You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
12 For[pros] the perfecting[katartismos] of the saints,[hagios] for
[eis] the work[ergon] of the ministry,[diakonia]
for[eis] the edifying[oikodome] of the body[soma] of
Christ:[Christos] KJV-Interlinear
12 for the
equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body
of Christ; NASB
The apostles, the prophets, the pastors, the teachers, are not mere people placed in history for the promotion of civilization or the making of some form of historical theory.
These people, who established the scriptures, and who teach them, have but one purpose and that is to help believers learn and grow spiritually, through their teaching.
The purpose of history is not the movements of peoples, or the evolution of social norms and standards, or some ongoing evolving of philosophical or governmental thought, that somehow promotes humanity to better and better levels.
History is the time given by God, for the purpose of developing the family of God, and in that development, the spiritual perfection and completion of His family.
Why do we have the dispensation of this Church Age? Because, as we have already learned, this age is used for the purpose of teaching angels, as well as completing the Royal Family, which is being completed during our dispensation. When that last member is added to this family in this dispensation, then our age will end. The Rapture will occur and the remainder of the Age of Israel will resume.
But our passage deals with the instruction being provided. And that instruction is there for the perfection of the believers in our era. Perfection here means completion.
When you were born physically into this world, you were incomplete. You were body and soul and not much more. You had to grow up and learn how to speak and then learn your alphabet, and how to read and write and so forth.
Over time you added knowledge to your empty head.
But the temporal life is only a small part of your life. Your spiritual side is far greater, and that too needs to be completed.
As a new believer in Christ, you are an empty vessel and need to be completed. You accomplish that through learning doctrine, through acquiring understanding, and finally how to use what you know, and move toward wisdom and maturity.
You do this in only one way, and that is by means of the instruction given by instructors, from the scriptures that were written for us, way back in that first century.
For the edifying, is a reference to the completion of all members of the family of God, as the numbers of believers grow, as well as the building up of a structure of doctrine within each individual soul.
Not only are there more and more believers added to Gods family, but there are more and more believers that are growing up individually in their personal spiritual lives.
Spiritual growth comes from one source only and that is through the learning process of Bible doctrine.
Instructors are there not for the perpetuation of humanity, not for the improvement of social norms, not for the advancement of human dignity, not for the development of nations or empires, but for one purpose only, and that is for the completion both individually, and historically, of all believers.
