What does the Bible say about education?

And let us note particularly the solemn responsibility of Israel as to their children. They were not only to "hear" and "learn" for themselves; but they were also to teach their children. This is a universal and abiding duty which cannot be neglected with impunity. God attaches very great importance to this matter. We hear Him saying as to Abraham, "I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgement; that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him." (Gen. 18)

These words are most important, as setting before us the divine estimate of domestic training, and family piety. In all ages, and under all dispensations, God has been pleased to give expression to His approbation of the proper education of the children of His people — their faithful training according to His holy word. We find no such thing sanctioned in scripture, as children being allowed to grow up in ignorance, and carelessness, and wilfulness. Some professing Christians, under the baneful influence of a certain school of theology, seem to think that it is, in some way, an interference with the sovereignty of God, with His purposes and counsels, to instruct their children in the truth of the gospel and the letter of holy scripture. They consider that the children ought to be left to the action of the Holy Ghost which they are sure to experience in God's own time, if indeed they are of God's elect; and, if not, all human effort is perfectly useless.

Heeding, then, the first part of the injunction, we are prepared to weigh its positive side, which, for the sake of simplicity, we give in another translation: "But bring them up in the discipline and admonition of the Lord." To enter into the spirit and meaning of these words it is necessary, above all, to observe the term Lord. This, indeed, is the foundation of the precept, and it unmistakably teaches that our children should be distinctly placed, and be taught that they have been placed, under the authority of Christ as Lord. Another thing clearly follows - that the authority which a Christian parent exercises is not his own natural authority, but that of the Lord. The father is therefore, as the head of his household and family, the deputy of Christ, and holds his position in responsibility to Him, and to maintain and enforce His precepts. To perceive this is of the highest importance, inasmuch as it makes the government of a family a spiritual thing, in that it consists in the supremacy of the will of the Lord over its head, and over every one of its members. Natural inclinations and partialities are thus entirely excluded, as well as the weakness of the natural affections, so often displayed in allowing the self-will of children - the only end being to please the Lord by the establishment of His authority over all the members of the household.

All this, indeed, lies in the words, "the discipline of the Lord." The primary meaning of the word is "training, teaching, or education," but it is the Lord's training and teaching which have to be administered. The simple statement of the fact throws a new light upon the families of Christians. What earnestness and zeal are often manifested to provide for a child's vocation in this world, and the anxiety for the child's success is often a burden upon many a parent's heart. And it is quite admitted that our children must be trained for some calling to enable them to pass through this world; but the chief end of a parent's stewardship is to train them up for the lord. If the Lord be thus exalted in the education of the children, His favour will rest both upon them and upon their parents, and He will be with the parents to sustain them in their object, and to subdue the hearts of the children to His blessed will. But, as with the Jewish parent so with the Christian, there must be diligence in this work. Every opportunity must be employed - "When thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up" - to impress upon them the blessed character of their relationship to the Lord, and of their subjection to His gracious government and authority.

And this fact is to determine the character of their education — in the nurture of the Lord. In a word, the Christian parent is to train his children in accordance with the place into which, by the grace of God, they have been brought.

But the question may be anxiously put, How is this to be done? First and foremost, by assiduous instruction from the Scriptures. Thus in the passage already cited from Deuteronomy it is said to the Jewish parent, "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children," etc.; and St. Paul, writing to Timothy, reminds him that "from a child thou hast known the holy Scriptures" (2 Tim. 3:15); and it may be inferred, from the mention of Timothy's mother and grandmother, that it was by these godly women that he had been so instructed. It should be a solemn consideration with all Christian parents how far they are doing the same thing. There are many families where the Bible has a place, but not the chief place, in the instruction of the children. But surely "the nurture of the Lord" can only be derived from the word of God; and hence, whoever would be faithful in this matter, must be diligent in its systematic explanation. And what an advantage to the children who are thus taught! The truth of God is brought to bear upon them from the very outset, and used by the Holy Spirit, according to promise, to quicken, form, and direct; they are, under His gracious power, reared in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There may not, in such cases, be any signs of distinct conversion (as is often observed in the case of children of faithful, believing parents), because the Spirit of God uses the Word at the very commencement of life for their blessing in regeneration.

Secondly, while the Scriptures will be the primary source of instruction, they will also guide as to the character of the education to be imparted in other directions. This is often a most perplexing question with Christian parents; but if it be ever remembered that they have to train their children for the Lord, the difficulty will to a large extent be removed. They will then see, that all the instruction imparted must keep this one object in view; and they will carefully guard them from being taught anything which may not be necessary in their path through the world, and which would be inconsistent with their being the Lord's servants. This is a principle of easy application. Is the thing proposed to be taught to fit my child for the Lord, or for the world? So also in the selection of books for their reading. The object of their education, as laid down in the Word, being kept in view, it is easily determined whether a book would contribute to or hinder that object. As in many other things, it is simply a question of a single eye; and to maintain this, we need to be constantly in the presence of God, judging ourselves and our ways.

The last two attributes of the Spirit mentioned are "knowledge and the fear of the Lord." Knowledge is what the world craves, seeking it in order to display itself in independence of God. Thus sin first came into the world; knowledge was craved, knowledge apart from God, and in disobedience. The result has been a ruined world, under the righteous judgment of God. Knowledge can be of real value only as it comes from God, His gift. The wisdom and knowledge of the world have been used to shut out the knowledge of God: "The world by wisdom knew not God" (1 Cor. 1:21). The reason is simple and plain: man's pride casts off the fear of God, but "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge" (Prov. 1:7). If knowledge is used to puff up, to lead men to think they are like God (Gen. 3:5), it can only produce more disastrous results than ignorance. Education, apart from the fear of God, tends to infidelity. It is not true, as Rome has taught, that "ignorance is the mother of devotion" (unless it be the devotion of worshiping images and relics), but neither is knowledge the parent of worship; something from above is needed for that.

Passing by the lamentable occurrences in the families of some of the patriarchs - as, for example, in that of Isaac and Jacob - we may ponder, first of all, upon the exhortations given by Moses to Jewish fathers: "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up." (Deut. 6:6-7.) The simplest can understand the teaching of this scripture, and it will suffice therefore to point out its main features. First, then, the word taught must be in the heart of the parent; he must possess and love it; for indeed none can teach anything of which they have not themselves felt the power. Secondly, the responsibility is personal, and cannot be abdicated: the parent himself must be the instructor. Thirdly, he must exercise diligence, and seize every passing opportunity, in order to impress God's word upon the hearts of his children. It is therefore not too much to say that this responsibility is paramount to any other - such as any, for example, which might affect the path and welfare of his children in this world.

Nothing can possibly make up for the lack of secret communion with God, or the training and discipline of His school. "All the wisdom of the Egyptians" would not have qualified Moses for his future path. He might have pursued a most brilliant course through the schools and colleges of Egypt. He might have come forth laden with literary honours — his intellect stored with learning, and his heart full of pride and self-sufficiency. He might have taken out his degree in the school of man, and yet have to learn his alphabet in the school of God. Mere human wisdom and learning; how valuable soever in themselves, can never constitute any one a servant of God, nor equip him for any department of divine service. Such things may qualify unrenewed nature to figure before the world; but the man whom God will use must be endowed with widely different qualifications — such qualifications as can alone be found in the deep and hallowed retirement of the Lord's presence.

The above isn't intended to discredit learning or to deny the right place of intellect in the things of God. In spite of sin, one who believes God must believe that God has made his understanding, reason, imagination, conscience and heart all for Himself. Consequently, when one receives the gospel and is in real nearness to God, all these things are made alive and greatly enlarged. Let a man really desire to know this God who has revealed Himself to him; let this desire be his top priority in learning, and then every bit of truth that he learns will be the means of daily strength and growth — not monstrous as when only the head develops, but the growth of the mind, heart, conscience, all alike and together, on towards the perfect, always proportionate man.

There is another point in connection with this subject, beloved friends, that one cannot help noticing in passing. It is clear that these Holy Scriptures which God gave by personal communication through the Holy Ghost to the prophets of old, this peerless Book with all its sacred splendour, with its profound and illimitable wisdom, can be communicated to a child. “From a child thou hast known the holy scriptures.” And I ask you whether we have not today a responsibility to the young in this respect. What was true of the Old Testament is true of both Old and New; and if Timothy derived an incomparable advantage from the scriptural instruction he received in his most early childhood ought we not to see to it that the children of this day, our own children particularly, the children of our families, of our households, are in like manner instructed in the truths of holy scripture?

Beloved friends, it is a grand mercy of God that such a book as the scripture of truth, which is so profound that the most agile mind is baffled by its instructions and revelations, can, as we gather here, be taught to a child, while by teaching it to a child we are conferring upon it a priceless boon. And, looking to the fact that all around us in the educational world is a sea of confusion and error, and that in public and general schools that which is not of God is communicated, along with, if not instead of it, ought we not to be the more careful that the children who are under our particular care should be instructed in what is true and what is of God? What is of God is true, and the communication of truth is the best preservative against error.

There are some persons who say, “Let the children grow up; let them get to years of understanding; there are parts of the scriptures which I do not understand myself, and how then can I communicate them to my children?” But, beloved friends, here we have the fact that these holy women of old, Eunice and Lois, took the little babe Timothy, and they sowed in his heart the seeds of a new life, while they communicated to him those holy writings which when he was advanced to the superior knowledge of Christianity he had not to surrender, but still to maintain. They were still to be a guide to him. Therefore we ought and it is a serious responsibility that we should instruct our children in the truths of holy scripture, since they are able to make them “wise to salvation.”

This was the best medicine for the Colossians, the divinely appointed remedy. Nothing was as suited as the presentation of Christ’s fulness to help them detect the hollowness of what others were offering them. What could possibly be added by human philosophy if they had the one in whom ‘all’ the treasures of wisdom (Gr. ‘sophia’) are hid? Philosophy applies the power of human reasoning while closing the eyes to divine revelation. Christ was that revelation, the image of the invisible God. Why follow the ‘teaching of men’ if ‘all’ the treasures of knowledge were in Christ? What could any of the ‘elements of the world’ add? They were ‘not according to Christ’ (v. 8) and, consequently, as all wisdom, knowledge and riches are in Christ, these elements of the world must be devoid of any wisdom, knowledge or worth. (Of course, we all have to learn maths, science, and many other human insights — but these things do not make us better Christians.)

Fathers are next addressed. "Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." Discipline is necessary, and cannot safely be dispensed with (does our Father train us without it?) but it must be wise to be good. It is unhappy to alienate the affections of the children by unnecessary rigour; parental influence is thus lost, and not easily regained. Faith regards the family as a precious charge from the Lord, and delights to lay hold of the word, "train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not depart from it" (Prov. 22:6). Is not Timothy a bright example, and encouragement to faith (2 Tim. 3:15)?