Train Up a Child

Prov. 22:6 “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”

Here is an injunction to train children pointing out its lifelong effects. Jay Adams makes much of the literal Hebrew wording, “... in his way...” to make a point that this could be a negative warning. If you train a child up according to his natural, sinful bent, he will be bent like that for life.

Eli’s children exemplify failure to raise children properly. David’s children, also.

On Education

Deuteronomy 6:1-9:  Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which the LORD your God has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear the LORD your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as the LORD God of your fathers has promised you—‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 

And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

First, the parents must learn the commandments. Next, the parents must obey them. Then the parents teach sons and grandsons. Daughters are not omitted here, but are covered under the principle of federal headship. Teaching is embedded in life. It is a daily endeavor. Mnemonic devices are not eschewed, though here reference to them is symbolic. One of the benefits of education is prosperity (v. 3).

The Teacher and the Student

John 10:2-4: “But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”

Modern teaching methods imagine that the goal is to transmit data, information, facts, from the teacher, textbook, institution, PowerPoint slides, etc., to the students. It is a transfer of information, and information is held to be power. Interpersonal knowledge between the student and teacher is omitted. It is a terrible omission.

Luke 6:40: “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.” The relationship is thus not like one between a faucet and a bucket. The teacher and student need to have a fuller, personal relationship for there to be completeness in the task. Imagine teachers who are academically expert in, say, counseling and psychology imparting information in these areas to their students. Some such teachers have personal lives which are amazingly, stunningly, out of order. Yet, they teach. Luke 6:39 says, “And He spoke a parable to them: ‘Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch?’”

Exactly so. We should not imagine that education is complete just in the accurate information transfer from the faucet to the bucket, so to speak. The student needs to see something of what is taught in the teacher, and the teacher needs to see evidence (or an instructive lack of evidence) in the life of the student. For this reason, teaching by parents in the household has all of the burden and all of the advantages over that by professionals. [Deut. 6:5-9; 20-25]

Real education is downright personal. It is not abstract, though it may contain abstractions. Graduate schools, medical schools, seminary colleges have big advantages in their concentration of brainpower and wide subject matter expertise. Yet, we see medical school graduates who cannot relate to their patients, pastors who have not been mentored by more senior pastors, counselors who know theories but have not been tried by fire.

The Koran is a good example of the bad method of mere transmittal of data -- it is impersonal. Our Bible transmits data, but does it in the unfathomable depths of human experience. It is personal, from cover to cover. The abundance of names in it testify to its concern for and relevance to individual souls.