'Edify one another.'--1 THESS. v. 11.
I do not intend to preach about that clause only, but I take it as
containing, in the simplest form, one of the Apostle's favourite
metaphors which runs through all his letters, and the significance of
which, I think, is very little grasped by ordinary readers.
'Edify one another.' All metaphorical words tend to lose their light and
colour, and the figure to get faint, in popular understanding. We all
know that 'edifice' means a building; we do not all realise that 'edify'
means _to build up_. And it is a great misfortune that our Authorised
Version, in accordance with the somewhat doubtful principle on which its
translators proceeded, varies the rendering of the one Greek word so as
to hide the frequent recurrence of it in the apostolic teaching. The
metaphor that underlies it is the notion of building up a structure. The
Christian idea of the structure to be built up is that it is a temple. I
wish in this sermon to try to bring out some of the manifold lessons and
truths that lie in this great figure, as applied to the Christian life.
Now, glancing over the various uses of the phrase in the New Testament,
I find that the figure of 'building,' as the great duty of the Christian
life, is set forth under three aspects; self-edification, united
edification, and divine edification. And I purpose to look at these in
order.