Concise Bible Dictionary:
From οικοδομέω, “to build, to build up.” The same word is used for the building of the Temple at Jerusalem (John 2:20), and by the Lord when He said He would build His assembly (Matt. 16:18). Οἰκοδομή occurs often in the epistles with the exhortation that all things in the church should be done to edification (Rom. 14:19; Rom. 15:2; 1 Cor. 14:3-26; Eph. 4:16,29). The gifts in the church were also for the edifying of the body of Christ (Eph. 4:12); and when things were at their worst Christians were exhorted to be building up themselves on their most holy faith (Jude 20). As a building is increased and strengthened, so the body of Christ is built up by the ministry of the Spirit through the word until all come “unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).