At the beginning of a year, when teaching my Year 10 Commerce class, a student commented to me ‘why are you talking about the Bible in Commerce?’ This reflected a dualistic mind-set that God’s Word did not have anything to do with the marketplace. Augustine said, “wherever truth may be found it belongs to the Master”. Even when God is not acknowledged, truth is still truth and its source is God Himself. As image-bearers, all students can explore truth and find meaning for their lives.
Human culture speaks of the divine intention. Cultural experiences, stories and events point to God’s redemptive purposes. The stories of a culture will have dim reflections of the reality of the living God and His redemption. Literature, for example, often dimly echoes God’s salvation story. In the children’s novel, Charlotte’s Web (by EB White), the rescue of the pig by the spider’s sacrifice is a picture of redemption. Our students need to learn to critique television shows, movies and literature by learning to read them, understand the themes and worldviews communicated in the light of God’s revelation.
History reveals the human yearnings for freedom, peace and justice point to an ultimate hope. The Christian teacher leads the students to see the meaning of history as Messianic, His story, as it unfolds in time to eternity.
We invite the students to celebrate the goodness of the created order, to critique what has been distorted, to lament the power that diminishes human life (personal, social, global) and confront pain and suffering with grace that restores true peace and justice.
The Bible is key to understanding the meaning of the divine speech in creation, history and culture. Thus all truth is God’s truth wherever it is spoken and so we don’t divide knowledge into sacred/secular.
Only a teacher illuminated by grace can understand the harmony of creation, history, and human culture. The constant searching of Scripture and its engagement with life enables the Gospel to shape lives of our students as they participate in the truth.
- Consider what happens if we design our teaching and learning not just as banks of knowledge and skills but unfolded through the lens of Biblical truth?
- What happens if we teach our students as image-bearers, not just as those preparing for an exam and a job, but as those who will participate in truth to exercise a responsible stewardship of life?
Helping our students to shape their thinking and desires to the truth leads to true freedom and transformation. Living in truth is freedom because we are engaging our students in reality as it truly is.
“I have chosen the way of truth; I have set my heart on your laws … I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free.” (Psalm 119:30,32)
Grace and Peace
The Team
The Excellence Centre