As the Sunday school lesson came to an end, the teacher announced, “Alright class, now that we have had our lesson for today, it’s time to play our weekly Bible Trivia game!”
The group of fourth-grade children broke into cheers at the announcement that they would get to do something other than sit quietly and listen to their teacher babble on about someone who built a house on the sand.
“Last week the girls beat the boys,” she continued, “but they are only winning by 5,000 points overall. Guys, you have a chance to take the lead because Pastor Womack’s son is back after being sick last week and I will be awarding double points for every correct answer.” With the knowledge of double points being awarded for each correct answer, there was an audible groan from the girl’s side of the room.
As the teacher silenced the objections, she added, “You all know how it works, the first person to stand and give me the correct answer will get the points for that question. Are you ready?”
The Bible questions came fast and furious from the teacher. Occasionally, a different child was the first to stand and answer correctly, but more often than not, Pastor Womack’s son dominated the game.
He listed all 10 commandments, named the 12 apostles (in the order Jesus called them), quoted the 66 books of the Bible, spelled the name “Nebuchadnezzar” perfectly, correctly identified Esther 8:9 as the longest verse in the Bible and John 11:35 as the shortest, and wowed his classmates as he quoted, word perfect, the 23rd Psalm! By the time he was finished, the boys had a commanding 30,000 point lead in the overall score. Each boy would leave Sunday school that day with a big candy bar as a result of the biblical knowledge that Pastor Womack’s son possessed.
Knowledge Doesn’t = Spirituality
For far too long, in churches across America, the defining characteristic of a “spiritual” Christian has been closely tied to the amount of knowledge one has about the Bible. No one knows just how it began, but perhaps it was in a small classroom in the basement of the church where a well-meaning church member, with a love for children and an unwavering faithfulness to her pastor, was asked to teach the children’s class.
“You know more about the Bible than they do,” she was told. “They need to learn the Bible. We will make sure you have a quarterly curriculum to teach. Just teach them the Bible and play a game with them until ‘big church’ is finished.”
Week after week, the teacher would tell the stories from the Bible, quiz their knowledge, and reward that knowledge with candy. She was praised for her faithfulness and personally fulfilled when the children could regurgitate the biblical information back to her.
Inadvertently, however, “knowledge about the Bible” was presented as the chief goal for the Christian child
Inadvertently, however, “knowledge about the Bible” was presented as the chief goal for the Christian child. In a very subtle way, the children came to understand that the most important part of Sunday school was to know as many facts about the Bible as they could. Since knowledge about the Bible was rewarded, knowledge became the mark of a “spiritual Christian” in the minds of the children.
When the “Children’s Ministry Highlight Sunday” rolled around, the ego of the teacher was publically boosted as the children would stand on stage in the main auditorium and quote long passages of Scripture. Trophies were handed out to the winners of the Bible Trivia game and certificates to those who faithfully attended class each week. The yearly event “proved” that the Children’s Ministry in the church was working since the children had memorized so much Scripture and knew so many of the stories in the Bible. What no one seemed to understand, as they watched the public performance of the children, was the fact that, quite unintentionally, the church had defined spiritual knowledge as spiritual maturity.
Just “Teaching the Bible” Isn’t the Main Goal of Ministry
Learning that the Bible says is important! Memorizing Scripture is important! Knowing Biblical truth is important, but simply teaching the Bible to kids must not be the main goal of any Children’s Ministry. It is time to stop teaching the Bible to kids! It is high time that we teach kids to obey the Bible out of a love for Christ.
In His teaching, Jesus was clear that He had no intention for His followers to become sponges of information. Jesus was surrounded by scribes and Pharisees who could quote the Law of Moses and expound about the coming Messiah. The same type of men He reasoned with as a twelve-year-old boy in the temple, were the same type of people who crucified the very Messiah they “knew so much about.”
The Pharisees could quote Scripture but couldn’t see the Messiah right in front of them
These men were spiritually knowledgeable, but when it came to spiritual maturity, Jesus proclaimed the necessity of a righteousness that exceeded that of the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20) and He proclaimed this need immediately following a speech about the importance of Scripture (Matthew 5:17-19). From Jesus’ perspective, knowing the Scripture was good, but He made a point to tell His audience that spiritual maturity was far beyond the head knowledge of Scripture.
In the seventh chapter of Matthew, Jesus very clearly expressed His desired outcome of all of His teaching.
“Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on a rock” (Matthew 7:24).
It’s About Obeying the Word
Wise people don’t just hear the Word of God, wise people obey the Word of God. A few verses later, He would contrast the wise with the foolish.
“And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand” (Matthew 7:26).
When this analogy is taught, two things typically happen among the “church people” of America:
- They silently finish the passage by singing, “The rains came down and the floods came up. The rains came down and the floods came up” (showing one more thing they learned in Sunday school) and,
- They almost always identify themselves as a wise person. “Since I’m a Christian,” they silently argue, “of course I am the wise person.”
The only problem with this thinking is that Jesus’ story about the Wise and Foolish man has less to do with belief in Jesus’ words and more to do with obedience to Jesus’ words.
To be clear, Jesus never downplayed or minimized the Scriptures. In fact, He said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law of the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). There is no doubt that “knowledge of” almost always proceeds “obedience to.” Generally, one has to “know” in order to “obey.” Allow knowledge to proceed obedience, yes, but please (for the sake of the children) don’t allow knowledge to take priority over obedience.
What Jesus did was place a higher priority on obeying the Word of God than on knowing the Word of God. He simply took the truths of the Scriptures and challenged the hearers to become “doers”; the “knowers” to become “obey-ers.”
James Says it Another Way
James reiterated the teachings of his older Brother with these words, “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing” (James 1:21-25).
James told his readers this:
- “Receive with meekness the implanted word.” In other words, learn the Scriptures, know the Scriptures, understand the Scriptures.
- “But be doers of the word.” In other words, don’t just know the Scriptures, obey the Scriptures.
- “Not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” If all you do is hear the Scriptures, you have deceived yourself into thinking you are spiritually mature.
- “A doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” Blessing comes from obedience to the Word of God.”
If you have been given the responsibility to teach the Word of God to kids:
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Make obedience, not knowledge, the goal of your teaching.
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Bring your class to a point of decision, not to a pile of information.
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Stress obedience out of a love for Christ and not obedience that “proves” spirituality.
Ultimately, your goal in teaching should be that the lives of the children would be transformed by the clear teaching of the Word of God as you exhort them to live out the truth that they know. Don’t leave the children you teach looking in a mirror inside of a house built upon the sand. Connect the Word of God to the lives of the child so they can obey out of a love for Christ.