THE TWO EDIFICATIONS - MINISTRY AND LIFE
THE TWO EDIFICATIONS - MINISTRY AND LIFE
In Ephesians 4 there are two edifications spoken of; one (verse 12), connected with the gifts from the Head in heaven; persons are gifted by Him to minister, and through their ministry there is an edifying of the body of Christ; but besides this, there is (verse 16), “that which every joint supplieth ... maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love”. Thus there are two edifications; one from without, and the other from within; one through something imparted, the other from the condition produced by what has been imparted. It is the difference between food with air, and constitutional vigour. Food with air is necessary to health and contributes to it, but this is quite distinct from health. The healthier a person is, the more he gains from the best food and air, but the action of health in itself is quite different from the action of food and air. Food and air symbolise the ministry. It is the Lord’s blessed way of feeding and refreshing His own on earth; but if the ministry has been effectual, there is another way in which increase or edification is promoted, and that is by the health which the ministry has produced. The using of the health is that edification “which every joint supplieth”. Invalids are dependent on food and air for mere existence. They know nothing of the energy of health. Thus is it in some places with the saints, they are too much like invalids, they are dependent on ministry for existence, or at least for the sense of it. If they had health they would exercise the energy in every joint, and there would be edification of the body in itself in the highest expression of health,
[p. 148] namely, love. A person in health is not independent of food and air, but he is like a camel in the desert that can carry water for eight days; he has taken in a supply; and the sense of life, in vigour and muscular power, is diffused through the whole body irrespectively of food, and often in bad air. A person in full health values and appropriates food and air better far than an invalid; but the invalid has no power in himself; he has not health, and he is entirely dependent on what is ministered to him. He may be like one in health as to appearance sometimes, but put him to act, it will be at once seen that he has no power of life. Health that reaches out to every joint, is promoted by the true and just answer of every joint to its proper function in the body. An invalid may sit and listen and feed very well, but the proof or evidence of health is when there is increase bodily in the joy of life, and the highest sentiment, which is love. When a tree comes out in leaves, and blossoms, and fruits, it proves not only that it has been well cultured and nourished, but also that there is vigour in itself, though it was not independent of the culture. Thus, the more health and vigour there is in the saints, the more do they appropriate the edification from without, through the gifts; but the virtue of what is received is proved by the way the body edifies itself from within, in its best expression. Love - the nature of God - is the fruition, the result of health, the true glow of life.