I Need Your Edification

The goal of dedicated Christians is to go to heaven. In order to get from where we are to where we want to be we must grow. Peter said that we should be striving to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as we prepare for eternal life when this world is over (2 Peter 3:18). To have this kind of steady growth into maturity, it will take hard work. I must study guides word. I must read it but I must dig in to it as well to gain the depth of knowledge and understanding necessary to follow the Christian walk. I must pray as I realize weaknesses in my own life, asking for help from God as I exercise my senses to be able to discern right and wrong (Hebrews 5:12-14). However, in order to grow and mature as I should, I can’t do it alone. I need fellow Christians who will help me with the battles of the Christian life. I need brethren who will lift me up when I’m down, celebrate with me when I’m doing well, reach out with me to friends and family who are lost and struggling, and challenge me when I am struggling spiritually. In order to grow as I should, I need your edification.

Edification by definition is to instruct, improve or benefit another causing their growth. It is often used to describe the process of helping someone grow morally or intellectually. In Biblical terms, we often refer to it as building up another. The idea is that we build up, construct, establish and strengthen one another as Christians through our fellowship, friendship and faithfulness to God. We teach the Bible and its principles to those we love and care about and help them understand its import in their lives. I love the pattern the priests followed in Nehemiah 8:8: “So they read distinctly form the book, in the Law of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading.” First, they went to God for the source of instruction. Then they helped the people understand the concepts and how to apply it. This is a Biblical picture of people edifying one another that we should follow.

One of my favorite passages on the subject is Ephesians 4:11-16. Paul said that Christ gave us work to do in the church, “for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

There are so many lessons in this passage but let’s focus on three: first, edification requires work where we equip, build up, grow up, every part doing its job which will cause growth in the body of Christ. Second, failure to grow will bring confusion, destruction, and loss of our souls, and sadly, there are people who would rather tear us down than to build us up spiritually. Third, this whole process requires unity. The world is crying for unity. But unity can only come when we are united in Christ, united according to His word, united in purpose (to seek and save the lost and to edify the body), and then we work hard to build one another up. The growth and the process of working together will bring us into a tight bond of Christian love and support.

“As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend” (Proverbs 27:17). As brethren, we cannot go it alone. I need you. I need your friendship. I need your fellowship. And I need your edification.