Back to School
For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. . . . And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians. 2:2, 4-5
One of the criticisms of a Christian education – whether home school or Christian day school – is that it shelters students from the “real-world.” The argument is that when students graduate from a Christian school, they are not prepared to take on all the challenges of further education or a secular career or even interact on an equal intellectual and social level with their non-Christian peers.
Though those with a Christian education can and do thrive in these areas, the real point is what constitutes the so-called “real-world” and what prepares people best for it. One reality of our world is that we were born in sin and continue to sin daily. We just need to examine our own sinful lives to see how we do not live up to God’s Holy Law, summarized for us in the Ten Commandments. The other reality we are faced with is death: “The soul who sins shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:20) Until Judgment Day arrives, nobody born will escape death.
A Christian Education – that is, an education centered in God’s Word – does not focus “on the wisdom of men but in the power of God” and thus emphasizes the two biggest problems we will encounter in this life – sin and death – and provides the solution to them. This solution is expressed in the simple Gospel message: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16) Thus, a Christian education provides the proper preparation for this life, the so-called “real-world,” as well as for eternal life afterwards. Indeed, recognizing the death is not the end of our lives puts our lives here on earth in the proper perspective.
Lord God, as the world heads back to school, let us return to your gospel message of forgiveness. Amen.