The Perfect Builder

Each of us is to please his neighbor for his good, to his edification. (Romans 15:2)

Yesterday I saw from the original language that this word please means to lift up, to excite the emotions in a way that builds up, to sail away emotionally. Today as I look at the next verse I see the picture taking even more definite shape. In the kingdom of heaven everyone lives to serve others before themselves. This is not because they have to do that in order to be part of God's family but rather it is because living from the heart will cause one to spontaneously live that way. To live in selfishness is to strangle and stifle the creativity and joy that our heart was created to express.

When God originally designed us, it was to perfectly live and thrive in the energizing atmosphere that will always be found in His authentic family which is His kingdom. That is how our brains and hearts are designed. Obviously a lot of damage has taken place that has terribly distorted our original design and caused a great deal of malfunctions to happen. But that does not detract from the fact that we are still equipped with minds and hearts designed for God's way of thinking and living even though it may seem largely foreign to us right now.

Salvation is really the provision of God to retrain our hearts, rewire our circuits, reeducate our minds and restore us to our original purpose and design which is to reflect His ways of thinking and feeling and be synchronized with Him. This is made even more clear in the demonstration of what God is like in the life of Jesus talked about in the next verse. Jesus came in part to show us by tangible example in human form how God feels about us and wants to relate to us. As our example, as the exhibit of the original pattern from which we have been seriously damaged, His life is a safe source that we can contemplate for our hearts to imitate.

Having a somewhat simple mind and not having much organized “higher” education according to the measurements of the world, I have found it very helpful over the past few years to question any word that raises a question in my mind. I often discover that there are rich meanings hidden within the context and the original language that I had no idea even existed if I only assume I know what a word means. So I looked up this word edification to find out what in the world the purpose is for pleasing my neighbor.

What I found reminds me very strongly of what Paul had spent some time on back in chapter twelve.

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. (Romans 12:4-5)

This word edification is directly linked to our word for edifice or a building designed for people to inhabit. When put that way this all starts to make a lot more sense. In recent years I have been alerted to a running theme throughout Scriptures that revolves around this concept of a building or dwelling place. And what I have noticed is that God is in the business of forming a living edifice composed of all who are willing to be incorporated into it, to create a dwelling place for God Himself to live in in a very intimate way. This all comes to an unimaginably wonderful grand climax in Revelation where at the very end of the story of the great war between good and evil the Father God Himself comes to take up residence in this dwelling place that has been prepared for Him in His people. (see Revelation 21:3)

With that background for context it creates a lot more excitement and incentive for me to pay attention and grasp the real implications of these instructions for me here in these verses. I can begin to view these words from a positive perspective instead of simply demands that I suppress my selfishness for the good of others. To have the proper context from the much bigger picture suddenly can transform the details dramatically and give them a whole new light and dimension.

The real purpose of God, the reason God wants me to lift up, build up, encourage, help support spiritually and emotionally my neighbor is so that God's dwelling place, His body on earth, can be prepared in order for Him to feel comfortable living among and in us. If I am willing to obey His request and instructions that I see here I will find myself coming into sympathy and harmony with the very same work that Jesus did while among men and women during His time on earth. And in the process of lifting others up the bonds of love and joy that are essential for adhering the body together effectively will form more strongly between my heart and the hearts of those I seek to strengthen and lift up as well as the heart of Jesus.

For me personally I can see that God is showing me these things right on time. He has been convicting me for quite some time about changing my relationship and attitudes toward the people in the local church to better reflect how Jesus feels about them. I have been taking small steps to dissolve some of the tension and suspicion that has affected their feelings about me and recently they asked me to teach a lesson in church sometime soon. I realize that very possibly in their minds they want to observe in this situation if I am safe to trust in their midst or if I will demonstrate some of the confrontational, disruptive attitudes so often indulged in by my late father in this same church.

As I pondered on this passage this morning I sensed God telling me that I need to pay close attention to the real meaning and implications of these verses in all of my dealings with these people for His reputation's sake. According to these verses it is my job to be patient and sensitive to their weaknesses and mistaken ideas about God, to guard my own spirit and be much more filled with the gentleness and kindness of Jesus in my dealings with them. Instead of just focusing on my own spiritual growth and relishing the freedoms that I am beginning to appreciate in my growing understanding of the real truth about God, I am to be careful not to overwhelm them with what I believe is advanced perspective but to see them through God's eyes and to love and care for them as those who indeed may be weaker but no less important than I am.

I am beginning to perceive that my real purpose should be to help them begin to see their own true identity from God's perspective instead of the mistaken notions they have about themselves and about religion. But this has to be done very gently and under the strict guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is far too easy for me to want to rush in and try to change people's minds too quickly before the Spirit has prepared them for certain changes. Spiritual growth is all about maturing. And like a beautiful rose slowly unfolding its petals, I have to respect the work and timing of God in other people's lives or I can easily damage the buds that are beginning to show promise of future blossoms.

My job is to assist God in any way He shows me – both in spirit, in words and in actions – the work of Jesus in forming His dwelling place made up of each one of us who are willing to be built into it for His pleasure. I am to assist God with the building of His temple by cooperating with His methods that are usually starkly different than my natural impulses. I want to be a good apprentice under the training of the perfect Craftsman who is in charge of building the true new temple for God to live in. As an apprentice I need to watch how He does things, the spirit and techniques He uses, the subtle “tricks of the trade” that makes things go so smoothly when He does them, the extreme attention to little details that He never fails to notice. Yes, I want to be mentored by the perfect Carpenter.

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