Be A Builder

Be a Builder

Therefore let us pursue the things which make for peace and the things by which one may edify another.
Romans 14:19
 
Say you’re at a neighborhood gathering and you meet a new neighbor. When you ask about his line of work, he says, “I am the president of AAA Edification Company.” If you are familiar with New Testament language, you might think he was in a ministry of some sort. But when you inquire, he clarifies: “We’re in the building business—houses, apartments, office spaces, and the like".

That would be a reasonable, if not unlikely, name for such a company since edification means “to build up.” The New Testament words edify and edification are based on a compound biblical word: house and build. More than a dozen times, the apostle Paul applied this “building” idea to Christians and the Church. On the large scale, he compared the Church to a building—a “holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21). At the personal level, he exhorted all Christians to “build up” one another—to build up the Church by building up (edifying) the individual members (1 Thessalonians 5:11, NIV).

Look for ways today to build up—strengthen, encourage, love—other members of the Body of Christ. In doing so, you build up the whole Church.

If you build upon yourself your edifice will be a mere ruin.
Augustine