• Notice that the first churches and preachers were focused on spiritual edification
    • Acts 20:32 – God’s word is what can build people up.
    • Colossians 3:16 – Even singing provides a means of teaching and admonishing one another.
    • I Corinthians 14:11-19 – Understanding is necessecary for edification.
    • I Corinthians 11:26-29 – We must be careful to take the Lord’s Supper in the right way and understand what it means.
    • II Timothy 4:1-5 – The young preacher Timothy was told to preach the Word.
    • Ephesians 4:11-16 – The body of Christ (universal church) will be built up by those who spread the word of God (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers).
    • There is a difference between edification and what might be done simultaneously with it.
      • While it is true that Christians shard common meals together (Acts 2:46), and that spiritual teaching can occur during a meal (Matthew 9:11-12), that does not mean that eating is edification, or that local churches can provide for the meal.
      • To illustrate: Philip taught the Ethiopian while riding in his chariot (Acts 8:26ff), but just because teaching can be done on a chariot, churches are not authorized to start providing chariots (or cars) for people so that teaching can occur in them.
      • Jesus taught two men as they walked along a road (Luke 24:13-35). But that does not authorize a church to build a walking track or road so that teaching can be done while people travel.