Biblical Guidelines for Selecting a College
Although the Bible does not provide a specific test for prospective educational institutions, there are several broad applicable guidelines for any decision that would expose our minds to information.
- “I do not pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil one.” (John 17:15)
- “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.” (Colossians 2:8)
- “Do not love the world or the things in the world....For all that is in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not of the Father but is of the world.” (1 John 2:15-16)
Many more passages could be cited, but these address the basic parameters that God has left for our safety net. First, we are not to consider ourselves “out of the world” but to be “kept” by God’s grace and His Word from that which is evil. We are not to be isolated from the world as much as we are to be insulated from it. Second, we are warned to be alert to the real possibility of being robbed by the “love of common wisdom” and the “empty deception” that the tradition and “logical structures” of the world would bring. Another warning is that we must deflect the antithesis of “false knowledge” (1 Timothy 6:20). Ultimately, we are not to love the threefold dangers of the world’s enticements—fleshly passion, ungodly potential, or personal pride.
No matter where we go or how sheltered we might try to be, we cannot escape the matrix of corruption and the ungodly surroundings of sin. Our protection lies in a conscious decision to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). Please remember that the battle is not only spiritual but an intellectual one as well: “As the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).
