Beings of Love: Reflections on Teaching Biblically

While reading the TeachBeyond book, Facets of Transformational Education, I found myself repeatedly agreeing with James Enns in his chapter “Right Thinking Is Not Enough.” There Enns shares the work of James K. A. Smith, explaining that “We [and our students] are essentially loving beings who express this love in various forms of desire” and that “it is what we love that ultimately shapes the people we become.”[1]

All that we have shared about biblical worldview and teaching biblically in our OnPractice articles will amount to little if we do not, through God’s power and grace, tap into our students’ identity of love, “discipling young lovers to love rightly.”[2] Enns points out that whatever the core love is in our hearts, it is an expression of worship and that “What fuels our loves is not so much cognitive rational beliefs but our imagination—some vision of human flourishing that captures our hearts.”[3] It is through intentional habits and practices that we shape the loves of our heart.

As image bearers of God, of course we are beings of love—He Himself is love: “And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them” (1 John 4:16[4]). God created us to direct our love toward Himself first and then toward those around us: “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 22:37-39). At the heart of all we do with biblical worldview and teaching biblically must be a desire to guide our students’ loves toward God and toward others in ways that are honoring to Him and His design for us.

This final article of the season takes a different approach—that of a reflective journal. Take some time to use the questions below to reflect on how you can guide your students’ loves through the habits and practices that you incorporate into your classroom.

• Enns highlights the practice of using stories to pique our imaginations and our vision of a flourishing life. How can you incorporate stories into your teaching practice to connect with students’ imaginations and desires? How can you use stories to point students to the “good life” as God designed and to glorifying Him and His purposes?

• Our first article noted the disconnect between students’ professed beliefs and their default behaviors. How can you pique their interest in a life of integrity that brings the two into alignment? How can you shape the experiences in your classroom so that students begin to see the world through the lens of biblical truths?

• In articles 2 and 5, we saw why understanding worldview matters for any of us, why it matters for our teaching, and how we can use the often-overlooked aspects of space, time, content, and assessments to guide students toward deeper understandings of God’s values. How can you be formed by God’s word to grow in your understanding of His perspective in all of life? What can you do to begin shifting your understanding toward using space, time, content, and assessment as tools to point students to God’s design for the world? How can you use these elements to show respect and dignity for students as His image bearers?

• We discussed how your classroom is a sacred space in our third article. How can you teach in ways that “uncover the story that God has and is writing”[5]? What are you asking the Holy Spirit to do in and through your teaching? What is your vision for a flourishing life within your classroom? How can you begin to shape your own vision of that flourishing life in ways that point you and your students to the One Who is enough[6]?

• In our fourth and sixth articles, we covered various components of what a biblical worldview entails, and we noted the importance of our heart posture in approaching those components. What can you do to cultivate within your students a heart posture that desires to learn and seek the flourishing life that God offers? How can you use Scripture or biblical truths to help your students understand God’s vision for a flourishing life and the beauty of being a part of His kingdom[7]?

• In our seventh article, we took a look at how we can discern worldview perspectives and use God’s word to discern what is or is not in line with His ways. How can you encourage within students that loving discernment of worldview and a desire to grow in righteous fruit for God’s glory? How can you model that approach?

• In article 10 we looked at stirring our students toward wonder and awe of God. How can you use your experiences and “epiphanies”[8] as well as students’ experiences to marvel together at God’s glory? How can you spark within students the desire to look for God’s “footprints”[9]?

• Articles 8-9 and 11 through 17 gave specific strategies that can help in teaching biblically and demonstrated the importance of being intentional in planning how we will do so. Which of the strategies given will you incorporate (or which strategies have you developed yourself) to point students to living and walking in line with God’s design and kingdom?

• Finally, in articles 18 and 19, we saw the impact that a culture of safety and safeguarding within a school can have on students and their worldview formation, and we were shown a picture of how impactful a student with a biblical worldview can be. How can you create within your classroom (and within your school at large) a culture of safety that upholds the integrity, dignity, and image of God within students? What prayers for your students’ heart desires, inclinations, and worldviews will you pray as you seek to shape students with great impact for Christ’s kingdom?

May God give you much wisdom and grace as you serve Him and your students and seek to point them to Him. And may God raise up a generation of students whose hearts are set on loving Him and pursuing the vision of the abundant life that He offers.