To seek to edify is the cure of division and strife in a church

Status
Not open for further replies.

NaphtaliPress

Administrator
Staff member
title-sermoneph4-smr.jpg
(3) We exhort you [to] be much about the main thing of edifying souls, for it is the cure of division. The rise of our divisions and differences is the postponing of edification to some other end. If edification in its main task were studied, I doubt that much time would be allowed about these things. Therefore, the right cure must be following about the work of edification in earnest, to be less carnal and selfish and more spiritual and taken up about the honor of God and the salvation of people and our own souls. This is the apostle’s cure which he gives to the Corinthians when divisions are among ministers and Christians: “seek that ye may excel to the edifying of the church,” and, “Let all things be done to edifying” (1 Cor. 14:12, 26). He thought their divisions would soon be mastered and overcome if they would walk according to this rule, and albeit there be some difference about the way of edifying, yet none upon the main matter, and if we were set about this work as our main task, though it were hard to say all our differences and divisions would be packed up, yet who knows but God might work another sort of unity and harmony amongst us than now there is, and it is He that must do it. Therefore, think not a word of a sermon enough, but eye Him in this work.​
“A Sermon on Ephesians 4:11–12,” Sermon 61 of 61, in Collected Sermons of James Durham: Sixty-one Sermons (Naphtali Press and Reformation Heritage Books, forthcoming), 939. Sermon transcribed from surviving manuscript: “5 October 1652 Ephes. 4 11. 12. For the edifying of the body of Christ A Sermon taught before the Synod assembled in Glasgow: by Mr Ja: Durhame,” Sermons preached before the Synodal Assembly in Glasgow [manuscript], 1652, 1658. Sermons on 1 Corinthians 1, v.10, by James Fergusson April 5, 1658, and on Ephesians 4, v.11 and 12, by Mr. James Durham, October 5, 1652. Folger Shakespeare Library, X.d.424, MS Add. 257. This is a smoothed out text from the straight transcription which appeared in The Confessional Presbyterian 12. Photo, Used by permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. See images of some pages at their digital library.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top