Education (Part 1)

EDUCATION I. Education: "The systematic instruction, schooling or training system given to the young in preparation for the work of life; by extension, similar instruction or training obtained in adult age. Also, the whole course of scholastic instruction which a person has received." II. This study is relevant to disciples of Christ. A. Disciple: "One who follows or attends upon another for the purpose of learning from him; a pupil, scholar." See LUK 14:26-27. B. Discipleship is a process of education. JOH 8:31-32; MAT 11:28-29. III. Children need education. A. Children left to themselves bring shame. PRO 29:15. B. The goal of educating children is to bring them to maturity. 1. Maturity: "The state or quality of being mature (having the powers of the body and mind fully developed); fullness or perfection of development or growth." 2. The standard of all that it means to be mature is Jesus Christ. EPH 4:13. a. Jesus' maturity consisted of increase in stature (height), wisdom, and favor with God and men. LUK 2:52. b. Jesus matured physically, mentally, socially, and spiritually. 3. A mature person possesses wisdom which brings life to its fullest potential. PRO 4:7-13. C. Education of children should be very early. ISA 28:9. 1. Fundamentals need to be instilled betimes, that is, early in life. PRO 13:24; 19:18. 2. The things of God should be among a child's first concepts and words. 3. Gauge the oral instruction of little children according to their ability to process the information but do not assume that any instruction beyond their immediate capacity should be avoided. 4. For very small children the forms of godly living and religion are powerful instructive mechanisms. IV. The foundation and source of true education is God. PRO 1:7; 9:10. A. To rule God out of the educational process is to rule out the very source of wisdom, knowledge and understanding. PRO 2:6. B. True education comes from fearing the Lord and not by simply studying the world we live in. JOB 28:12-28. 1. Wisdom "cannot be gotten for gold." 2. More money is not the solution to man's educational problems! C. God is the primary instructor of men. DEU 4:1; PSA 25:8-9, 12. 1. The Lord taught Moses thus providing the curriculum for instruction. EXO 24:12. 2. Moses taught Israel what the Lord taught him. DEU 6:1-2. 3. The fathers in Israel were to teach their children what Moses taught them. DEU 6:6-7. D. Jesus Christ had God the Father for His teacher and He confounded the learned men of His day. JOH 8:28; 7:14-15, 45-46; MAR 6:2-3. 1. A learned man knows letters. 2. The Greek word translated "letters" in JOH 7:15 is "gramma" from which we derive our word "grammar." 3. Grammar is a vital part of learning. E. The most educated men of Nebuchadnezzar's court were the men who feared God. DAN 1:17-20. F. One can have more wisdom and understanding than enemies, teachers and ancients through the precepts and testimonies of God. PSA 119:98-100. G. Nobody can teach like God. JOB 36:22. H. 2CH 15:3 describes modern, secular education. 1. The secular schools are "without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law." 2. Consequently, we are witnessing unrest, great vexations, and destructions. 2CH 15:5-6. I. Education without God produces the state of affairs described in ROM 1:18-32. V. Parents have the primary responsibility for the education of children. A. Fathers are especially commanded to educate the children. EPH 6:4; PSA 78:1-7; ISA 38:19. 1. Nurture: "Breeding, upbringing, training, education." 2. Admonition: "The action of putting in mind of duties; authoritative counsel; warning, implied reproof." 3. Fathers are to bring up their children in the training, education, counsel, and warnings OF THE LORD. 4. Mothers are to help in this duty. GEN 2:18; PRO 1:8. B. The father is the guide of youth. JER 3:4. C. Paul assumes that fathers exhort, comfort, charge, and warn their children. 1TH 2:11; 1CO 4:14. D. Fathers should have more weight in influencing children than other instructors. 1CO 4:15-16. E. The book of Proverbs presents a father instructing his son in a wide variety of subjects. PRO 4:1-4; 23:15-26. F. Teaching children the things of God contrasts forgetting the things of God. DEU 4:9-10. 1. Parents who do not teach their children have likely forgotten what God has taught them. 2. Parents who teach their children better remember what they themselves have learned. G. The words of God are to be incorporated into the daily life of the family. DEU 6:6-9; PRO 6:20-23. 1. This exhortation was fitting in view of all that their children would be exposed to in the land of Canaan. a. They would be exposed to affluence. DEU 6:10-12. b. They would be exposed to competitive religions. DEU 6:14. c. They would be exposed to alternate, commandment-free lifestyles. LEV 18. 2. No aspect of life should be divorced from the word of God. Therefore, secular education is a farce! 3. Parents err greatly who limit the religious education of their children to the time when they are in church. H. In America, the state has wrongly usurped the place of parents in assuming the responsibility for educating children. 1. This happened incrementally with parents' general approval as state- run and funded schools appeared to offer tangible advantages that might otherwise be unavailable to local or private education systems, not the least of which was a "free" lunch and childcare service. 2. One need only do light research to find that the fathers of the modern American "public" education system held to socialist and humanist philosophies which could not tolerate Christian influence in education. 3. Eventually, upon the questionable pretext of the superiority of Soviet evolution-based education methods "proven" by the launch of Sputnik in the 1950's, a cold-war fearful America accepted the federalization of public education with all of its pitfalls. I. Parents may delegate the task of teaching to others. 1SAM 1:24-28; GAL 4:1-2; ACT 22:3. 1. This may be a necessary alternative in some cases. 2. The parents are still ultimately responsible before God for the education of their children. J. In the Old Testament, the priests and Levites taught the people and the parents in turn taught their children. DEU 31:9-13; 6:6-7; PSA 78:5-7; ISA 38:19. K. In the New Testament, the family is taught by the pastor. ACT 20:28. 1. The pastor is to teach old and young. JOH 21:15-17; 1JO 2:12-14; EPH 6:1-4. 2. Parents are then to teach their children. EPH 6:4.