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Biblical Foundations for Christian Education

“Teach me O Lord the way of your statutes and I will keep it to the end” (Psalm 119:33).

Of everyone involved in any form of education, Christian educators, be they preachers, teachers or outreachers, are the most fortunate. The subject matter they must teach is encompassed in just one book, the Bible. That book not only provides them with their subject matter; it also provides them with the methodology they are to use in teaching their subject and the manner in which they teach it. This blessing is further compounded by the knowledge that the driving force in Christian education is God himself who calls his servants to be Christian educators, equips them for their task, assures them of results and gives them his own excellent example in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.

     Just as the Scriptures from beginning to end describe the divine initiative in creation, providence and redemption, so they disclose the divine initiative in the process of Christian education. Psalm 119:33-40 highlights the gracious work of God as our divine teacher.

     Commenting on Psalm 119:33,34 Charles Haddon Spurgeon writes: “These are childlike blessed words from the lips of an old experienced believer, and he a king and a man inspired of God. The lesson which is desired is thoroughly practical. The holy man would not only learn the statutes, but the way of them, the daily use of them; he would know that path of holiness which is hedged in by divine law, in which the commandments of the Lord stand as signposts of direction and milestones of information guiding and marking our progress. Those who are taught of God never forget their lessons. When divine grace sets a man in the true way, he will be true to it. Earnestly then let us drink in divine instruction so that we may hold fast our integrity and in life’s latest hour, follow on in the paths of righteousness.”

God himself is the most excellent teacher and exemplar.

First, we see from this text and Spurgeon’s comment on it that the real teacher of the Christian is God. Such texts as Deuteronomy 5:31 and 6:6,7 reinforce this as they directly proclaim that God has given his message, recorded for his people in his Word, and the function of those servants he calls to teach is to relay God’s own teaching to his people. Apostle Paul makes this point when he writes, “So what we preach is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake” (2 Corinthians 4:5).

     When we acknowledge that God is the real teacher, those who are called to teach in Christ’s Church will earnestly desire to be faithful in relaying God’s teaching as it is revealed and recorded in God’s Word. They will prayerfully rely on him to supply them with every needed grace and gift to use in his service, and will seek to uphold him above all else, praying for their students: “and may they forget the channel, seeing only him.”

     Secondly, we see that God teaches for a purpose. The Psalmist’s prayer is, “Teach me O Lord the way of your statutes.” God’s Word is not taught for the sake of academic achievement or because of its literary grandeur. As the Psalmist asked not simply to know God’s statutes, but to know the way of them, it is evident that his desire was to know God’s statutes for the purpose of knowing Christ as Saviour and Lord and living in accord with God’s will.

     God’s teaching through his Word is a purposeful activity, and the particular purpose is summed up by apostle John: “But these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life in his name” (John 20:31). Christian teachers then are not involved in teaching Scripture truth simply for its own sake; they will want to affirm with the Psalmist, “Your Word is truth”, but more than this, they are teaching under God’s Word for converted lives, holy lives, strengthened lives, determined lives, victorious lives.

     Thirdly, we see that God teaches effectively. When God teaches, his pupils remember the lesson. Just as the children of Israel were never to forget their deliverance from Pharoah and the Egyptians (Deuteronomy 4:9-13), so we are never to forget the gracious work of God in our lives, delivering us from Satan and sin as we were “bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20). We are sinners – forgiven sinners – and we are never to forget that “he who called us is faithful” and that having called us and named us in Christ Jesus, he will “keep (us) from stumbling and present (us) blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy” (Jude 24).

     Fourthly, we see that God gets results. God’s teaching his children results in their understanding his law and their wholehearted keeping of his law. The Westminster Divines acknowledged the necessity, the difficulty, yet the reality of God’s people understanding God’s teaching through his Word when they wrote: “All things in Scripture are not alike plain in themselves nor alike clear to all; yet those things which are necessary to be known, believed and observed for salvation, are so clearly propounded and opened in some place of Scripture or another, that not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due sense of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them” (Westminster Confession 1:7). Further, they outlined the method by which we are to understand difficulties of Christian faith and practice: “The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself; and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture (which is not manifold but one) it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly” (1:9). Moreover, they maintained: “The supreme Judge, by which all controversies of religion are to be determined … can be no other but the Holy Spirit speaking in Scripture” (1:10). God’s people, then, may be sure that he will give them guidance and understanding through the Holy Spirit as they study his Word, carefully noting those parts which plainly teach the essentials of Christian faith and practice, and measuring the difficulties against Scripture as a whole.

God calls us to teach his Word.

Having first acknowledged the Divine Initiative in Christian Education, that God Himself is the Great Teacher, we proceed to settle upon the subject matter to be taught by those whom He graciously chooses to use in his service. For this, we have the example of Paul, who told the Ephesian elders: “I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). The Westminster Confession takes up this phrase and defines it for us: “The whole counsel of God, concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man’s salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture, unto which nothing at any time is to be added, whether by new revelation of the Spirit, or traditions of men…” (1:6) (see 2 Timothy 3:15-17; Galatians 1:8,9;2 Thessalonians 2:2).

     Given, then, that the Word of God, the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, contains all that we need to know concerning God’s glory and our salvation, faith and life, the Christian educator can confine himself to teaching that Word. Christian educators may take great comfort that God’s Word needs no addition, and they must be scrupulous in ensuring that they do not add to or subtract from it . We have seen above that the teaching of this Word is for practical purposes, but we see further from God’s Word how it can enrich our lives. To take just a few ways in which the teaching and appropriating of God’s Word enriches our lives, we turn again to Psalm 119.

God calls us to uphold his Word.

We see first that appropriating God’s Word leads to purity of life and turning from sin: “I have stored up your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11). Appropriating God’s Word turns us from all the vain things of this world and to earnest seeking after the way of God (Psalm 119:33-40). Knowledge of and trust in God’s Word enables us to answer accusers with confidence (Psalm 119:41-48). God’s Word lights the way of life before us (Psalm 119:105). It is through God’s Word that we gain understanding (Psalm 119:169). Since God’s Word so enriches our lives and since it is all-sufficient in telling us all that we need to know both about God and about man, Christian educators must be determined to follow that example of Apostle Paul and teach “the whole counsel of God” as it is recorded in his Word.

     To spend our time teaching things which are dealt with under secular subject headings or being nothing more than commentators on current affairs is to starve rather than to feed the flock of Christ (though we will always be showing the relevance of God’s Word to the current situation, and giving guidance on moral questions from the fixed points of Scripture, showing the moral superiority of God’s Word over secular immorality).

     Christian educators who purposely set out to teach the Scriptures will find that far from ever running short of subject matter, a lifetime of teaching would never be enough to proclaim “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Ephesians 3:8), and they will be strengthened in this endeavour as they constantly seek to “let the Word of Christ dwell richly in (them), as (they) teach and admonish one another in all wisdom” (Colossians 3:16).

     John Calvin’s comment on that verse is as valid in a day when some people seek to keep God’s Word from his people by destroying their confidence in it, and as it was valid in a day when a priestly caste kept God’s Word from his people by leaving it in a foreign language. Calvin says: “’Let the Word of Christ dwell richly in you.’ He (the apostle Paul) wants the teaching of the Gospel to be familiar to them. Hence we may infer by what spirit they are actuated today, who cruelly forbid it to Christian people, and furiously vociferate that no pestilence is more to be dreaded than the reading of the Scriptures by the common people. For, unquestionably, Paul here addresses men and women of all ranks. Nor would he only have them take a slight taste of the Word of Christ, but he says that it should dwell in them; that is, that it should have a settled abode, and that largely that they may aim to advance and increase more and more every day. As, however, the desire of learning is perverted in many, and they misuse the Word of the Lord for their own ambition or for vain curiosity, or in some way corrupt it, it is our wisdom that we may be instructed by it and be wise as we ought to be.”

God himself demonstrates his divine methodology in the teaching method of Jesus.

Having acknowledged the divine initiative in Christian education and noted that the subject matter of Christian education is completely found in the Word of God, we proceed to discover that the Word of God also contains the methodology which we are to employ in teaching the subject. If space permitted, we could search the Scriptures to lay down principles covering the various aspects of teaching methods. We could also learn those characteristics which distinguish false teachers from true teachers, particularly through a study of Paul’s letters, which throw into sharp contrast the work and methods of false teachers against the true teaching and proper, God-honouring methods used by Paul, who sets down his standards of ministry in 2 Corinthians chapters 2 to 6 and in his letters to Timothy and Titus he defines qualities which should be found in Christian educators, among whom are bishops/presbyters and deacons. However, we shall have space only to look briefly at the example given by our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who was the greatest teacher who ever lived (and so much more).

     Perhaps the most striking feature of Jesus’ teaching was that he taught with authority, (Matthew 7:29), which set him apart from other teachers of his day, whose teachings were heavily qualified. The one who was the Word made flesh taught with divine authority to the amazement and indeed offence of his hearers. Christian educators today who are faithful stewards of the mystery of the Gospel, who rightly divide the Word of truth, will speak with authority as they confine themselves to teaching not themselves but God’s Word, being led into all truth by the Spirit of Truth’s bearing witness by and with the Word in their hearts. In this they will cause offence to some whose concern is not with soundness of doctrine but with “signs” of one kind or another, and to some whose concern is not with God’s Word of truth but with the latest utterance of the worldly-wise.

      The second element of Jesus’ teaching method we should note is the variety of ways in which he taught. One teaching method was the use of miracles. Each miraculous event which occurred at the hand of the Lord Jesus Christ could be tied down to a specific teaching purpose, and collectively the miracles can be shown to teach the divinity of Christ, God’s agent in creation and in re-creation, and His sovereignty as “God over all, blessed forever” (Romans 9:5). However, if this method is not ours to use, it is ours to affirm as demonstration of Christ’s divinity, while some of his other methods should be imitated by us. Events recorded in the Gospel narrative such as Jesus’ dealings with Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10) and Nicodemus (John 3: 1-21) show what modern jargon calls “dialogue evangelism”, but performed with “a touch of the master’s hand”. Here we see our Lord confronting individuals with their sin, with the living death of sin, with their consequent need for divine grace in re-birth to abundant and eternal life, and as a result we see true repentance.

     In John 14-16 we see Jesus teaching by means of lengthy discourses – a method which today’s Christian educators must handle with care, since not all seem to have the gift of holding effectiveness and length together! Rev Stuart Ollyott’s advice to preachers is helpful here: “Preach for 30 minutes, but make it seem like 20!” In John 17 the teaching method takes a slight turn as Jesus proceeds to teach through prayer, also using an analogy of the unity of the distinct Persons of the Holy Trinity as a model for the dynamic unity of Christ’s church. Christian educators, then, will seek to make prayer a useful means of teaching, and will learn to make helpful analogies to assist the understanding of their pupils.

     When we turn to passages such as the Sermon on the Mount, recorded in Matthew 5-7, we see our Lord using a method known to the rabbis as “stringing pearls”, that is giving one small snippet of teaching after another, connected by a common thread. When we read Matthew 7:6 and hear Jesus say: “Do not throw your pearls before swine”, we may be hearing his approval of the use of this method on appropriate occasions, especially considering the effect it had on some who heard Jesus!

     No doubt the teaching method which will be forever associated with Jesus is the telling of parables. There are some thirty-nine parables recorded in the Synoptic Gospels, which we have known since Sunday school days as “earthly stories with heavenly meanings”. This useful, if too simple, definition points up the fact that Jesus takes outward, visible objects, people and events and in each case illustrates a spiritual truth. Sometimes the parable might have one clear lesson to teach, at other times, the parable has layers of meaning, sometimes meaning different things to different people. There can be no doubt that the telling of a parable would have captured the attention of our Lord’s hearers, riveted that attention, and applied the real, spiritual meaning to the hearts of those for whom it was intended.

     But we also see in the telling of the parables, that Jesus was concerned that his hearers could see beyond the parable to the truth and appropriate that truth. Thus, the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-35) is not simply about a Good Samaritan. That parable is about what it means to be a neighbour. Jesus follows up the parable with a question: “Which of these three, do you think, proved neighbour to the man who fell among robbers?” (Luke 10:36), then re-inforces it with a command: “Go and do likewise,” (Luke 10:37b). Jesus sets a fine example for Christian educators of proceeding from the known to the unknown, “precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28:10). He also sets a fine example of always relating teaching to life. But he relates His teaching to that life which is abundant and eternal, the new life Christ’s people have in him. And Christian educators who strive to be relevant (and strive to be relevant they should) should also strive to ensure that their students remember and appropriate NOT the outward and motivational elements of their teachings, but the real, inner, spiritual elements of their teaching.

God himself, in Christ, practises what he preaches.

Of all the other methods which Christ used, there is one which we must not omit, for while it is a separate method in itself, it also binds together and sets the seal upon all his other methods and the total content of his teaching. Jesus Christ taught by example. The qualities of the redeemed character about which Jesus taught were qualities which were to be found in his life. The fruit of the Spirit which Paul lists in Galatians 5:22 were borne abundantly in the life of our Saviour. Christian educators must therefore be constantly seeking grace to imitate Christ and set in their own lives the example which they hold before their students. Paul wrote: “According to the commission of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and another man is building upon it. Let each man take care how he builds upon it. For no other foundation can any man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble – each man’s work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done … This is how one should regard us – as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy” (1 Corinthians 3:10-13; 4:1, 2).

Conclusion.

Those who are involved in the service of the Lord through Christian education have a heavy responsibility laid on them. It is good for us to rest upon God, himself the Great Teacher: faithfully to contain our teaching to the teaching of his Word; and to look to his Word for the principles and methods we are to employ in teaching that Word, above all following the example of the Lord Jesus Christ, so that our experience and the experience of those whom we teach will be the experience of David the Psalmist: “Oh how I love your law! It is my meditation all the day. Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies, for it is ever with me. I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation. (Psalm 119:97-99).

– Bob Thomas