Education

The imparting of spiritual, intellectual, moral and social instruction, the basis for which is the fear of the LORD. People continue learning throughout the whole of life. The education of children in the OT was centred on the home and synagogue and was largely of a religious and ethical nature. In the NT, children were included in the community of the church, but the home was still the main sphere of their education.

The fear of the LORD is the basis for all education

Psalm 111:10 See also 2 Chronicles 26:5; Psalm 25:12; Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 2:1–8, Proverbs 9:10, Proverbs 15:33; Isaiah 11:1–3

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts gain rich understanding. His praise endures forever!

Faith is an essential element of Christian education

Hebrews 11:3 See also 2 Timothy 3:15

By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Education should not oppose the truth about God

2 Corinthians 10:5 See also Matthew 18:6; 1 Timothy 6:20–21

We demolish arguments and every presumption set up against the knowledge of God; and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Education should emphasise that the world has a richness and coherence derived from God

Psalm 24:1; John 1:3 See also Job 12:7–10; Psalm 104:5–26; 1 Corinthians 10:26; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3

A Psalm of David. The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein.

Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made.

Education in the home

Through parental instruction

Deuteronomy 6:4–9; Psalm 78:4–6 See also Deuteronomy 4:9–10, Deuteronomy 6:20–25, Deuteronomy 11:18–21; Proverbs 22:6; Isaiah 38:19; Ephesians 6:4; Colossians 3:21

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words I am commanding you today are to be upon your hearts. And you shall teach them diligently to your children and speak of them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates.

We will not hide them from their children but will declare to the next generation the praises of the LORD and His might and the wonders He has performed. For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children, that the coming generation would know them— even children yet to be born— to arise and tell their own children

Examples of parents teaching their children

Genesis 18:19; Proverbs 31:1–9; 2 Timothy 3:14–15

Through parental example

2 Timothy 1:5 See also 2 Chronicles 20:31–32, 2 Chronicles 26:3–4

I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am convinced is in you as well.

Through discipline

Proverbs 29:15 See also Proverbs 1:7; 2 Timothy 4:2; Titus 1:13

A rod of correction imparts wisdom, but a child left to himself disgraces his mother.

Education through religious worship

Joshua 8:34–35 See also 2 Chronicles 20:13; Ezra 8:21; Nehemiah 12:43; Matthew 21:15–16

Afterward, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law— the blessings and the curses— according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua failed to read before the whole assembly of Israel, including the women, the little ones, and the foreigners who lived among them.

Education through religious festivals

Deuteronomy 31:9–13 See also Exodus 12:24–27, Exodus 13:6–8

So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel. Assemble the people— men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates— so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law. Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”