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There are many components that have gone into our discussions and considerations of homeschooling. This is by far the weightiest one in our minds, so this seems to be the best place to start.

Several years ago, my dad had sent us a cd of sermons by their pastor at the time, Dr. Ed Dobson. The series was on 1st Timothy – and right off the bat the first message caught our hearts and minds. Dr. Dobson and his son Kent gave this message together, building some background information about Paul, Timothy, Ephesus, and the church. It was a fascinating sermon, but what was most impacting to us was thinking about the meaning of discipleship to a 1st century believer and what it meant for Timothy, in particular, to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and a pastor of the Ephesian church. [we'll get into Timothy more tomorrow.]

Understanding what “discipleship” really meant in the first century is enough to blow my mind all on its own.

Students in the 1st century learned large portions of the Scripture – it was common for teenagers who had been called to be disciples of a rabbi to, by the age of 15, have all of the Torah memorized – that’s all of Genesis, all of Exodus, all of Leviticus, all of Numbers, all of Deuteronomy. Memorized. Word for word.

If they continued on with the rabbi, by the time they finished with him it was expected that they would have the entire Hebrew Bible memorized word for word! In addition to that, as a disciple of the rabbi, they would have:
1. memorized all of the rabbi’s teachings (word for word!)
2. been able to explain and defend all of the rabbi’s intepretations of the torah
3. sought to actually learn to behave just like their rabbi
4. then made other disciples themselves

We listened to this when we were newly married, and I was teaching high school Bible in a Christian school. I cannot fully explain to you how spiritually and emotionally draining it was for me to teach God’s Word to high school students all day. Because of prep? No. Because of teenagers? No, I really enjoy high schoolers. I found it discouraging and defeating because how little the majority of students and parents seemed to care about learning God’s Word well and living it out.

After listening to this series I could not get away from the idea of true discipleship. We toss the word discipleship around a lot, but I don’t think we really expect anyone to be this “radical” in their approach to following after Jesus Christ. A 15 year old with the first five books of the Bible memorized? A complete commitment to follow Him, learn every one of His words, understand the meaning and basis of His teachings, live just like Him, and then teach others to do the same? Do that and everyone at your church, let alone your local public school, will think you are a lunatic!

Being a disciple does not just mean that you wear your Christian t-shirt and refrain from swearing. It’s more than telling people that Jesus loves them and handing them a tract. Being a disciple means you give up your life - you wholeheartedly commit to knowing God’s Word inside and out, seek to follow so closely after Christ that you stop worring about “being yourself” and “showing your uniqueness” or whatever – you want to look just like Him.

This was the first seed of God’s call in our hearts to homeschool. I know that first and foremost, God has called me to be a disciple – and I am far from those expectations of discipleship given above. I cannot say “follow me as I follow Christ” to my children if I have not personally done whatever it takes to follow Him.

Second, God has entrusted these children to me, and it is primarily my job – not the church’s job or the youth pastor’s job – to disciple them. To teach them the whole counsel of God. To teach them what the Bible says and means! To teach them what it means to live like Jesus 24 hours a day.

I have heard others who have studied and know Greek discuss that the grammatical emphasis of the Great Comission (Go make disciples and teach them to obey everything I have commanded you) is not on “go” as we often think – it emphasizes make disciples. Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you.

This is reason #1 why we are planning to homeschool: I believe that God has given us a job that takes 24 hours a day. Will my children have the whole Bible memorized? Probably not. But making learning and living the Scripture a centerpiece of their years in our home is something I believe wholeheartedly that we must do – and it will take tremendous effort and time.

I want my kids to know math, science, literature – I hope that they know these things quite well and excel at them. More than anything, I want them to know and live the Word of God. I want them to look just like Jesus.