Back to School

It’s that time again! It’s August - the air conditioning, the perspiration, and the anticipation of a new school year. I remember it very well: walking into the school for the first time in months, only to be met by the smell of new textbooks, new wax on the floor of the gym, and hearing the clattering of the workers in the school lunchroom.

I want to take you back to a far simpler time. It was 1981 and little Jeffrey was entering Kindergarten. I was so excited. I hopped out of our 1972 white, green-topped Ford Pinto, ready for anything and everything school would bring. My memory allows me to take you back to the exact seat and table at which I sat the very first day. For the next 13 years of life, all the way up to Graduation, I enjoyed school. You might have heard me say that I would go back to my Senior year of high school any day!

I hate to break it to you, students, but you will be in school for the rest of your life. One day you will walk out of your physical high school building, but your schooling will not cease. We must determine within ourselves that we will never stop learning. I’m guessing this is why the church calls our time before Worship as “Sunday School!”

God loves school. He loves to be at the center of your thoughts and discussions. We do, however, know this: school is very important to God and to the Christian life. As believers, we have the responsibility to always learn.

2 Timothy 2:15 encourages believers to, “Study to show yourself approved to God…rightly dividing the Word of truth.” Paul here is referring both to the aim of study (Scripture) and to the intent of study (diligently). Paul modeled this pursuit of academics himself studying under a man named Gamaliel (Acts 5:34) who was a “teacher of the law, and held in respect by all the people.” Gamaliel was an (as far as we know) unbelieving Jew. However, God used Gamaliel to impart the Old Testament in to the greatest missionary ever!

Moses, as well as Paul, was also instructed at the best school in the world - right in the Egyptian Pharaoh’s house. Talk about being homeschooled! Acts 7:22 states, “Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds.” It seems as if education was extremely important to Moses.

School was vital to the Israelites. Isaiah knew that without learning, the Israelites in their youth would “faint, and be weary” (Isaiah 40:30). In this weary world, we run to our great Teacher to help give strength and endurance to us. Jeremiah 29:11 notes God desires to give us a “future and a hope.” One of the ways God gives us this “hope” is through education. Isaiah knew this. Jeremiah knew this. God knows this, too!

James 1:5 reminds us, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him first ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach and it will be given to him.” Let’s review. Our education begins with God (the author of all knowledge), who implants it into our teachers, who instill it in us! There is no knowledge of the Sciences, Mathematics, or Humanities without God’s approval. If all learning and knowledge comes from God, then we worship God with our approach to education.

In Ephesians 6:4 Paul encourages fathers to “bring them (your children) up in the training and admonitions of the Lord.” This shifts the priority of the teacher/student relationship squarely upon the teacher. It is not just the student that needs to be devoted to learning; it is the teacher as well. But teacher and student, take heart, as Paul explains in Philippians 4:6: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests me made known to God.” Do not be anxious for your education, but bathe everything in prayer. Pray for the ability to learn and for your teacher to invest what they know directly into your hearts and minds.

Joshua 1:8 explains, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall mediate in it day and night, then you may observe to do according to all that is in it. For then you will makes your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.” Solomon encourages his son, to “not forget my law, but let your heart keep my commands,” (Proverbs 3:1) Whether it’s in education or life, we would do well if we heeded these instructions and followed Scripture’s admonitions concerning education. Paul concludes in 1 Corinthians 10:31, “Therefore, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

Even school, Pastor Jeff? Yes, even school.