Mutual Edification Unscrambled

Mutual Edification is a doctrine employed by some church groups that is misunderstood. They use it to allow all to teach in the assembly including women speakers. It comes from verses in Romans and I Corinthians and Ephesians that appear to teach the doctrine. You will see as we look deeper that it teaches the opposite of letting all speak in assemblies. It limits teachers to two or three per setting, and these must be gifted for that purpose.

Some churches actually limit the size of their congregations to fit the misunderstanding. A congregation of 1000 people couldn't all speak without being ultra long and disruptive , so they divide into small groups usually under 100 and even under 10, just so all get to speak. This really isn't biblical.

We can look at this Biblicly and we see there were large gatherings in the early church and we know they all didn't speak. The word "all" in Greek goes back to the closest antecedent or noun. Sometimes it speaks of those teaching and sometimes of those being taught. So looking at such verses speaking of those  teaching we realize the antecedent isn't the whole church but a subset of the church like teachers or prophets. see:

I Corinthians 14:29 Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the other Judge

Notice the antecedent is the prophets, not the whole church. So the word "all" later in vs 31 is speaking of the prophets, not the whole church.

I Corinthians 14:31 you may all prophesy one by one

The word "all" is pointing back to the prophets and not the whole church. This excludes some men and all women. See 14:34-37. The best way to edify is to have two or three speak and not the whole body. This is the Holy Spirit's choice. 

We can see this in other mutual edification verses such as Romans 15:2, which is giving up rights so all are edified. Even verses speaking of non-assembly settings like eating meats offered to idols. We give up rights even if we have rights, for the edification of others.

The word edify can be outside of assemblies. See Romans 14:19, Let us follow after things that make for peace, whereby we may edify another...

Romans 12:3-4 also exhorts us not to boast of false gifts, but to use the gifts God has bestowed in our lives. If prophecy we should prophecy, if teaching we should teach, if ministry we minister, etc. Not all are gifted teachers. So allowing all in the body to teach would be counter productive.

I Corinthians 12:29 are all apostles, are all prophets, are all teachers...

We mutually edify by staying within our gifts so the entire body performs as it should. By saying we are all teachers we dishonor God's plan for the church. We also have to divide the body into smaller groups just to serve our misunderstanding. It is impractical. It leads to less edification than God's plan. Edification works best in groups large enough for fuller service.

Instead of God allowing all to teach to build up personal egos, God asked each member to be honest about their gifts, and check their egos. Be humble.

Ephesians 4:8-29 is another misunderstood section. It begins with teaching offices.

Apostles

Prophets

Evangelist

Pastors

Teachers

Instead of all teaching there were teaching offices. The idea of mutual edification included all gifts, even those exercised outside of an assembly, non-teaching gifts like service.. Plus the word "all" in this section is the entire church being edified, not each member teaching.

Through the exercise of all God given gifts the entire church is edified. 'In the measure of every part, maketh edification of itself in love" Eph 4:16

So you see mutual edification includes all members and gifts, not just assembly settings. Those who use mutual edification to allow all in a congregation to speak simply miss the point. They misunderstand the passages and antecedents.

This doesn't mean mutual edification churches are lawless, they serve God according to their own understanding, but they do seem to misunderstand some verses. All things are lawful, but not all things edify. All things aren't expedient. Churches function better when following God's design. 

Mutual edification churches also accuse those who don't agree with them as lawless bodies. Tearing down and dividing the body is sinful. Judging others in a harsh manner is sinful. I hope people don't see this as harsh.