Because the kingdom of God is God’s people, we need to be busy serving God’s people. In my studies, I ran across Proverbs 18:1. The English Standard Version translates it like this: “Whoever isolates himself seeks his own desire; he breaks out against all sound judgment.” Because the kingdom of God is people, we are not to isolate ourselves but be part of the citizenry of the kingdom by participating in its activities. We value God’s kingdom—Christians—by giving ourselves away to others!
Only the use of verbal communication when combined with spiritual words and an attitude of love can accomplish this task. Knowledge alone does not accomplish this task. Knowledge separated from love does not edify, it merely puffs up (1 Corinthians 8:1). However, biblical edification is the loving impartation of spiritual instruction designed to build up the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the student to the motivation of accomplishing the work of the kingdom.
For something to edify, it must have meaning. Not in the sense of emotion or feeling, but in the sense of the understanding. That is, if something is not intelligible or comprehensible by the intellect, then it cannot edify. True edification can only come through a situation where knowledge and instruction are imparted with the attitude of love.
However, when I looked into an English dictionary, I found the following definition. “Edify: enlighten, to improve the morals or knowledge of somebody.” Another dictionary said this. “Edify: to instruct or improve spiritually.” Does this surprise you? Do you think of being instructed as edification? Do you think of gaining new knowledge when you are edified?
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