What does it mean to be well-educated? It’s a question often discussed by educators (who spend lots of time), politicians (who spend lots of money), and parents (who spend lots of energy) to come to the best answer. It’s also a question that has answers in the Bible. As we stand on the threshold of a new school year, it’s a good time to be reminded of insights gained about education from the Scripture.
· The Objectives of Education: While education has many practical outcomes (such as the familiar “reading, writing, and arithmetic”), it should go so much further. It should pursue godly wisdom, justice, judgment, and equity as a natural extension that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Proverbs 1). Education should prioritize God’s truth, ethics, and values. To be well-educated should mean to have a biblical view of reality, thinking, and living (Romans 12:1-2). Any educational framework that excludes God and biblical priorities can only produce educated fools (Proverbs 1:7).
· The Opportunities of Education: Many believe that education only happens at school and church. However, the Bible calls parents to use everyday events as learning occasions. The Bible says parents are to display and teach God’s word when sitting in the house or taking a walk, when lying down and when getting up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-9). Parents should realize that the most important learning happens at home, where they are the role-models who use every situation to teach godly principles and biblical truth (Proverbs 22:6).
· The Oversight of Education: The American system has lured many into thinking that it’s the school or the government that makes the decisions about a child’s education. This is not the Bible’s perspective. Rather, it’s the parents who bear the ultimate responsibility to make, or approve, educational decisions. Issues such as the age to start a child’s formal education, the structure of a child’s education (homeschool, private, or public), and the curriculum in a child’s courses and extra-curricular activities are, in the end, decisions for the parents. This is because the Bible recognizes the family and the responsibilities of the parents (see Eph. 6:1-4).
Christian parents should prioritize what God prioritizes. Obviously, education has real-world aspects, but to only pursue education for its practical or financial benefits is to grossly miss the mark. In the end, such a system can only produce individuals who may know how to make a living, but have no foundation for how to live a life that honors God, the church, and the family, much less prepares them for eternity. That’s why parents must be active in overseeing the development of each child, which must include biblical principles and attitudes.
Biblically-minded parents are warned not follow the belief system of secular education, which has at its core atheism, evolution, humanism, secularism, and socialism, all of which are abominations to biblical truth. Rather, it is imperative that Christian parents follow biblical priorities and seek the way of Christ as the only means of salvation and the Bible as the cornerstone of an education that is both practically and spiritually valuable (Col. 2:6-8).
