(originally posted January 26, 2009)
Education is NOT Salvation.
Education is NOT Salvation.
One might think that there is no need to say such a thing, but if you listen to how most people speak of education, you might come away with a different impression. I’ve seen parents fret about whether or not their children will get into college (or the ‘right’ college), or whether or not they will get into a career that pays the big bucks. It is as though there is no God, or if there is, He isn’t sovereign over our lives, or that He is irrelevant to real life, so that the student’s primary focus needs to be on how well he is mapping his future training. Somehow, education is the kid’s salvation rather than God about whom we must learn.
Again, as an educator who is serious about his calling, let me stress … education is not salvation. We must be careful not to place too much hope in education. The renewal of the soul, the implanting of the new life (and as Paul claims, the new mind) comes exclusively from God. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that no man by his wisdom (education) ever found God. Even more unsettling is the fact that education can become a substantial obstacle to finding God. A student can be highly educated and a spiritual corpse; a deplorable condition. The most important thing is being alive in Christ and loving God, and education cannot impart that.
Now, the second part of this is equally important. Once someone has received the new life in Christ, the most important thing to which the mind and heart can be applied is knowing God. A student with a high school education who truly knows God as his first priority is far more valuable to the community, the business world, the science world or the church, than a post-doctoral who gives God a cordial nod and goes about life as though He has no interest in daily outcomes.
Once new life and knowing God have their proper priority in life, then education serves us well, for education then opens the eyes for perceiving God's hand in the world, opens doors for service, hones the mind and the understanding to promote God’s ways in every field of endeavor. Education then becomes an investment in kingdom purposes. It makes salvation more fruitful in all of life.
Isn’t this what discipleship is really about?
1 comment:
Y'know, this reminds me of one of my earliest memories of WCS. My parents and I were at one of the informational sessions and after it was over, we were conversing with you and you said something to the effect of, "We don't want to turn your kids into Lex Luthor." The renewal of the mind really is a whole-body kind of experience, it's not just mental, for as we know, faith without works is dead, and vice versa. And personally, as a young future educator, I'm glad that salvation isn't dependent upon education, otherwise we'd all be in big trouble, haha...
Cheers,
Andrew H. Waller
Post a Comment