The one another commands

Build Up One Another

A command of Christ for his church · Romans 14:19

Build up one another is the call to edify each other, to do the things that make each other stronger in faith and closer in peace. Every word and action either builds up or tears down; Paul urges us to choose the things that build. We are living stones being fitted together, and we are meant to help each other rise.

Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another.Romans 14:19 (KJV)

What this command means

To edify is to build, as one builds a house. The church is God's building, and we are both the stones and, under Christ, the builders. Paul says, let us follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another. Edification is deliberate; it asks of every choice whether it strengthens the other or weakens them.

The context in Romans is about not wounding a weaker brother's conscience over disputable matters. Building up sometimes means giving up my rights for your good. It is love that thinks first of the other's growth, not my own freedom, and orders my life to help you stand and thrive in Christ.

Why it matters for the church

A church grows the way a building rises, stone by stone, each member fitted to the others and adding strength. Where believers build each other up, the whole structure becomes stable, beautiful, and able to bear weight. Where they tear each other down, the walls crack and the house cannot stand.

Paul's aim in all his labor was that the body would edify itself in love, growing up into Christ. This is not the work of leaders only but of every member. When each part does its share, the body builds itself up, and the church becomes a dwelling place of God rather than a heap of loose stones.

Paul's picture of the body growing up into Christ shows that edification has a direction and a goal. We do not build each other up toward vague self-improvement but toward maturity in him, till we all come in the unity of the faith unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. Every true act of building fits a brother more closely to the likeness of the Lord.

How we fail at it

We fail by tearing down instead of building up. Gossip, criticism, and contempt are demolition work, and we do them easily. We win an argument and lose a brother. We insist on our rights over disputable things and wound a weaker conscience. We speak in ways that leave people smaller, not stronger.

We also fail by neglect, doing nothing to build at all. A stone that adds no strength to the wall is dead weight. To attend without contributing, to consume without building, is to leave the work to others while the house stands unfinished around us.

How Christ enables it

Christ is the master builder of his church: upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He is also the foundation and the chief cornerstone on which the whole building rests. Every act of edification is his work, carried out through willing hands.

Because he is building us, we build with confidence and not in our own strength. He gives gifts to the body for the edifying of itself in love, and he supplies the grace to use them. When we build one another up, we are junior partners in his own great work of raising a temple for God out of forgiven people.

The gifts by which we edify each other are themselves the gift of the risen Christ. When he ascended on high, he gave gifts unto men, apostles and prophets, pastors and teachers, and gifts to every member, for the perfecting of the saints and the edifying of the body. So even our building is his building, worked through us by his grace. He supplies the strength and the gifts, and we are made junior partners in his own great work of raising a holy temple for God out of forgiven people.

How to live it

Let your words build. Before you speak, ask whether this will strengthen or weaken. Speak faith into doubters, truth into the confused, hope into the discouraged. Refuse gossip and criticism, which only demolish.

Use your gifts for others. Whatever grace God has given you, teaching, helping, giving, hospitality, pour it into the body. Be willing to lay down a right or a preference for the sake of a weaker brother's growth. Ask of your life together, am I building or tearing down, and choose to build.

Weigh your words before you speak them, asking whether they will strengthen or weaken the person who hears. Refuse gossip and cutting criticism, which only tear down, and choose instead to speak faith into doubters, truth into the confused, and hope into the discouraged. Put your gifts to work for others: teach, help, give, welcome, whatever grace God has entrusted to you. Be willing to lay down a right or a preference for the sake of a weaker brother's growth, for love builds and self-assertion divides. Ask of every conversation and choice, am I building or demolishing here, and lean deliberately toward building. A church rises the way a temple rises, one carefully placed stone at a time, each member adding strength to the whole.

Related commands: Encourage one another · Instruct one another · Live in harmony with one another · All the one another commands