Adult Education
Purpose: Education for Exultation
Worshipping together with our Minds
Deuteronomy 31: 9-13
...tells us that the Word of God was taught to the people of God so that they would "Hear and learn to fear the Lord your God." This means that goal of our learning more about God is that He would be worshipped and glorified, and that in being worshipped and glorified He would be delighted in, treasured, and savored above everything else. That is why we say that the goal of education is worship, or exultation. God is magnified when our minds meditate upon Him as He has revealed himself in His Word.
John Piper elucidates the goal of Christian Education for us when he notes the following:
Exaltation is different that exultation: "exaltation" means making much of someone - like God - which is a great thing to do; but "exultation" says that and more. When you exult in God, you not only make much of him, you make much of him by rejoicing in him and delighting in him and being glad in him. Exultation adds that emotional element of joy in God that we believe is essential if God is going to be honored the way he should be. Another word for exultation in God is "worship."
Education for Exultation means we must know God truly, and we must respond with our affections duly. We must see him clearly, and we must savor him dearly. We must think biblical thoughts about God, and must feel biblical emotions for God. If education does not lead to exultation in God, it fails. If seeing glory doesn't lead to savoring God, it fails. If thinking truth doesn't lead to feeling love, it fails. Education, knowledge, sight, thought . . . they are all for exultation in God. And if they don't produce it, they are not what they were created to be.
In short, we don't exalt education as an ends to itself. We exalt God and believe that it is through education that we magnify God with our minds. Let us worship him with our minds together!