EDIFICATION (Gk.,
oikodom'e,
"building up,"
oikodomein, ekoikodomein, " to
build up "): In a
metaphorical sense a term peculiar to Christianity,
occurring in the New Testament, in
Matt. xvi. 18;
Acts ix. 31, xx. 32;
I Pet. ii. 5;
Jude 20,
and
especially in Paul. The notion goes back to the
conception of the congregation
(Eph. ii. 21-22;
I Cor. iii. 9, 16)
and the individual Christian
(I Cor. vi. 19;
Gal. ii. 20;
Eph. iii. 17)
as the " temple of
God "; but it transcends the literal significance of
the word in so far as the subject in whom the edification takes place receives his origin
through
edification in the literal sense, but in the metaphysical sense is already in existence before the
edification (so in
I Pet. ii. 5).
Pagans are not
" built up " to a congregation of Christ, nor do individual Christians by their union " build up "
the congregation, but the existing congregation of
Christ is "built up" into the congregation of Christ,
a member of the congregation into a member of the
congregation of Christ, by edification the
congregation and the individual Christian
becomes
that which
it (or he) already is. By faith in Christ the congregation like the individual Christian has entered into
the
status perfectionis;
more than the congregation
of Christ it can not become as the individual Christian can not become more than a child of God.
But the task is to become
perfectly
that which they
are, and to realize fully the principle of the new life:
the activity by which this is accomplished is "edification."
According to
Matt. xvi. 18
Christ is the subject,
and Christians as a whole are the object of the
" edification"; according to
Eph. iv. 16
Christians as
a whole and according to
Rom. xiv. 19
the individual congregation are the subject and object of the
"edification;" according to
I Cor. xiv. 4,
"he that
prophesieth," according to
Eph. iv. 29
every Christian in every word is the subject and the congregation the object, of the "edification"; according
to Rom. xv.
(I Thess. v. 11;
I Cor. xiv. 17)
the
individual is to "edify" the individual; according
to
I Cor. xiv. 4,
"he that speaketh in a tongue"'
"edifieth" himself (only). But whether the
congregation edifies itself, or an individual the
congregation, or another individual, or himself, the
supreme subject of all "edification" is Christ the
Lord, who exercises his edifying activity through
his Gospel, through the gifts of his Spirit, through
the new life (especially through love,
I Cor. viii. 1),
which he has awakened and preserves in his
congregation. Christ himself leads his congregation
and its individual members unto perfection.
E. C. Achelis.
