The Purpose of CHRISTIAN EDUCATION!

Although Jesus clearly stated his discipleship purpose, the modern American mind usually misses the point. Americans have so thoroughly tuned out the educational approach found in both the Old Testament and the New Testament and used by Jesus, and have so tuned our thinking to the educational mode of the west, that they fail to see His point.

In Matthew 10:25, Jesus said "It is sufficient when the student has become just like his teacher." A paraphrase reads, "Graduation time has arrived when the student is mistaken for his teacher."

But Americans do not send their children to school to become like the teacher; rather they expect them to reap the teacher's head full of facts and handful of skills. Jesus did not promote that kind of education.

In Luke 6:40, Jesus stated that the student/apprentice "is fully trained, [he] will be like his teacher." Does the typical American Sunday school teacher work so diligently at becoming so much like Jesus that he/she would feel comfortable about challenging the students to become just like him/herself? And would the teacher assert self as a major tool for changing lives and characters?

That is precisely Paul's approach! See 1 Cor 4:16 and 11:1.

In secular education the purpose of the teacher is to help the student KNOW what the teacher KNOWS. In Christian education the purpose is to help the student BECOME what the teacher IS.

The purpose of CE (Christian Education) is CL (a Christ Likened Changed Life).

1 Cor 4:16 - "Therefore I urge you to imitate me."
1 Cor. 11:1 - "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”