In the northern hemisphere, the May–June time frame is customarily graduation season for educational institutions. This widely practiced custom encompasses primary, secondary, and post-secondary schools.
Graduation is a commissioning event. The leaders of educational institutions publicly recognize students who have satisfactorily completed their respective degree programs. In many cases, ceremonies are held and graduates are presented with certificates or diplomas. In addition, these ceremonies may include motivational speeches and the recognition of outstanding achievements by graduates.
The purpose of graduation ceremonies from the perspective of educational institutions seems clear. Recognition of graduates intimates that they have mastered a level of knowledge and wisdom offered by the institution.
For the students, however, the purpose of graduation may vary. Primary and secondary students are rarely given a choice. Their educational venue and curriculum are frequently mandated by their parents or by the legal requirements of other authorities. Post-secondary students, however, have more freedom in choosing what educational institutions to attend and what to study. For post-secondary students, it could be argued that most of them pursue education to achieve an employment goal, driven by a desire to merit a job that would provide the requisite money to maintain a desired lifestyle.
There are some students, though perhaps few, who think beyond money. They may feel called to a certain work assignment and money is not the primary
driver in their educational pursuits.
This perspective is more aligned with God’s design for his universe because he has made humans to serve his purpose, which intimates there is a divine design for each person. Putting God’s design above human desire is always a wise choice. One of the marks of true disciples of Jesus Christ is the ability to lay aside personal desires to pursue God’s desire.
Notwithstanding that an educational choice made based on your divinely discerned individual mission is a better choice than a decision made based on a desire to gain money, there is still more to consider, namely, the accuracy of your perception of your mission. Herein is a big challenge.
Given the pedestrian culture of Christianity today, the common view of post-secondary education is shaped by Platonic dualism, which minimizes the value of the tangible and exalts the intangible. One way this is manifested in Christianity is the exaltation of callings to church-related work and devaluation of callings to the marketplace. If one adopts the common Platonic dualistic view, then one tends to view callings to church-related work as good and callings to the marketplace as not as good.
The distinction between good and not as good is significant because what is deemed to be good is important. Because of Platonic dualistic thinking, it is common among people who are serious about their faith in Christ to think that church-related work is a higher calling and therefore many times they make educational decisions accordingly.
To understand how this thinking developed, consider the history of graded education. In chapter seven of the book How Christianity Changed the World by Alvin Schmidt, there is a presentation on the history of Christianity’s influence on education.
Christianity was birthed more than two thousand years ago. At that time, the greatest political power in the world was the Roman Empire. There were few opportunities for formal education in the Roman culture of that time. The institutions that existed focused on serving male children of wealthy families.
The early Christians valued educating males
and females regardless of their socioeconomic status because of the truth that the heavens declare the glory of God
1 and therefore the study of God’s creation is the study of God. Monasteries sponsored most early attempts at universal education. For example, Benedictine monks taught that “to work is to pray,” intimating that work is a spiritual activity.
2 Notwithstanding the noble efforts of these early disciples of Jesus Christ to elevate the value of work in the physical realm, their worldview was still influenced by Platonic dualism.
With the advent of the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, the reformers rejected Platonic dualism. They also recognized the spiritual nature of work, stressed the nature of individual calling, and affirmed the importance of universal education as preparation to work and worship well. According to the Protestant worldview, each disciple of Christ should be able to read, understand, and apply Scripture. Accordingly, this requires universal education. The Reformers taught the doctrine of individual calling, namely, that God calls people to all licit work assignments not just church-related work. This means that all legitimate work was holy. The redoubtable Reformer, Martin Luther, famously made this point as follows:
The works of monks and priests, however holy and arduous they may be, do not differ one whit in the sight of God from the works of the rustic laborer in the field or the woman going about her household tasks . . . all works are measured before God by faith alone.3
Inspired by the Reformers, Johann Sturm introduced graded education as an inducement to motivate students by rewarding their efforts with advancement to the next grade level.4 Graded education became the universal standard.
Universal graded education is, therefore, a testimony to Christ. Rejecting Platonic dualism and embracing a Christian worldview were critical elements in the development of today’s educational system.
For Christians, the purpose of education is to facilitate discipleship through alignment with God’s will and ways. God has a specific will for each person and ways that he wants his will fulfilled. Education is a vital component in training and preparing God’s people to do God’s work in every sphere of life.
This means that education should not be limited to what is necessary to achieve an employment goal. From a truly Christian worldview, education is a tool to inform students about the Creator and his creation, and how to serve God’s purpose during their lifetimes. Education, therefore, should be approached with great reverence. All legitimate fields of study should be grounded in sound theology and be viewed with awe and wonder about the Creator and his creation. Note the words of the psalmist:
Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them. (Psalms 111:2 ESV )
In considering a biblical view of education today, there seem to be two significant challenges. First, there is the resurgence of Platonic dualism that minimizes the works of the Lord in creation by leading us to think God does not value his physical universe. And second, there is the pedestrian assumption that knowledge exists independent of God. Sometimes this view is expressed by the phrase knowledge is neutral.
Knowledge is neutral implies that there is no connection between the laws of the universe and God. Of course, if God is the Creator who made everything ex nihilo (out of nothing), then everything must find its genesis in the Creator. Knowledge is not neutral; it is derived from the Creator. This means that all legitimate fields of study should be based on sound biblical theology. The Christian view of education developed accordingly. Consequently, after the Reformation many early educational institutions taught theology as the foundation for every field of study—art, agriculture, business, communications, engineering, food distribution, government, history, information systems, linguistics, law, literature, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, science, sociology, and transportation.
Given a theology that embraces the view of a sovereign, intentional, and strategic Creator, the end objective of formal graded education should not be jobs and money but should be about preparing individual students to find and fulfill their individual callings in the context of the plan and purpose of God.
Education should be focused on declaring the whole counsel of God in the tangible and intangible realms. Knowledge is not neutral. Christ is the repository of all wisdom and knowledge. Therefore, all wisdom and knowledge—all education—must begin with Christ.5 “In the beginning God created” is the starting point for every legitimate field of knowledge. The study of God's revelation in Scripture and in creation is the process of discovering the mysteries of God. This means that Christian leaders must be faithful students of all licit fields of study and should be the thought leaders in every field because Christians have an additional source of revelation, namely, the Holy Spirit, whose role, in part, is to guide us into all truth.6
To think as God thinks—that is, with metaphysical awareness—about education requires the rejection of the erroneous presuppositions of Platonic dualism and the belief that knowledge is neutral. And then it requires embracing Christ as the foundation of all education.
Furthermore, those who embrace God’s perspective of education will value all legitimate workplace callings, not just callings to church-related work. And those who are called to church-related work will value being educated in all legitimate callings of God because they understand the real purpose of Christian communities is to equip the saints for their respective callings.
Therefore, church leaders will study God's revelation both in Scripture and in creation. They will be students of all legitimate fields of study—art, agriculture, business, communications, engineering, food distribution, government, history, information systems, linguistics, law, literature, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, science, sociology, and transportation. They will understand that to study creation is to study God.
These church leaders understand their role to equip the disciples of Jesus Christ to minister in their respective God-ordained work assignments. This means that church leaders will obey the charge of the apostle Paul, who explained that Christ
gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Ephesians 4:11–16 ESV)
For this truth to be realized in the body of Christ requires church leaders who educate and equip the disciples of Jesus Christ to be his ministers in all areas of life, including work.
Today we wrongly limit the concept of ministry to church work; this is an example of Platonic dualism that continues widely in Christianity today. Let us resolve to repent of this error and begin to truly equip all the saints for the work of ministry.
One way we can express our repentance is by education—soundly teaching the truth about Jesus Christ as the repository of all wisdom and knowledge. Consequently, all sound thinking begins with Christ.
To the graduates, we celebrate your promotion. You have demonstrated a level of mastery of the body of knowledge taught by your educational institution and are now commissioned by your institution to go forth and use this knowledge to find and fulfill God’s purpose for your lives.
Graduation is equivalent to the biblical concept of anointing, which means to be consecrated to God's service. As graduates, you are hereby set apart to God's service in whatever field of endeavor he has assigned you. You may not fully know what that field is and this graduation may not be your last. So, go forth emboldened and empowered to build on this graduation. Pursue future education and training as led by Holy Spirit. Faithfully seek to find and fulfill God’s purpose for your life in accordance with his will and ways, in his timing, and for his glory. Amen.
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1. Psalms 19:1–4.
2. Alvin J. Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World (Kindle Location 4265), Zondervan, Kindle Edition.
3. https://tifwe.org/martin-luthers-view-of-faith-work/.
4. Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World (Kindle Location 3821).
5. Colossians 2:3.
6. John 16:13. 
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