The first followers of Christ were called disciples. Disciples in those days differed from what we understand by that word today. The standards for teachers and students in the culture of Israel were very high. A teacher had to meet particular, generally accepted criteria. He could not be younger than a certain age, and he was expected to have an appropriate social standing. John the Baptist and Jesus did not fit these expectations, which continually displeased the religious leaders of that time. Yet their popularity among the people restrained those in power, and the religious leaders had to look for errors in the very words of Jesus and John in order to bring charges against them. Nevertheless, both Christ and His forerunner had disciples who desired to learn more and to delve into the mysteries of knowing God that were accessible to their teachers.
It was customary for disciples to live with their teacher and sit at his feet while he shared his knowledge and revelations with them.
Many people called Christ Himself ‘Rabbi,’ which means ‘Teacher.’ This process contains a special Divine providence and a truth for our time. Even today, God desires to have disciples with whom He can share great and mighty things that we do not know.
The next brick in my house of happiness is called ‘I learn.’ This status must belong to me personally and be my voluntary decision and choice. It may be the desire of my heart or my response to God’s call.
The School of Christ did not close with His death; instead, it acquired an Eternal status with an Eternal curriculum about how enduring laws can interact with earthly values and ideas about life. It offers a firm, stable foundation of faith in God that extends into every sphere of human activity.
We are not born into this world with knowledge of earthly existence already placed within us. From the very first day of life, we begin to discover the world around us and to study its laws and the principles governing the interaction of the spiritual and the material. Our parents give us our native language and instill in us the culture of relationships and the pattern of behavior accepted in their own lives. And as we learn about this world, we learn everything else as well.
In the past, schooling or higher education was available only to certain classes of society, while everyone else was raised to be a labor force. Today, school education is compulsory for every child living in a country.
Education in the School of Christ, however, is voluntary, and success in learning depends directly on my personal relationship with the Heavenly Teacher and on my desire to know Heavenly truths. The Heavenly School is highly diverse in its structure and may be individual or communal, depending on circumstances and opportunities.
Yet whatever form my education in the School of Christ takes, I have the Best Teacher in the entire Universe. He Himself, either directly or through His representatives, teaches me the Heavenly truths that change my life according to God’s requirements and standards. This knowledge brings light and happiness into my life.
Knowing the Only True God and Jesus Christ, Whom He sent, gives me the right to Eternal life and teaches me the laws of Eternity, which I can apply to myself even during my earthly life. The realization that my name is written in the Book of Life fills my heart with indescribable joy.
Without education in the School of Christ, my spiritual growth is impossible. The moment my learning stops, the life support of my spiritual being also stops. Hunger begins, the principles I have received start to break down, and spiritual death follows. Yet the distinctive feature of God’s School is that God knows how to resurrect and restore to life what has died and is perishing. He delights in working with newborn infants who are ready to learn everything and find everything interesting. Those who were born again but later turned away because of unbelief, temptations, or heresies form a special group of students who receive their own work of rehabilitation and restoration.
Alongside God’s School, there is also a school of Satan in our world, and he will stop at nothing. He may call his school a Christian institution and use the name of God to conceal his abominations and false teachings, trying to present them as biblical truth so that, if possible, he might deceive even the elect. He has no objection to creating new denominations and movements and confusing the minds of trusting people with elaborate theological interpretations of his own conjectures.
But God has very clearly defined the standards of discipleship and the boundary between darkness and light. We read in Isaiah 8:20: ‘To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.’ And God’s Spirit shows those who seek and thirst for righteousness what they need to know, and they are filled.
For example, let us consider our School of Agape Love. Who is its Teacher? If you name me, that would be the wrong answer. Although I write these lessons and share my experiences, I do not draw your attention to myself. I am God’s instrument through whom the Lord teaches both you and me His Heavenly laws and principles. I make sure that every lesson agrees with biblical truth, sound reason, and the teaching of the church chosen by God to be His instrument in the last days. We study God’s law and discover in it the beauty of God’s character. The Lord teaches us the principles of happiness, love, and friendship as foundations of Eternal life. As we master this Heavenly science, we live a Heavenly life even here and apply its principles in our earthly experience, overcoming the world’s resistance and avoiding its temptations.
I study in the School of Christ, and this is my choice. Agape love is the character of God that becomes mine through the process of learning. And love knows all things. It knows the deep things of God. It can penetrate the Heart of the Most High to reveal to me the beauty of Divine holiness and apply it to my life. My thirst to know God and my desire to learn love and happiness give the Most High the right to reveal to me great and mighty things about Himself and to make this knowledge a part of my being. Knowing God is the manifestation of His Spirit of love in my daily concerns for those whom I meet and those who live near me. But this education begins with simple truths that become more complex as I grow. At the beginning of my education, I had many mentors and teachers, but in time I come to the point where the Lord Himself, through the Holy Spirit, continues my education in His School, arranging tests and trials of the knowledge I have received. Yet I remain an ordinary person who considers himself a sinner in constant need of the Savior. I have nothing in which to boast except that I love even when loving is impossible. And even this is not mine; it was given to me by Jesus as a gift for Eternal use. Otherwise, I simply would not survive. Love teaches me to know God. Sometimes I think that if God loves me as I love my neighbors, that is wonderful! But God’s love is better than mine, purer and stronger, which means there is much for me to learn. And I am learning, dreaming that one day I will become very much like Jesus in love and will see all people in its light.
Bible verses for this chapter:
Matthew 5:1–2; 9:14; 10:1; 23:7–8; Mark 2:18; 4:34; Luke 6:20–21; 14:26–27; John 8:31–32; 13:13–14, 34–35; Isaiah 8:16; 50:4; Proverbs 30:2–3; Galatians 1:11–12; Philippians 4:12