A Christian Worldview Shapes a Student’s Loves

Christians are called to love God and to love the people He places in their lives. As Jesus says in Matthew 22:37-39, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment, and a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

How does this shape a student’s academic study? God does not waste anyone’s learning, and everything he allows to happen will happen for a reason, regardless of whether a student chooses to acknowledge this. Students often claim they will never use Greek or Philosophy in their lives after college, but God created those areas of knowledge, and they are worth learning because He created them. If a student’s mind is trained to love truth, goodness, and beauty, he will love learning, and everything he learns will point him to the Truth. For instance, not many people love reading the book of Numbers, but students should put an intentional effort into reading and studying it, in order to discover for themselves what God says and how the book relates to the scope of eternity.

A student with a non-Christian worldview will question whether a certain subject is benefitting him or if it is a waste of time. He will question what is in it for himself, and if he does not find anything in it that satisfies him, he will make it his goal to find the easy way out. Learning does benefit students, but the motive behind a student’s learning must not be self-focused. Instead, it must be intentional with the understanding that God has a purpose for everything a student learns, even if that purpose is simply to help him grow in perseverance. Students must see how something they would rather not study is good for them, because they must learn to love what is worth loving.

A Christian ought to love what is eternal, rather than material things of the world that only last so long. He must consider what is worth loving, and what he ought to love. In addition to thinking about what is true, noble, right, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy, he should seek to love such things as well. Loving what is true, good, and beautiful is good for a person’s mind and heart, and ought to be valued as worthy of one’s attention.

A student with a Christian worldview will arrive on a college campus to pursue in his education what is true, good, and beautiful. A student who does not have a Christian worldview will arrive on the same campus ready to learn only what he sees fit, and whatever he feels he ought to love. Such a person will not take the time to focus on something unless it benefits or is useful to him. He will seek happiness in all the wrong places, turning to the things of the world for satisfaction. But God commands His people in 1 John 2:15, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.”

This week’s post is the second in a five-part series on the importance of a Christian worldview in education. Find the previous post here, and the series introduction here!