure of grace needed in ministering for one another’s edification, and that NEED is known in LOVE. In the love we have for each other we will know of one another’s needs in the faith. And thus be able to “minister” grace unto the brethren for edification.

And for this purpose, He gave
some, apostles; and some,
prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Eph. 4: 11-12 
Pastors and Teachers are of great
importance for us in these last
days, especially teachers.

So let us edify one another. Let are communications not be flatteries, or misrepresentations, or any offense, but exhortations, counsels and urgings to go forward and upward... pressing toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. 3:14.

And in so doing, we not only remember the Lord, but we honor and venerate  Him.