What is edification? – Relationship with one another
As I said in the “introduction” to this blog series, I believe that believers should seek to edify one another whenever they gather together. In this series, I’m trying to answer the question, “What is edification?” Edification does not depend upon specific activities, so the focus will not be those activities. Instead, the focus will be on helping one another mature in Christ in certain aspects of our lives: relationship with God, relationship with one another, and relationship with others. This post focuses on helping the church grow in our relationship with one another.
In order to help our brothers and sisters (and of course, ourselves) grow in our relationship with one another, once again we must know one another. Is someone spending time with other believers? Is she discipling someone and being discipled? Is he giving and sharing and caring for other brothers and sisters?
And, this is where it gets very tricky. Why? Because so many in the church assume that attendance is the same as relationship and fellowship. But, they are not the same.
The types of relationships that the church needs cannot be built and matured in scheduled or weekly meetings. Instead, our relationships in Christ are grown in the struggles of life when those struggles are shared with one another. It is in this type of scenario that we truly learn to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
For those who refuse to seek maturing relationships with others (or are apathetic toward the importance of those maturing relationships), the church must help, exhort, even admonish them. The health of the church is intimately tied to the mutual relationship between the brothers and sisters. As Paul wrote, the church grows in love which each part serves the others as he or she is gifted. Paul compares this mutual relationship to the working and connection of muscles, ligaments, and bones.
We also must not forget that our relationships with one another is a demonstration of our relationship with God, both individually and corporately. Remember that John wrote that it is impossible to love God if we do not love our brothers and sisters.
And, (to paraphrase a question that Jesus was asked) who is our brother or sister? Our brother and sister is any follower of Jesus Christ who God brings into our lives. Neither church membership, nor denomination, nor theological system excludes or exempts us from the responsibility of building maturing relationships with other brothers and sisters that God brings into our lives.
If we see evidences of selfishness or self-centeredness, we should seek to help those people mature. But, the same can be said of divisiveness or lack of demonstrating love.
How do we address problems in relationships with other believers? Certainly teaching and words of encouragement can be helpful, but they are never enough. As with our relationships with God, relationships with one another must be modeled and demonstrated.
Again, there is so much that could be written concerning edification and our relationship with one another. Community and fellowship are not just good ideas for the church; they are necessary for the church to grow in maturity, which means community is necessary for each of us to grow in maturity. This means that discipleship and sanctification rely on our community and fellowship with one another.
What would you add to my discussion of the relationship between edification and our relationship with one another?
What is edification? – Relationship with God
As I said in the “introduction” to this blog series, I believe that believers should seek to edify one another whenever they gather together. In this series, I’m trying to answer the question, “What is edification?” Edification does not depend upon specific activities, so the focus will not be those activities. Instead, the focus will be on helping one another mature in Christ in certain aspects of our lives: relationship with God, relationship with one another, and relationship with others. This post focuses on helping the church grow in our relationship with God.
To begin, as we think about our individual and our community relationship with God, there are at least two different approaches. One approach is the “shotgun” approach where we present various topics and themes in a general sense and hope that it applies to someone (or a group of people) among us. In general, this is the approach of the modern church.
However, Scripture demonstrates a different approach. In Scripture, the church knows one another so well that we know where each one and the group needs to grow and mature. Consider, for example, Hebrews 10:24, in which the author exhorts his readers to “consider one another.” This is a pinpoint approach to edification, not a broad or general approach. Edification begins when we know one another and think about one another. If we do not actually know one another – i.e., if we do not know about our individual and community relationship with God – then we cannot edify one another in the sense that we find in Scripture. We must begin by being open and honest and authentic with one another and share our lives with one another – not just an hour or two on Sunday or Wednesday.
Once we know one another, we can begin to help one another with our relationship with God.
Our maturity in Christ starts with trusting God – that is, faith. Yes, it is important to know certain facts about God and about Jesus and about the Holy Spirit. But, this alone is not faith. We help one another when we see areas of our individual or corporate lives in which we are not trusting God and then we work toward helping each other trust God more in that area of our lives. As you can imagine, this can be a messy ordeal – and in fact, it usually must be. As Jesus said to the “rich, young ruler,” we must be willing to exhort one another and help one another to put all else aside and trust only God. This type of help would include recognizing when someone is trusting their idea or concept or theology of God and not trusting God himself as a person.
I believe that other aspects of our relationship with God (i.e., love, obedience, or communication) will follow from a growing trust in God, both on the individual and corporate level. Certainly, though, edification would include helping someone or the group to love God, obey God, or listen to/communicate with God. Again, we must be careful not to assume that a confession or profession of love for God is the same as a true love for God. The same is true of trusting God, obeying God, and communicating with God (along with other aspects of our relationship with God). Instead, we should expect that our trust, love, obedience, and communication with God be evident in our lives (another reason that knowing one another is so important).
There is so much more that could be written concerning edification and our personal and corporate relationship with God. But, this is a start. In fact, the other aspects of edification that I’m planning to write about (relationship with one another and relationship with others) follow from our relationship with God. But, the three are interrelated. Often, our relationship with God is demonstrated through our relationships with one another and with others. So, even though I’m treating these as different aspects, we should recognize their interconnectedness when seeking to edify one another. But, I’ll get into that more in the next two parts of the series.
What would you add to the concept of edification and how it relates to maturity in our individual and community relationship with God?
What is edification? – Introduction
As most of my readers know, I think that Scripture teaches that believers should gather together in order to edify one another. I (and many others) call this “mutual edification.” (For more information, see a blog series that I wrote recently called “Mutual Edification and the Church.” That link is to the conclusion, which include links to the other posts in the series.)
The “mutual” of the term indicates that the whole church should be involved in edification and that the whole church should be edified. Now, obviously, there are times when every person will not be involved in the process, and there are times when some will be edified more than others. But, there should always be the opportunity for and the expectation of all brothers and sisters taking part in activities that would edify the church.
In this series, I want to investigate the second word in the phrase: “edification.” I have already stated that I believe that believers should seek to edify (the verb form of “edification”) one another when they get together, and that the whole church should be edified. So, in this series, I am not talking about individual edification.
I believe that individual edification is important and that it is a biblical concept. However, this series examines edification in the context of believers gathering together. Paul points out that our goal should not be individual (or self) edification when we are with our brothers and sisters in Christ. (See 1 Corinthians 14:4-5 and 1 Corinthians 14:27-28.)
Also, this series is not specifically about edifying activities. I believe there are many activities that Jesus’ followers can participate in in order to edify one another, but the focus should never be on the activities themselves. Instead, the focus should be on the motivation for and the expected results of those activities. For example, consider what Paul wrote to the church in Corinth:
What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. (1 Corinthians 14:26 ESV)
In this passage, Paul recognizes that the believers in Corinth were coming together after having prepared various activities (i.e., hymns, lessons, prophecies). However, Paul’s focus is on the motivation for and result of those activities (love in 1 Corinthians 13 and edification here). The activities are important only IF they are motivated by love and result in the edification of the church. So, this series will focus on edification, not on the activities themselves.
The word “edification” comes into English through Latin. It is equivalent to the phrase “building up.” In this context, either term (“edification” or “building up”) is figurative. The terms refer to the actual process of constructing a building. However, in Scripture (and in this series), they are not referring to physical structures, but to the community of believers who are gathered together in Christ.
In Scripture, we find the term “edification” used along with other similar terms such as “encouragement” or “exhortation” and “comfort” or “consolation.” In a particularly revealing passage, “edification” is also related to unity, knowing Jesus, and maturity in Christ:
… to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ… (Ephesians 4:12-13 ESV)
So, I often say that when we edify one another, we are helping one another live a more mature life in Jesus Christ. But, even then, we have to ask what it means to live a more mature life in Jesus Christ. I think this is intimately related to the concepts of sanctification and discipleship, but it still doesn’t tell us what it means to edify one another.
In this series, I plan to look at three areas in which we can edify one another (i.e., seek to help one another live a more mature life in Jesus Christ): 1) our relationship with God, 2) our relationship with one another, and 3) our relationship with others.
What is edification?
During my series on mutual edification last week, Jeremy from “Till He Comes” asked a great question: “What is Mutual Edification?”
I’ve stated several times (and it’s the topic of my PhD dissertation) that I believe that mutual edification is the reason that believers should come together. In other words, when we get together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, I believe that we should edify one another.
Now, the “one another” is the “mutual” part of “mutual edification.” So, edification is not left to the work of one person or a few people. Edification is the responsibility of all who gather – even if all do not take part every time they get together, the opportunity and expectation should be there.
But, what about the “edification” part of “mutual edification”? I’ve written a post here or there discussing edification, but I’ve never tried to define “edification” per se.
However, I’m now working on a series that will (perhaps) be published next week examining the different aspects of edification.
But, I thought I would start by asking you – my readers – the following question: What is edification? (By the way, “build up” is not a definition of “edify.”) What is included in “edification”?
I didn’t know something was missing
A few years ago, some friends introduced us to crab rangoon at a local Chinese restaurants. The crab rangoon that we were served was fried dumplings with some cream cheese on the inside served with the standard orange sweet and sour sauce. They were okay, but they were not as great as most people made them out to be.
Then, a few weeks ago, we tried crab rangoon at a new Japanese sushi restaurant in town. This time, the crab rangoon was completely different. Yes, it was still fried dumplings. But instead of cream cheese, this time there was some type of delicious crab salad on the inside. And, the sweet and sour sauce was not the typical orange sticky mess. It was a wonderful sauce with a combination of sweet and chips of peppers for the “sour” part.
We fell in love with this type of crab rangoon, and we realized that we had never truly had crab rangoon before.
Our experience with crab rangoon illustrates something that I’ve learned about Christians and the church, especially when it comes to fellowship, discipleship, edification, community, service, etc.
Often, it turns out, Christians have never really experienced these things before. But, they don’t realized that they’re missing something until they begin experiencing it for the first time.
For too long now, the illustrations, principles, and commands of Scripture have been placed under the hermeneutical (interpretive) pattern of the traditional local church organization, hierarchical leadership, and “worship service.”
As I’ve met more and more people who begin to understand how the patterns and descriptions and instructions of Scripture can and should apply to their entire life and to all of their relationships and time spent with other believers, they also begin to realize that something was missing all along. But, of course, they didn’t realize that something was missing, because they had always been told that everything was great.
When people move away from “fellowship” as a covered dish meal, and their eyes are opened to how they can experience the community of the Holy Spirit with one another, they begin to see what they’ve been missing. When those who are following Jesus Christ step away from “discipleship classes” and truly begin to share life with one another, they also start to understand what they’ve been missing.
And, I have to add, these things that are missing from the lives of many Christians (and were missing from my life for a long time) are much more important than crab salad and good sweet and sour sauce in a crab rangoon.
Jesus Christ has a full, exciting, interesting life awaiting those of his children who leave their old life behind and begin to follow him. It is much, much more than singing a few songs, putting money in an offering plate, and listening to a sermon. It is much, much more than attending a few classes and taking part in some programs.
Don’t misunderstanding me… this full, exciting, interesting life is always packed with struggles, troubles, trials, hard work, sweat, tears, pain, etc. But, you’ll find your life also stuffed with Jesus along with the struggles.
Many of my readers know exactly what I’m talking about, because they’ve tasted the difference. Some of you may not understand what I mean. But, I hope that soon God will allow you to live the life of fellowship, service, love, discipleship, etc. that he has for you, and that you will be able to say, “I didn’t know something was missing.”
Leader-controlled or Free-for-all
Three years ago (wow, I can’t believe it’s been that long already), I wrote a post called “Leader-controlled or Free-for-all.” I wrote this post for one particular reason. Whenever I talk about “participatory meetings” between believers, many people assume that mean a “free-for-all.” In other words, people tend to see the two extremes of leader-controlled or free-for-all. I hope this post explains that I do not think a participatory church meeting is either leader-controlled or a free-for-all.
Also, this post follows along well with my series on edification from last last week.
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Leader-controlled or Free-for-all
For the last year and a half or so, I have been encouraging “open participation” during church meetings. However, I think there is a misunderstanding about “open participation”. Open participation is not the same thing as a “free-for-all”.
During the traditional meeting of the church, the only people who speak are the ones who have been scheduled to speak. The only people who choose songs or sing are the ones who have been scheduled to choose songs or sing. For everyone else, participation is limited to singing along and listening.
Usually, if someone has something to say, they have to tell the pastor or other leadership. The leadership will determine whether or not the other people should hear what the person has to say. Even if the person is allowed to speak, the speaking remains “leader-controlled”.
However, in several blog posts, I have suggested that leadership is not a requirement for speaking, nor is leadership alone responsible for speaking during the meeting of the church. In fact, Scripture says absolutely nothing about the relationship between speaking during the meeting of the church and leadership. Specifically, Scripture says nothing about leadership being responsible for filtering what is or is not said during the meeting of the church.
In two posts, “Who is qualified to speak during the meeting?” and “Who is responsible for speaking during the meeting?“, I said that there are only three scriptural qualification for speaking during the meeting of the church:
- The person must be indwelled by the Spirit of God, and therefore gifted by the Spirit.
- The person must speak from a motivation of love.
- The person must speak in order to edify the body of Christ.
Furthermore, I said that all believers are responsible for determining whether or not they should speak during the meeting of the church. However, this determination is not made according to a schedule or plan, but according to the work of the Holy Spirit within the life of the individual and the group.
A meeting that includes biblical “open participation” will not be a “free-for-all” where everyone makes sure that they get a word in. In fact, this type of chaos is the opposite of the Spirit-controlled order that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 14. Instead of all believers at the meeting trying to say something, Paul describes a meeting where everyone considers the other person first, to the extent that if one person is speaking, he or she will sit down if another wants to speak. This is not a “free-for-all” but an order directed by the Holy Spirit.
However, a “leader-controlled” meeting is also the opposite of the Spirit-controlled order that Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 14. Instead of only certain people being schedule to speak, Paul describes a scenario where the Spirit reveals something to someone during the meeting, and that person immediately stands up to speak. The person speaking yields the right to speak to his brother or sister.
Again, neither extreme – neither a leader-controlled meeting nor a free-for-all meeting – is described by Paul or by any other author of the New Testament. For leaders who refuse to give up their position as the sole speaker to the assembled church, it is the responsibility of mature believers to point out to those leaders that every brother and sister in Christ should be allowed to speak toward the edification of the church. For those who take advantage of open participation in order to always have their say, it is the responsibility of mature believers to help them understand they should consider others instead of themselves.
So, what I have been suggesting on this blog and in person – what I call “open participation” – is neither a meeting that is controlled by those in leadership positions, nor a meeting that is a free-for-all. Instead, I suggest that each meeting should be controlled by the Holy Spirit, and that he should be allowed to choose who will speak and who will not speak. Since he knows who is present, what gifts they have, what has been revealed to them, and what the people need to hear, I think the Holy Spirit is the only person qualified to lead and control a meeting anyway.
Silence that’s deafening
Andy at “aBowden Blog” has written a short but very good post called “Beyond the silence.”
His post goes along very well with my series on mutual edification this week.
I don’t want to copy his entire post, but I also don’t want to leave out too much. So, I’m going to copy the first two paragraphs, and then let you jump over to his blog for the final paragraph.
This is how Andy starts:
I think it’s reasonably safe to assume that any given Sunday, as we sit in the cozy buildings in which our churches gather, no matter the size of the congregation, we sit within arms reach of someone with serious marital trouble, tremendous financial pressure, a sorrower needing comfort, next to someone grappling with real theological questions, wondering what’s wrong with the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel, next to someone who experienced real victory this week, who experienced new boldness in their witness, answered prayer, victory over sin.
I’m also convinced that within the same building sits one with a word of encouragement, a word of exhortation, a song of praise, a timely Scripture, a genuine desire to listen, to rejoice, to mourn. Yet, because of the structure of the typical “worship service†in America, those needing encouragement and those ready to offer it sit in virtual silence, listening to the same two or three voices week after week.
There are two things that I’d like to say in response to this:
1) I’m glad that more and more people are recognizing this problem with the way that most churches meet together today.
2) One of the most exciting things about our church meetings (and we’re far from perfect) is when someone shares a concern or struggle or pain or whatever and people begin to gather around that person to encourage them, pray for them, offer help, etc.; sometimes right away, sometimes later; sometimes in groups, sometimes one-on-one.
Don’t forget to jump over to Andy’s blog and read the final paragraph. You won’t be disappointed.
Mutual Edification and the Church: Conclusion
This is the conclusion of a week-long series examining what Scripture says about the purpose of believers gathering together. In short, I believe that Scripture shows through example, principle, and command that Jesus’ disciples should seek to build up (“edify”) one another (“mutual”) whenever they get together (“church”).
I began with an “introduction” to this series. Next I showed several “examples” from the Book of Acts of believers getting together in which several people took part in encouraging or strengthening the church. These examples are primarily in narrative form. In the next post in the series, I looked for “principles” in Scripture that would help us understand our mutual responsibility of building up one another. These principles were usually given in command form (not narrative), but they are not specifically given in the context of believers gathering together. In the fourth post, I discussed two “commands” in Scripture related to mutual edification that are specifically given in the context of believers gathering together.
These examples, principles, and commands cover almost the entire time period of the New Testament, from not long after Jesus’ ascension until the end of Paul’s third missionary journey. They either describe or are written to different groups of believers in different places at different times with different backgrounds. While most of the passages I examined come from Luke or Paul, there are similar passages by other authors.
For a quick example, consider the teaching about spiritual gifts from Peter. He writes:
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies – in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. (1 Peter 4:10-11 ESV)
While Peter does not say specifically when, where, and how these gifts are to be used, it is in a context of caring for other believers (“keep loving one another” in 1 Peter 4:8 and “show hospitality to one another” in 1 Peter 4:9). If Peter agrees with Paul (which seems likely), the he would also conclude that God gives spiritual gifts for the benefit of others (see 1 Corinthians 12:4-7).
When Christians talk about the church meeting – “worship service” if you prefer – the assumption is usually that believers should gather together to worship. Recognizing that Christians are to worship God always in all aspects of life, the reason for coming together is sometimes termed “corporate worship.”
Unfortunately, I think this leads to misunderstandings and confusion. Yes, believers are to worship when the meet with other believers, simply because every aspect of their life is to be lived as worship to God.
Instead of asking “should we worship?” when we gather together, we should be asking “how do we worship when we gather together?” We demonstrate our worship to God when we obey him and give ourselves to him. According to Scripture, when the church meets together (that is, whenever two or more disciples of Jesus are together), we worship (that is, we obey God) when they mutually edify one another.
Both parts of the term “mutual edification” are important. The whole church should be involved in the meeting, and whatever happens should serve to “build up” the church.
Unfortunately, the meaning and extent of the term “edify” or “build up” is too big for the final part of this blog post. Suffice it to say (for now) that edification (at least) means helping our brothers and sisters live in way that honors God or helping our brothers and sisters live more like Jesus Christ. While this might include teaching or singing, it goes far beyond teaching or singing.
There are many “commands” accepted by Christians today that are only found in examples, principles, or commands. However, the concept of meeting together for the purpose of mutual edification is found in all three: examples, principles, and commands. What else do we need before we start following these examples, principles, and commands when we meet together?
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Mutual Edification and the Church Series
Mutual Edification and the Church: Command
I believe that Scripture clearly points out that the church should assemble (whenever believers get together) for the purpose of “mutual edification.” Scripture does not tell us exactly what actions should be taken when the church meets. But, in this series, I am attempting to show that Scripture demonstrates the purpose of the gathering of the church through example, principle, and command. So far, I have “introduced” this series, and I’ve presented some “examples” and “principles” found in Scripture. In this post, I examine commands in Scripture related to the church gathering together for the purpose of “mutual edification.”
As I mentioned in a previous post, I make a distinction between “commands” and “principles” based on context. “Commands” are given specifically in the context of believers gathering together, while “principles” are not.
There are at least two specific passages in which commands are given related to believers gathering together for the purpose of mutual edification. The first is found in 1 Corinthians 14 – the entire chapter – and specifically verse 26:
What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. (1 Corinthians 14:26 ESV)
Before this passage, Paul talks about the superiority of prophecy compared to speaking in tongues when the church is meeting together. He says that prophecy is superior in that context because prophecy builds up the church while speaking in tongues (without interpretation) only builds up the tongues speaker.
Following 1 Corinthians 14:26, Paul gives a few guidelines related to prophecy and tongues speaking. Again, priority is given to prophecy because through prophecy the church is directly edified, while through tongues speaking (without interpretation) only the tongues speaker is edified.
It is also clear in this chapter (especially 1 Corinthians 14:27-32) that Paul expects several people to take part in speaking while the church meets. He even provides for the possibility that someone may speak even though that person had not planned or prepared to speak (at least where prophecy is concerned, but I believe this applies to any speaking that provides direct edification, such as teaching) (see 1 Corinthians 14:30).
The wording in the ESV at the start of this verse (“When you come together…”) is a little misleading. The verb “come together” is subjunctive with a subjunctive conjunction. Together, they should probably be translated “Whenever you come together…” Thus, Paul is making an appeal for working together for the purpose of edification any time and on any occasion that the believers meet together.
A similar passage is found in the Book of Hebrews:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:19-25 ESV)
I included the entire paragraph because it sets the instructions of considering one another, encouraging one another, and not forsaking to meet together in the context of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross and his position as our high priest.
In this passage, the author specifically says that the believers should think about one another so that they can provoke (a very strong word, usually used in the negative) one another to love and good works. He relates that this cannot happen if they stop meeting with other believers, but that it can happen if they encourage one another. (Although the ESV translates the “one another” with “stir up” instead of “consider,” the term “one another” is actually the direct object of the verb “consider.”)
As far as the mutuality of this passage is concerned, it would seem that the same ones who are instructed to “draw near to God” and to “hold fast the confession of our hope” are also the ones who are instructed to “consider one another to stir up love and good works.” In other words, this applies to all believers, not just certain ones.
In the context of the Book of Hebrews, the idea of “encouragement” includes both moving away from certain things (i.e., sin and deceit) and toward other things (i.e., love and good works). This is very similar to the idea of “building up” that we’ve seen before, even though the term “edify” is not used here.
So, in this two passages at least, we see clear commands within the context of gathering together that believers should work together in order to help one another in their walk with God – i.e., build up one another or encourage one another.
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Mutual Edification and the Church Series
Mutual Edification and the Church: Principle
I believe that Scripture clearly points out that the church should assemble (whenever believers get together) for the purpose of “mutual edification.” Scripture does not tell us exactly what actions should be taken when the church meets. But, in this series, I am attempting to show that Scripture demonstrates the purpose of the gathering of the church through example, principle, and command. So far, I have “introduced” this series, and I’ve presented some “examples.” In this post, I examine examples in Scripture of the church gathering together for the purpose of “mutual edification.”
While many of these “principles” are actually “commands,” I’m separating them for one particular reason. The passages that I list as “commands” are specifically given in the context of believers gathering together, while the passages I list as “principles” are not given in that particular context.
When it comes to finding principles relates to believers gathering together, the main problem is deciding where to start and where to stop. It is almost impossible to read one paragraph of the New Testament without finding some principle or instruction related to the relationships between brothers and sisters in Christ.
Consider, for example, and as a starting point, the “one another” commands of Scripture. These are always given within the context of two or more disciples of Jesus being together. How can you have a “one another” without having more than one, and thus a meeting of believers, and thus, the church. Here a few that specifically seem to apply to “building up” one another (although all of the do):
Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV)
But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. (Hebrews 3:13 ESV)
I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another. (Romans 15:14 ESV)
For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. (Galatians 5:13 ESV)
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16 ESV)
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace… (1 Peter 4:10 ESV)
In would be difficult to understand how these commands could be carried out when believers are not meeting together. And, if some want to suggest a special type of meeting of brothers and sisters (“Sunday worship service”) – a differentiation which is not found in Scripture – it would still seem that these principles would apply.
There are a few passages that specifically show principles of interrelationships between believers that lead to mutual edification.
We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you [who lead you] in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. (1 Thessalonians 5:12-15 ESV)
In this passage, Paul does not specifically state that these things should happen when the church is gathered together. But, the instructions here cannot be carried out without more than one disciple of Jesus being together. It would even seem that the instructions for all the “brothers (and sisters)” would be in the same context as “those who labor among you.”
Here is another one that shows even more clearly that the church must work together (“mutual”) in order to build one another up (“edification”):
So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:11-16 ESV)
In this passage, Paul clearly shows the important principle of mutual edification – that the whole church must work together in order to build themselves up in Christ.
Through the “one another” passages and many others, it seems that mutual edification is a consistent principle throughout Scripture. The authors of Scripture expected the church to work together in order to help one another in their life in Christ.
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