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So, continuing my ramblings about why we’re planning to homeschool…

On Tuesday I discussed what radical discipleship really means – today we’re going back to the story of Timothy to think about what that discipleship is all about – in Timothy’s life, it was about packing for Ephesus.

Let me explain.

First of all, consider the fact that Timothy was half-Jew, half-Greek. We are told that Paul circumcised Timothy before taking him on his journeys with him (Acts 16:3)- read between the lines: Timothy was completely on the outside of Jewish life and culture. He would not have been allowed to receive training in the Torah from the Rabbi, he would have been restricted in even participating in temple worship. Unlike the boys who grew up memorizing the Torah word for word, Timothy didn’t have that kind of access. However, that does NOT mean that he didn’t know the Scriptures.

2 Timothy 1:5 tells us that his mother and grandmother had “sincere faith,” which Paul was persuaded lived in Timothy also. 2 Timothy 3:15 tells us that Timothy had known the holy Scriptures “from infancy.” Guess who was teaching little Timmy? Mom and grandma. They had taught him the truth from infancy and prepared him to the extent that the other believers spoke well of him and Paul called him to follow him on his journeys – in other words, Paul took Timothy to be his disciple.

How old was Timothy at this point? In Kent and Ed Dobson’s message, Kent points out that the word used for “young” (describing Timothy) in 1st Timothy 4:12 actually means ‘under the age of 20′! Those letters were written years after this point, which means Timothy was probably around the age of 15! [This makes sense, considering that boys were selected around the age of 12 or 15 to follow rabbis.]

Paul sets out with young Timothy. They walk thousands of miles together. Imagine the discipleship that went on during those journeys – I’m guessing Paul was not one to waste time! Eventually, they spend three years in Ephesus.

Ephesus would probably blow our minds. Ephesus offered asylum to any criminal. It was the slave capital of the world. There was not a single believer in Jesus Christ when Paul arrived on the scene. The worship of Diana (or Artemis) was so central to life in Ephesus that we are told in Acts 20 that eventually as more people placed their faith in Jesus Christ and abandoned idolatry, it was upsetting the local economy and actually caused a riot! Into this pagan and corrupt culture Paul walks, with his 15 year old disciple Timothy. Every mom’s dream for her boy, right?

Eventually Paul leaves for further missionary journeys, and he appoints young Timothy to pastor the Ephesian church. Alone. In Ephesus.

Get this: Scholars say that in less than 100 years, Ephesus was 90% Christian. Partly because of a gangly teenager, an outcast from his culture, who was taught God’s Word from infancy, discipled well in adolescence, and equipped and sent to serve.

What does this have to do with us homeschooling? Here are a couple of points that come to mind.

•We do not expect enough of our kids.
I touched on this in the last post so I won’t dwell here. Just think about a 15 year old, acne spotted, gangly, vocally-unstable boy travelling alongside Paul. Called to follow a man who knew the Scriptures better than most anyone, who loved Jesus so radically he was stoned and beaten and threatened and arrested multiple times! And after a few years with his teacher, think of this very young man left alone in the Las Vegas of the day, called to pastor a young church without a single believer more than 3 years old in the Lord.

•We expect too much of our kids.
Nope, I’m not contradicting myself. We don’t expect enough of our kids when it comes to being a true disciple of Jesus Christ (because we don’t expect enough of ourselves.) But we expect too much of them when we send them out into the battlefields of our day without equipping them properly.

Paul didn’t just pluck a 4 year old kid out of Lystra and send him to pastor the church at Ephesus. He was diligently taught the Scriptures as a child. He was intentionally trained as a disciple of Paul. He knew God’s Word, he understood the culture of Ephesus and learned alongside Paul how to teach the truth and recognize error in an incredibly pagan society.

I admire the conviction of many believers who feel strongly that we need to be a light in our public school systems. But I wrestle with the thought of sending my young and foolish (all children are!) children into an environment where they will be taught things that contradict God’s Word, where they will be surrounded with peers who do not fear the Lord and have been exposed to awful things, where they will be in the most violent crossfire of the battle for the hearts and minds of the next generation.

No, I don’t believe the goal of our homeschooling should be to avoid the culture. However, before our children can successfully engage our culture with the message of Christ, they must be trained. They must be discipled well. They must be taught wisdom as they learn to fear the Lord. They must work alongside us and see firsthand what it means to live out our faith in a world gone mad.

This was what really drew me to the family interviewed on the radio years ago. Their homeschooling was intentionally done to teach their children to know God’s Word, to engage their culture, and to have the skill set needed to think critically and Biblically.

Is homeschooling the only way to do this? I don’t think so. But whatever choices we make about the education of our children, we must understand that there is a very real battle going on. We must be careful to protect them – not just from physical danger, or emotional trauma, or educational failure – we must understand that until they develop wisdom and insight and a true knowledge and understanding of Scripture, they will be so easily led astray by the vain philosophies of this world.

O Lord, what a gift you have given us in our precious children. Teach us how to love them well. Give us the wisdom we so desperately need to parent them in the daily mundane moments, and give us eyes to see the battle going on all around us – show us how to protect them, equip them, and teach them to engage in that battle for your glory. I pray that they will grow to love You, love Your Word, and obey you wholeheartedly. I pray that they will turn their world upside down for the sake of Your name.