EDIFICATION, EDIFY, EDIFYING (οἰκοδομέω, G3868, to build; οἰκοδομή, G3869, the act of building). The word is occasionally used in the literal sense of building (of tombs, Matt 23:29; of a house, Acts 7:47). More frequently it is used in the metaphorical sense of the building up in character, of a church (Matt 16:18) or of an individual (esp. in Paul’s writings, e.g. in 2 Cor 10:8; 13:10; Eph 4:12, 16). Paul frequently used οἰκοδομή, G3869, but never in the literal sense. He describes the church as a building (1 Cor 3:9 and Eph 2:21), and talks of erecting it on the proper foundation (1 Cor 3:10, 12, 14). Paul says to the Corinthians that when they come together, each one having “a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation,” all is to be “done for edification” (14:26). He is anxious that Christians mature, that they grace Christ’s cause, that they become well-founded in the faith.

The Puritans stressed edification, and influenced John Wesley (1703-91) in the matter. Wesley wrote a sermon on “The Means of Grace,” in which he treated prayer, Scripture searching, and the Lord’s Supper as the chief means of being built up in the faith. Elsewhere he added fasting and Christian conference (fellowship) to these three chief means of growth in grace.

Bibliography J. K. Grider, Taller My Soul: the Means of Christian Growth (1964).