Who is more powerful: Christ or the devil and the world? The Bible tells us, “The one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world,” (1 John 4:4). We know this is true, so we must teach and structure our teaching as if this is true. There are several implications of this truth, but I want to highlight two here:
1) We must teach differently.
John continues, saying that worldly people “speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them,” but we are different because “we are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us,” (1 John 4:5-6). Christian teaching—academic discipleship—is not teaching the same old stuff in the same old way with some biblical ideas sprinkled into the mix. No, we actually see the whole world from a different viewpoint. Math and science, language and literature, arts and athletics, all subjects must be understood from this new point of view. The word worldview makes this point because our beliefs don’t shape how we view any one area of life, but instead shape how we view the entire world. This doesn’t mean that we stop teaching in an academic fashion. This does not mean that we trade out our content for Bible study. It means that we teach the content well, but we teach it from a different viewpoint: a biblical viewpoint. Here is a video-example regarding math.
Will the world look at us as fools? Probably. But, in Paul’s words from Galatians 1:10, “Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings, or of God? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ.”
2) We must teach boldly.
If we teach differently, we must also teach boldly. Our mission is not to protect our students from the “powerful” ideas of the world. Instead, we must wisely, age-appropriately introduce those ideas to our students so that they can see them for what they really are: weak. Paul tells us what we do in 1 Corinthians 10:5: “We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” Why do we teach boldly? Because the gospel, the Bible, the biblical worldview, the Holy Spirit, and the church are powerful. Those who have those things don’t just dent bad ideas, they demolish them.
When we are firmly grounded in Scripture, we have no need to fear ungodly ideas because they are, by nature, lacking the power of God. We should not fear them (unless we are giving in to them); those ideas should fear us and our believing students. We aim to teach and unleash our students on the world. And the gospel gives our students the ability to turn the world upside down (Acts 17:6). The gospel is the power of God (Rom 1:16). The power that God has given us is “his incomparably great power” and “is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,” (Eph 1:19-20).
So, it is essential for you to be bold in your teaching. Help you students learn to demolish worldly arguments. With Paul, I want to remind you “to fan into flame” the faith that God has gifted you and your students (2 Tim 1:6). Don’t fear, but act out of “power, love and self-discipline,” (2 Tim 1:7). God has given us the ability to be bold, so let’s do it.