What is the purpose of education? This may seem at first sight a simple question. But soon we discover that it is more complex than we perhaps thought. The fact is that there is no such thing as neutral education. Whenever teaching takes place, there is an underlying purpose or motive involved. The key is to understand what that purpose is, according to the Scriptures.
Education is a precious gift of God’s common grace. He has created man as a rational creature, capable of intellectual development and intelligent thought. In His common grace, He reveals Himself and His truth to man in two ways, in Creation and in His Word. All true knowledge flows from God Himself. He is the source of all truth and knowledge, and He has been pleased to reveal truth to mankind in a multitude of ways, in mathematics, science, music etc. but especially in His Word. Knowledge is power. God is all-knowing and thus He is Almighty.1 Throughout our lives we are constantly learning from our experiences. Particularly, formal education is a means of increasing the talents and gifts that God has given each one of us. It enables us to know His wisdom and truth. It enables us to perform a useful function in the family, church and society. Above all, God has given us minds to study and understand His revelation in His Word. The ultimate purpose of education should therefore be to know, fear, love and glorify God. Joh. 17:3, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
Man consists of four aspects: he has physical, mental, social and spiritual needs. Education should encourage the development of all four of these aspects. All education is religious by nature. This means that whether it is explicitly stated or not, all education rests upon a philosophy of education as its foundation. Often this philosophy of education is not stated. But the fact is no-one educates neutrally. We all promote our own worldview. In the state schools this is a man-centered philosophy, focused on temporary earthly success and self-development. Many Christian schools solution to the problem is to take the government school curriculum and methodology, add a prayer and a Bible class and remove some references to non-Biblical things. They see the body of knowledge acquired in the state system as neutral, and we just have to add the condiment of Christianity to it.2 But the basic rotten foundation remains. We have failed to see that the whole foundation is full of unbelief and enmity against God and His Word. We have failed to understand what the purpose of education is. Others go further and try and modify the state curriculum material to make it Biblical. But then a wrestling match takes place in the classroom between faith and the world. The students read the textbook but the explanation of the teacher is different from what they read in the textbook. The result is confusion and a God-dishonoring debate between truth and error. But we are not called to debate the truth alongside the error. The truth must drive out the error! The only true answer is to allow all our preconceived corrupt notions to be broken down before the authority of the Word of God. The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 1:7). This is the only foundation of truly Christian education. This is the only type of education which is founded on the Bible as the only authority. Without Christ at the heart of all our educational endeavor, we have completely failed to educate at all.
We can distinguish the following purposes of education:
1. The purpose of education: The glory of God
This purpose is before all others, because the glory of God comes before all other motives. If this is not first, we are man-centered not God-centered. But where the glory of God is truly in the first place, then all that we do or not do is not firstly for the benefit of ourselves or others, but for God Himself. He has commanded us to educate our children for Him. Therefore we do so. They belong to Him, we only have them lent to us, and we are accountable to Him for how we do so. So the vertical relationship comes before and stands above all horizontal interpersonal relationships.
2. To teach truth (both general and special revelation)
A mark of grace is that we love the truth. We buy the truth and sell it not (Prov. 23:23). In history, the truth has been so precious to many that they have been willing to give their lives for it. So a mark that we truly love Christ is that we desire that our children should above all things be taught the truth. That will be more important to us than some worldly advantage, like a place at a good Chinese university etc. The miracle is that God is a revealing God. He has revealed His truth to mankind in both Creation and in the Scriptures. These are the two Books by which God has spoken to us (Ps. 19:1, Rom. 1:18, Heb. 1:1). All truth begins with God for God is truth. He is the standard of truth. He knows His Creation perfectly, for He reigns over it and upholds it continually. But when we learn truth, we only discover what God already has revealed. So every truth can only be known in reference to the God who ultimately conceived it. Therefore there is no truth that can be really understood unless it is seen in reference to God.3 So nothing has any real meaning unless it is known in reference to God. Only as God reveals something to us can we know it. And the way that He reveals truth to us is through Jesus Christ (Col. 1:16-17, 2:3). He is the Word, He is Wisdom, He is Immanuel, God with us. So ultimately all things that we study must be taught and learned from this perspective. Each subject should be approached as truth which has been revealed to us by God Himself. This makes great demands on prospective teachers, to teach their subject as the truth of God’s revelation.
Most important of all is that He has revealed Himself to us in His Word the truth of man as a fallen sinner, and the grace of Jesus Christ His Son who came into the world to save sinners. So the cross of Christ should be at the centre of all our labours (1 Cor. 2:2).
3. To promote the wellbeing of the whole person.
Education addresses four aspects: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.4 Our spiritual needs are at the heart of these 4 aspects. Unless we address our spiritual need and the student’s spiritual need we have failed completely, whatever else we do. First parents and teachers need to care for the need of their own souls. Only then can they take true spiritual care for the souls of others. First we need to experience the truth of the grain of wheat in Joh. 12:24. First we need to be taught by God what it is to die to ourselves, otherwise we can never be a blessing to others. In fact we will only stand in the way between them and Christ. Only in personal saving union with Jesus Christ are we restored to the right relationship with God, with our fellow men and with creation. Care for the emotional development of the person, their mental development and physical development should then fall into their rightful place. Only as we understand our true relationship to God and to one another can we speak of the wellbeing of the whole person.
We would like to focus particularly on the training the mind. In Matt. 22:37, Jesus declares that the first great commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind. Here Jesus quotes but also modifies the words of Deut. 6:5. Love is not just a warm feeling like we often imagine. But Jesus says we are to love Him with all our minds. In every decision we make, in every aspect of our lives, whether it is our thinking on world events, abortion and contraception, my colleagues, my time, family. So that is not just a Bible lesson once a week, but they must be taught what it is to love God with all their mind.5 This means that their education should all be from a Biblical perspective. Only in this way will we be able to speak of an integrated education. Otherwise the children will grow up to have a Sunday religion, but in the rest of the week their thinking and way of life will be just the same as the world around them. Or otherwise they will leave the church. Because how we think is who we are. Only God’s grace can renew our minds (Rom. 12:2) but he uses godly education as a means. But the key rests with the parents. Dear parents, do you radiate a real, vital love to God with all your mind? Do you children see that in every area of your life your longing is to love and honour God? Or do they see that your thinking and motives are actually no different from the world? When the trial comes, which side do you choose, to think and act Biblically or to think and act in the same way as the world?
Another aspect of training the mind is our choice for Classical education. Modern educational methods, whether in China or in Western Europe, have so influenced us all, that we are often unaware of how differently students were educated in the past. As we will look at later when we consider our choice of classical education, the great problem with modern educational methods is that they teach someone what to think and how to do. But they don’t teach them how to think and what to do. They are not taught how to love God with their mind, but rather they are taught to think according to a prescribed philosophy. Their minds are filled with information, but they are not taught how to relate this information together and how to argue a case convincingly. What we vitally need to recapture is the precious heritage left to us in classical education, where grammar, logic and rhetoric train us how to think.
4. To aim for the well-being of the community.6
The fourth purpose of Christian education is to train young people to be useful members of society. This means that they are helped to develop as well-rounded individuals who delight to help others, who have learned to serve and to love others, according to the second commandment of Jesus in Matt. 22, thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Paul’s letters after addressing the doctrines of the Gospel give much practical teaching on the life of godliness. We are to be salt and light in a dark world (Matt. 5:15-16). Especially the teachers and parents are called to set a good example for the children by showing them what the love of Christ means in day to day life (Col. 3:12). That is a life of faith lived from the promises of God.
- J. Beeke et al, Teaching from a Christian Perspective, p. 3 ↩︎
- Wilson, D. Repairing the Ruins (Canon Press, Moscow ID, 1996), 14 ↩︎
- Wilson, D. Repairing the Ruins (Canon Press, Moscow ID, 1996), 54 ↩︎
- J. Beeke, Christian Education, 7 ↩︎
- Wilson, D. Rediscovering the Lost Tools of Learning (Crossway, Illinois, 1991), 48 ↩︎
- J. Beeke et al, Teaching from a Christian Perspective, 5 ↩︎
基督教教育培训课程大纲
（2019年1月至6月 DV 整个课程约23周）
1. 圣经中父母的责任 – 2周 英文原稿
2. 家庭、学校和教会之间关系的重要性 – 1周 英文原稿
3. 教育的目标 – 1周 英文原稿
4. 根基——圣经的真正教义 – 12周 英文原稿
5. 公立学校的危险 – 1周 英文原稿
6. 教学理念-1周 英文原稿
7. 什么是古典教育？为什么我们相信古典教育？ 2周 英文原稿
8. 父母应如何教导孩子上帝的话语？– 3周
