There are difficulties about the exact relation of the clauses here to
one another, the discussion of which would be fitter for a lecture-room
than for a pulpit. I do not mean to trouble you with these, but it
seems to me that we may perhaps best understand the writer's intention
if we throw together the clauses which stand in the middle of this
verse, and take them as being a description of the inward progress,
being 'edified' and 'walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the
comfort of the Holy Ghost.' There are two things, then--the being
'edified' and 'walking'; and I wish to say a word or two about each of
them.
Now that word 'edified' and the cognate one 'edification' have been
enfeebled in signification so as to mean very much less than they did
to Luke. When we speak of 'being edified,' what do we mean? Little more
than that we have been instructed, and especially that we have been
comforted. And what is the instrument of edification in our ordinary
religious parlance? Good words, wise teaching, or pious speech. But the
New Testament means vastly more than this by the word, and looks not so
much to other people's utterances as to a man's own strenuous efforts,
as the means of edification. Much misunderstanding would have been
avoided if our translators had really translated, instead of putting us
off with a Latinised word which to many readers conveys little meaning
and none of the significant metaphor of the original. 'Being edified'
sounds very theological and far away from daily life. Would it not
sound more real if we read 'being built up'? That is the emblem of the
process that ought to go on, not only in the Christian community as a
whole, but in every individual member of it. Each Christian is bound to
build himself up and to help to build up other Christians; and God
builds them all up by His Spirit. We have brought before us the picture
of the rising of some stately fabric upon a firm foundation, course by
course, stone by stone, each laid by a separate act of the builder's
hand, and carefully bedded in its place until the whole is complete.
That is one emblem of the growth of the Christian community and of the
Christian individual, and the other clause that is coupled with it in
the text seems to me to give the same idea under a slightly different
figure. The rising of a stately building and the advance on a given
path suggest substantially the same notion of progress.
And of these two metaphors, I would dwell chiefly on the former,
because it is the less familiar of the two to modern readers, and
because it is of some consequence to restore it to its weight and true
significance in the popular mind. Edification, then, is the building up
of Christian character, and it involves four things: a foundation, a
continuous progress, a patient, persistent effort, and a completion.
Now, Christian men and women, this is our office for ourselves, and,
according to our faculty and opportunities, for the Churches with which
we may stand connected, that on the foundation which is Jesus
Christ--'and other foundation can no man lay'--we all should slowly,
carefully, unceasingly be at our building work; each day's attainment,
like the course of stones laid in some great temple, becoming the basis
upon which to-morrow's work is to be piled, and each having in it the
toil of the builder and being a result and monument of his strenuous
effort, and each being built in, according to the plan that the great
Architect has given, and each tending a little nearer to the roof-tree,
and the time that 'the top stone shall be brought forth with the shout
of rejoicing.' Is that a transcript of my life and yours? Do we make a
business of the cultivation of Christian character thus? Do we rest the
whole structure of our lives upon Jesus Christ? And then, do we, hour
by hour, moment by moment, lay the fair stones, until
'Firm and fair the building rise,
A temple to His praise.'
The old worn metaphor, which we have vulgarised and degraded into a
synonym for a comfortable condition produced by a brother's words,
carries in it the solemnest teaching as to what the duty and privilege
of all Christian souls is-to 'build themselves up for an habitation of
God through the Spirit.'
But note further the elements of which this progress consists. May we
not suppose that both metaphors refer to the clauses that follow, and
that 'the fear of the Lord' and 'the comfort of the Holy Ghost' are the
particulars in which the Christian is built up and walks?
'The fear of the Lord' is eminently an Old Testament expression, and
occurs only once or twice in the New. But its meaning is thoroughly in
accordance with the loftiest teaching of the new revelation. 'The fear
of the Lord' is that reverential awe of Him, by which we are ever
conscious of His presence with us, and ever seek, as our supreme aim
and end, to submit our wills to His commandment, and to do the things
that are pleasing in His sight. Are you and I building ourselves up in
that? Do we feel more thrillingly and gladly to-day than we did
yesterday, that God is beside us? And do we submit ourselves more
loyally, more easily, more joyously to His will, in blessed obedience,
now than ever before? Have we learned, and are we learning, moment by
moment, more of that 'secret of the Lord' which 'is with them that fear
Him,' and of that 'covenant' which 'He will show' to them? Unless we
do, our growth in Christian character is a very doubtful thing. And are
we advancing, too, in that other element which so beautifully completes
and softens the notion of the fear of the Lord, 'the encouragement'
which the divine Spirit gives us? Are we bolder to-day than we were
yesterday? Are we ready to meet with more undaunted confidence whatever
we may have to face? Do we feel ever increasing within us the full
blessedness and inspiration of that divine visitant? And do these sweet
communications take all the 'torment' away from 'fear,' and leave only
the bliss of reverential love? They who walk in the fear of the Lord,
and who with the fear have the courage that the divine Spirit gives,
will 'have rest,' like the first Christians, whatsoever storms may howl
around them, and whatsoever enemies may threaten to disturb their peace.