# The purpose of the Puritan Board is to edify



## NaphtaliPress (Jan 31, 2021)

“_for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church_ (1 Cor. 14:12), we had need to take the exhortation in all things to aim mainly at the edifying of the body of Christ. In every sermon, in every exercise of discipline, in every meeting together, in every word we speak in our meeting, in all the steps of our carriage, look to edify. “ James Durham, “A Sermon on Ephesians 4:11–12,” _Collected Sermons of James Durham: 61 Sermons_ (Naphtali Press and Reformation Heritage Books, 2017), page 925.

It's been a rough past year. Persecution of Christians; the virus; bad government; bad virus-governance. The moderators have seen an increase in bringing baggage from social media to PB: short tempers; mean denunciations fueled by all of this, etc. Going forward, the moderators may be addressing all this in many ways as it continues to plague the board. I just want to remind everyone that the Puritan Board is a long format discussion forum. It's not short form social media built for one liners and venting of outrage. Leave social media twits, tweaks and latest rage against the USA clown show for those forums. Now we can't help what goes on in those other forums, but PB being a Christian forum, it exists to edify by biblical precepts; this should be the goal of Christian discussion in any place; but moderators can't control those places. Here we can at least remind members of that prime directive.

There has been a long time rule for the board to pause before you post and not simply sound off, get at that guy that irritated you, express how unbelievably dumb you think the person is for saying such and so, etc. The above exhortation by James Durham was directed to pastors and elders gathered in meeting of the Glasgow Synod of the Church of Scotland in 1652. The group was split at the time over what the state's tactics had been for defending Scotland and Scotland's interests as the Covenanter cause collapsed. Take disagreements among Christians and churches over virus policies and multiply by a large number to get a sense of how people were behaving. However, it is a timeless exhortation, and it can be applied to all Christians in all they do; but especially conversation (James 3:6). For 2021 let's resolve to make this goal of communicating in order to edify one for our interactions here on the Puritan Board.

Reactions: Like 10 | Edifying 7 | Amen 6


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