What Sets Christian Education Apart — John Piper

Education Forms Habits of Observation and Understanding

Education is the instilling, I'd love to linger there for about five minutes to show why I chose that word, but I won't. Education is the instilling of habits of mind and habits of heart that incline and enable students for the rest of their lives to do six things.

Evaluating Reality and Forming Proportionate Emotions

One, observe the world. Everything, books, insects, planets, mountains, politics. Observe the world carefully. Two, understand what they have observed clearly. You can see something and it doesn't make sense at all.

You'll see it for what it really is and then understand it. Three, evaluate what you have seen and understood fairly. Four, feel that evaluated reality proportionately. A well-educated person ought not to have strong feelings about insignificant matters or small feelings about magnificent matters.

Applying and Expressing Reality for the World's Good

A proportionate emotional life. Fifth, apply all those discoveries wisely. And sixth, express clearly, accurately, creatively, winsomely with your body and with your mouth and with your writing in the world for the good of the world, however you define it, since we're not talking about Christianity yet.

I would stand in front of a thousand educators who don't know Jesus and defend that definition for education. Now, say it again, shorter form. Education is the instilling of habits of mind, habits of heart, that incline and enable students for the rest of their lives to observe and understand and evaluate and feel and apply and express reality for the good of the world.

Education's Shared Task Across Families and Institutions

Parents should be doing that. Schools should be doing that. Universities should be doing that. Churches and pastors should be doing that. Sunday school teachers should be doing that. Forums and societies and clubs and seminars and conferences should be doing that.

Four Elements That Make Education Christian

Now, what would make it Christian? What would you have to change? What would you have to add? What would you have to subtract to make that definition of education Christian? Education, as I have just defined it, is Christian if it has four elements to it.

Reliance on the Holy Spirit

So you can talk about your parenting, your preaching, all of it is pursued in conscious reliance upon the gracious empowering of the Holy Spirit. Morning till night, Christian education is carried out in conscious reliance upon the gracious empowering of the Holy Spirit.

Christ Crucified and Risen as the Basis of Empowerment

Number two, Jesus Christ crucified for sinners and risen is trusted as the basis of that empowerment. Doesn't come out of nowhere. Nobody deserves it. If you're able to rely upon the power of the Spirit to observe the world rightly, he bought it for you.

That's a gracious gift and Christ is underneath it, crucified and risen. Number three, you do all of that for the glory of God in Christ. It's not resting on Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit for the glory of God.

And number four, it's governed by the authority of the Bible through and through. Those four things would make education Christian. So, short form, Christian education is the instilling of habits of mind and heart that incline and enable students for the rest of their lives to observe and understand and evaluate and feel and apply and express reality in reliance upon the gracious help of the Spirit of God purchased by the blood of the risen Christ for the glory of God and the good of the world, all of it in accord with God's Word.

That's what turns education into Christian education.