Every education has a telos, whether it is explicitly stated or not. The point of our first study was to establish what is the telos of education according to Scripture. We then ended by distinguishing between education and schooling, which served as our bridge into today’s topic, which shifts from the great governing idea into the realm of methodology. Indeed, just as every education must have a telos, it must also have tenets or principles that will shape how it is actually practiced.

As Christians, we should supremely seek to make Scripture, which is God’s written word, our standard and rule. And lest we think that the Bible has nothing to say about education, the Greek word for education, paideia, is certainly used, though in the ESV it is typically translated as discipline. Indeed, as we noted briefly last week, the concept of paideia is must larger than our usual meaning of education in English. The verbal form is used several times in both the New Testament and the Septuagint, but to keep our time more focused, we will focus on the New Testament’s three texts where paideia occurs as a noun.

Those texts are Ephesians 6:4, Hebrews 12, and 2 Timothy 3:16, and they will give us three overall tenets that should rightly shape our education methodologies toward the telos of knowing, loving, glorifying, and enjoying God forever.

I aim is to present these tenets of education in Scripture to be our guide in considering education methods. After all, we ought to be able to disagree charitably about particular methods. Agreeing on a common telos and tenets helps us to have a common goal and means of evaluation as we do so.

PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY // EPHESIANS 6:4

Ephesians 6:4 says, “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” The word discipline, in Greek, is paideia. The other word, instruction, is nouthesia, which comes from two words: nous (mind) and tithemi (to put something down). Thus, instruction here is to lay things down within one’s mind. And both words are rooted with the phrase “of the Lord.”

Fathers are commanded to give their children an education that rooted in Christ and to lay down in the minds the things of Christ. Thus, our first tenet of education is twofold: it must be rooted in the Lord, and the father is ultimately responsible for giving it.

The third tenet will help us answer how we are to achieve that first part, so let’s focus for now on the second. The father is responsible for his children’s education. Not teachers and not even mothers. Fathers are ultimately responsible before God for the education of their children.

Of course, this does not mean that fathers must do all or even most of their day-to-day teaching. Responsibility does not exclude delegation. Indeed, there are three general modes of education that are typically considered today: homeschool, private school, or public school. None of those modes are forbidden by Paul’s command here. Neither does any one of them guarantee obedience.

In the ancient world, wealthy fathers would assign a servant to steward their son’s education. That servant was called a pedagogue. This pedagogue would often personally tutor the child in many things, but they would also take him to school for other lessons. They were also in charge of their moral education, given through a rod of correction.

Paul is well aware of this practice since he calls the law our pedagogue, which prepared us for the coming of Christ. Most fathers, likewise, will need to delegate their children’s education to someone else. Even in homeschooling families, that delegation is given to the mother.

How then does a father bring up his children in the education and instruction of the Lord through delegation? We could think of the father’s role as being similar to the CEO of a company. Day-to-day operations and decisions are handled by the companies managers, but the CEO is responsible for the overall vision and direction that the company is taking. And if the company fails, the CEO is ultimately held responsible. Fathers should think similarly about their household. Whether you are delegating the day-to-day instruction of your children to your wife or to a school, you are responsible for setting the vision and direction of your children’s education and instruction. And you will ultimately answer to God for that decision.

Fathers, are you doing that? Do you take that responsibility seriously? What is your plan for ensuring that they are educated and instructed in the Lord? Furthermore, are you growing in your own education?

Practically speaking, while the first part of my catechism is aimed at parents and educators, the second part is intended to help with this endeavor by giving children answers for how each subject in school relates to our knowledge of God. These questions and answers would be a wonderful way for fathers to help their children grasp the overall vision of what they are being taught.

We can also apply this text to our own discipleship in following Christ. Just as children need to be taught the discipline or education and instruction of the Lord, so do we as followers of Christ. That can come in a variety of ways: through mentorship, through peer groups—growing together—and through books and resources.

At the end of the day, if you want to pursue Christ deeper, growing in maturity is always going to require someone else, something else. Expressive individualism says, “We need to go into ourselves, and that’s where maturity will really come from.” But the biblical model is that maturity comes from outside you. From outside you is where you’re going to learn to grow, and we see this in Ephesians 4, where we build one another up in love until the body achieves maturity. We need one another. We need an outside source, even if that’s through the written page.

I love the concept of literary discipleship. When I pick up a book, especially from a dead theologian, I think of it as literary discipleship. Though they are dead, their words are still speaking to me, and I’m still being taught by them. That’s a point worth remembering for all of us: even if we don’t have children, the principle still applies. If you want to deepen your growth in the Lord, you need a spiritual father. You need someone else to come alongside you.

FOR OUR GOOD // HEBREWS 12:5-11

The second use of paideia is found in Hebrews 12:5-12, and it occurs seven times in these verses. For context, the author of Hebrews was writing to a congregation of Christians who could sense that a fresh wave of persecution was on its way, and they were evidently considering returning to Judaism in order to escape suffering. The author writes these words to encourage them that suffering does not mean that God is displeased with us; on the contrary, affliction may very well be the Father’s loving discipline upon us.

In the ESV, the word paideia is again translated as discipline. The overall argument here is that paideia is often painful but ultimately for our good. This was especially true in the ancient world, when the rod of correction was not a metaphor. Students would often get struck for both moral and academic errors. For a Greek student, they may look outside and see other children playing in the street rather than studying. They likely would have been envious of those children’s supposed freedom. However, those were illegitimate children, whose father’s refused to acknowledge them or provide for them. Their so-called freedom was dead-end, whereas the disciplined education of the other children was often painful but it prepared them to receive their father’s inheritance.

Now, the point of this text is to teach us about God’s discipline of His people, but we can also draw out a principle from it to apply to our own education and the education of our children. What might that principle be? I think that we should focus in on verse 11: For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

Education requires discipline, and discipline is very often painful rather than pleasant at first. But the end is worth it. Indeed, the end is the whole point. The fruit of righteousness, loving and obeying all that God commands us, is the purpose of education. And the daily process of education ought to be aiming at their goal. Therefore, we should not evaluate educational methods based on how fun they are but how fruitful.

Indeed, it is fitting that Hebrews cites Proverbs 3 because Proverbs is filled with these sort of uses of paideia, which is often associated with the rod.

• Proverbs 13:24 | Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.
• Proverbs 19:18 | Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.
• Proverbs 22:15 | Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.
• Proverbs 23:13 | Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

Clearly, education is not a failure if it is painful. Fathers particularly must have the overall vision to understand what their children need, even if it is painful for them in the moment. This will inevitably mean forcing them to do things that they do not want to do. But that is what prepares them for adulthood.

As adults, discipline is certainly still painful rather than pleasant. For instance, working out is often unpleasant, but as Paul says, it is of some value. Reading the Scriptures each day rather than some form of entertainment is an intentional habit of education, and even if it is difficult, it yields a peaceful fruit of righteousness. Fathers should aim to give their children an education in doing hard things, in bearing through affliction, because that is what God does with us.

Of course, Ephesians 6:4 keeps things balanced. Fathers should not provoke their children to anger. They should not be needlessly harsh with their children. Both abusive and permissive parenting are to be avoided.

This text should also give humility to how we educate both ourselves and our children. Verse 10 says that our earthly fathers “disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them.” And that hopefully what we all strive to do, while trusting that God’s education is always for our good. Indeed, our text from this morning, Hosea 2, is a powerful example of God’s painful but beneficial education.

When we consider the peaceful fruit of righteousness that God’s education yields, we should distinguish it from the imputed righteousness that Christ applies to us upon justification. Whenever we are saved, we are certainly declared righteous before the Father through the work of Christ. However, our life of sanctification is the process where the Spirit increasingly brings our works into conformity with a legal status before the Father. From a place of being righteous, the Spirit now teaches us to live righteously. And that seems to be the point here, since God’s discipline is a part of our sanctification.

Traditionally, habitual acts of righteousness have been called virtues, while habitual acts of wickedness are vices.

The classical list of common grace virtues (meaning virtues that Christian and non-Christian alike can practice) are: fortitude, temperance, prudence, and justice. The three Christian virtues have been seen as faith, hope, and love. Paul, of course, also gives us a list of nine virtues, which he calls the fruit of the Spirit, which are exclusively Christian virtues. 

However, I would argue that all virtues can really be boiled down to one supreme virtue that captures the essence of living a life of righteousness: piety. Now, that is a word that has entirely gone out of fashion. Being pious is entirely negative today. Even so, I think it is worth recovering.

In the classical Greco-Roman sense, piety meant doing one’s duty to whomever it is owed. The great example is Aeneas, the hero of the Aeneid. Throughout the poem, he repeatedly puts duty above his own person comfort and happiness. The Greeks and Romans saw that in every aspect of life, we have many relationships to whom we are duty-bound.

Augustine and Calvin saw the common grace within the pagan understanding of piety and radically remade it. Specifically, they recognized that duty was not enough. God repeatedly rebukes His people for bringing offerings to Him without thanksgiving or joy. Instead, they argued that duty must be rooted in love, particularly the two greatest commandments: love of God and love for neighbor.

This transforms piety from a duty that we must grit though into an overflow of love within one’s heart. Such piety ought to be the goal of educating our children, since it is essentially to know, love, glorify, and enjoy God forever.

Are we growing in piety? Are we striving to love God and to love our neighbor? Are we aiming to do so joyously—to serve God, to serve our neighbor, and to serve them with joyfulness, thanksgiving, and gladness in our hearts? Because that’s the goal, that’s the purpose of education.

There’s nothing like a little bit of suffering and hardship that softens you up to other people. Sadly, many people get calloused by suffering, but as Christians, suffering should tenderize our hearts. It should act as a tenderizer, making us more dependent upon the Lord and more gracious to our brothers and sisters and those around us.

ROOTED IN SCRIPTURE // 2 TIMOTHY 3:16

For our third text, we turn to 2 Timothy 3:16: All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.

In that text, Paul says that all Scripture is God-breathed. It is all the Word of God, and it is all profitable for four things: teaching, reproof, correction, and paideia in righteousness. And notice that verse 17 gives us the fruit of this paideia as well: that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

A paideia in righteous and of the Lord must be rooted in Scripture as the final and ultimate authority.

This is often known by the Reformation principle sola Scriptura, which is sometimes distorted to say that Scripture is the only authority at all. That was not the Reformers point, and that should not be ours either. Everyone recognizes other authorities. It is rather like some Christians who believe in “no creed but the Bible.” That is itself a kind of creed. You cannot escape having a creed, nor can you escape recognizing various levels of authority. The principle of Sola Scriptura is simply that Scripture is always the final and ultimate authority. All other authorities submit to Scripture, not the other way around.

You will notice that I am attempting to model this principle with this very teaching by appealing to Scripture’s use of paideia. This is also the answer to how exactly we give to ourselves and our children an education and instruction of the Lord. Everything we do should be rooted in God’s Word.

Again, this principle does not excuse using secular resources for education. We’ve already seen that men like Augustine and Calvin were willing to learn from and adapt pagan authors. We likewise can (and should) use secular resources. But everything must also be done in submission to Scripture. And when it comes to children, that is ultimately the role of the fathers.

We should also ask: If education is ultimately rooted and grounded in Scripture, what does your daily scripture intake look like? What is your plan for growing in knowledge of the word? I remember a couple of years back, I got really convicted because I was reading “The Silmarillion,” and I realized I knew the list of fantasy kings of Tolkien better than the kings of Judah and Israel. So I started studying the time period of the kings and familiarizing myself more with that, because I realized that’s a gap in my knowledge. God’s word is endless. Don’t worry, we will never exhaust it. We’ll never get to the bottom.

Rather than that making us defeatists, making us think, “What’s the point if we can’t get to the end of it?”—it’s like last week, talking about our education with God never ceases. No, it’s an invitation to boundless joy. Dive in. Just go for it. The fact that you’ll never get to the end of it shouldn’t be a discouragement. It should be an encouragement. It should make us want to go and explore as much as we can.

So is that what you’re doing?

But notice also that Scripture is profitable for education in righteousness. Again, this takes us back to piety. The goal of Christian education is not simply to produce people who know what their duties are. It is to produce people who love God so deeply that they delight to do their duties before Him. And whether for ourselves or for our children, that can only be achieved through the Scriptures. In Psalm 119, the psalmist repeatedly cries for the LORD to teach His Word to him. And then we have passages such as verses 97-100:

            [97] Oh how I love your law!
                        It is my meditation all the day.
            [98] Your commandment makes me wiser than my enemies,
                        for it is ever with me.
            [99] I have more understanding than all my teachers,
                        for your testimonies are my meditation.
            [100] I understand more than the aged,
                        for I keep your precepts.

If you do not delight in God’s Scriptures, you will not delight in God Himself. And we are called to delight in Him. Glorifying God is not simply obeying His commands but doing so with love and joy.

And if that is the kind of people we are trying to form, what tools are required? That is what we will consider next week when we turn to the Liberal Arts.