Academia has been a gift to the body of Christ. I am thankful every day for the gift of 2000 years of scholarly study into the scriptures and all the time and energy so many give to record these discoveries and insights for the benefit of all. Without this effort, we would not even have a Bible to study in our native language, much less all the study materials that help us understand it.
But over the centuries, I fear academia has become a magnet next to the compass of Christian thought and life. Over time, understanding can be confused with knowing. To know about Jesus is not the same as knowing Jesus.
Jesus saw this error in the scholars of His day, and it broke His heart.
You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. John 5:39-40 [ESV]
This may sound weird coming from a guy who has dedicated the last 35 years to mission work and the last 25 years to teaching the Bible, but the ultimate goal is not knowing the scriptures but knowing Jesus. We don’t study to be the smartest guy in the room, we don’t study for recognition, and we don’t study (or teach) simply to make a living. We study to know Jesus, and as teachers, we study to point others to Jesus.
But before you say, “Ya, that’s xackly why I don’t study nothin’,” we need to think a little deeper about this issue.
We can’t know Jesus in 2025 without learning about Him. And that knowledge of Jesus comes from the testimony of those who knew Him when He walked the earth. And that testimony is recorded for us in the Bible. Without the Bible, how else would we ever know he existed or what he was like? Without scripture, how would we test our thoughts, feelings, and assumptions? How will we interpret our lives? How will we know if we are living as disciples if we know nothing of what a disciple should be?
Over the last two millennia, ignorance and even anti-intellectualism have manifested themselves in many ways. At times, ignorance was foisted on the Church by the elite classes and crushing poverty, and at other times, anti-intellectualism was almost a rallying cry among certain evangelicals. No matter its cause, ignorance has never borne good fruit.
However, academia and an overinflated regard for intellectualism are not harmless either. As an old mentor of mine once said,
“You can fall into the ditch on either side of the road.”
Knowledge for the sake of knowledge is as futile as art for the sake of art, maybe worse. Because Christians rarely start out seeking knowledge for the sake of knowledge, they drift into that state. This is what I meant earlier when I said that academia has become a magnet next to the compass of Christianity.
People begin by wanting to know more about Jesus, which is absolutely vital and right. But over time, they begin to focus on the information and forget why they gathered it in the first place. Slowly, gathering information becomes an end in itself—or, if not the end, the means to an end. They begin to see education as the ticket to their self-chosen paths rather than instruction for following the path of Jesus. We want answers to questions, which in itself is not wrong. Still, when our curiosities and desire to know overwhelm our desire to follow the way of Jesus, we begin to bow at foreign altars—idolatrous altars of our own making.
On Walking the Way
This view of academics came as a correction to me several years ago and led me to focus on what it means to “walk the Way.” That is why I started this newsletter and podcast. The Bible is precious beyond words to me, so much so that I have dedicated my adult life to helping people understand it as it was originally intended. But that is the rub; God’s original intention in preserving the Bible for us was not to satisfy our curiosity and certainly not to generate arguments. The Scriptures were preserved for us so that we could know him. The scriptures teach us to discern between the Holy Spirit and evil spirits. It helps us to see the difference between our own thoughts and the Spirit of God. It teaches us the difference between a strange experience and the work of God. God gave us the scriptures to lead us to Himself.
This Week
So this week, as we read the Bible, remember that its main purpose is not to educate in the normal sense of that word. It intends to lead us into a closer relationship with God and instruct us “On Walking the Way” of Jesus.
Have a Great Week!
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