Masland Library Blog

I’ve been learning a lot recently... about learning. I wondered how I would like coming out of Bible and Israel and into a semester with no Bible classes whatsoever. Maybe for some people that idea seems relieving, but I was legitimately concerned that I wouldn’t like the rest of college.

I know it hasn’t been too far into the semester yet, but I’ve been thinking very intently about the purpose of learning and academics. Overall, it’s a bit confusing. ‘Cause I’ll go and read Paul saying things like, “For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2, ESV) and then I have to go walk into a Psychology class or a Literature class and I feel like I’m getting a bit of whiplash. Do I have to know just Christ and Him crucified... or am I also allowed to know a little about the political structure of Ancient Egypt and how my mind perceives colour?

Granted, the extent of that question is rather absurd. If we literally scrubbed out our brains so that we were incapable of knowing anything but the crucifixion of Christ, we’d be non-functional as well as hermeneutically invalid.

But the question is simple: If I am to identify myself with Christ, how can I interact in an academic world?

Jesus is the point of the Bible. His incarnation as the Word of God explained not only Who God is but everything that He had revealed in His Scriptures (John 1; Hebrews 1:1-3). If we don’t study the Bible to see Jesus as greater than everything else we could ever imagine, then we might as well throw it away.

The same is true of the rest that we learn. You should study science differently knowing that Jesus is the one holding everything together (Colossians 1:17). You should study psychology differently knowing that the human mind was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27). You should study literature and music and history and math differently in light of the fact that Jesus died, rose again, and is now sitting at the right hand of God the Father (Mark 16:19).

You’re all at PBU with different majors and different classes. The library is equipped with far more resources than you could ever use. A world of immense knowledge is at your disposal. Take advantage of that. Study hard. Learn much.

But, if you are not learning everything with Christ as centre, then you’re learning it all uselessly. And if the library is being used just to gather information or scrabble through classes, then it is functioning in vain and all those books in the LRC would be better off as kindling.

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ...
Philippians 3:8