Alan Knox is doing a series on Mutual Edification and the Church over at his blog, The Assembling of the Church. He is asking some good questions, which are helping me think through some issues for the book I’m writing.
In one place, he writes,
It is correct for us to say that Scripture does not tell us how the church should meet together. It is completely incorrect to say that Scripture does not tell us why the church should meet together.
I don’t disagree, but I would place a different nuance on both statements. Regarding the first statement, while I suppose it is true that Scripture does not tell us how the church should meet, I think Scripture does tell us how they did meet. For the most part, they followed the example of the Jewish Synagogue. Yes, this isn’t explicitly stated, but it is implied all over the place in Acts and the Epistles. I eventually want to write a book on this too.
Regarding the second statement, he goes on to say that “Scripture indicates to us that ‘mutual edification’ is the purpose of the gathering of the church.” I would say mutual edification is a purpose, but not the purpose. The reason I say this requires a rather long explanation based on the definition of church which I won’t get into here. But the bottom line is that I’m nervous about saying that mutual edification is the purpose for the gathering of the church because this is not a far step away from saying that mutual edification is the purpose of the church, which it most definitely is not.
If you had to read that last sentence over again because it sounded like I was saying the same thing twice, you just proved my point. When you say “mutual edification is the purpose of the gathering of the church,” most people hear “mutual edification is the purpose of the church.” While the first statement might be true, the second statement is not.
So I’m excited to see what Alan writes in the next few posts. He is very good about responding to comments, so join in the conversation. I know I will. See you there!
Jeremy,
Thanks for linking to my post, and thanks for continuing the discussion here. As I understand the term from Scripture, “church” (or the Greek equivalent) referred to a gathering or assembly. In this context, it would refer to a gathering or assembly of disciples of Jesus Christ. So, yes, the phrases “church gathering” or “church assembly” are redundant. “Mutual edification” requires more than one believer to be present, which would be “church” (assembly) in my understanding. I do not think that our purpose for existing is only to mutually edify one another. However, I do believe that mutual edification is the reason for us to get together with our brothers and sisters in Christ.
-Alan
Alan, thanks for the comment. I’m glad you are writing those posts. See you over there.