Never Stop Learning

“For everything that is hidden will eventually be brought into the open, and every secret will be brought to light.” – Mark 4:22.

When people discuss “learning” the conversation usually defaults to where and when they went to high school and college. And many people think that they were done with learning and moved into the application of what they learned in school. But education does not end in the classroom. Education is a continuous, life long process. There are countless opportunities for learning from friends, work, and circumstances. Peter Drucker, the management expert, said that “an educated person is someone who has learned how to learn and never stops learning.” 

The same is true of your walk with God. The Christian faith is not a short-term course of study. Our mindset shouldn’t be to take a few classes on Christianity and then spending the rest of our years drawing from that knowledge. The ongoing health in the Christian life is inextricably linked to ongoing learning. The loop of learning doesn’t close today or tomorrow, but a lifetime lies ahead or until Jesus returns. 

Mark 4:21 tells us, “Then Jesus asked them, “Would anyone light a lamp and then put it under a basket or under a bed? Of course not! A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light will shine.” It is hard to argue with that statement. The purpose of light is to be seen and to make sight possible. To hide a lamp would defeat its primary purpose. In the next verse, Jesus says, “For everything that is hidden will eventually be brought into the open, and every secret will be brought to light.” (Vs. 22) The hidden things will be revealed if we take the time and have the desire to learn.   

Mark 4:11 says, “…You are permitted to understand the secret of the Kingdom of God.” Jesus was telling His disciples that there was still much more to be revealed. The disciples, and each of us today, must constantly be open to new discoveries of His plans and purposes. In other words, we must not stop learning.

Jesus said in Mark 4:25: ”To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.” As followers of Jesus, we must become someone who has learned how to learn and never stops learning. It is not a matter of learning facts or acquiring information and head knowledge. We’re not just learners of principles, but of a Person. We are lifelong learners in relationship with Jesus as we hear His voice in His word and have His ear in prayer, all through the power of His Spirit.

Lifelong learning is not merely digging deeper in the endless amount of information out there. Lifelong learning for the Christian is knowing God himself in Christ through the gospel word and the written word of the Scriptures — in the hearing and reading and study and meditation and memorization of the Bible and then applying what we learned. 

Discussion Questions:

1. What does lifelong learning mean to you?  
2. What can we do to ensure that we never stop learning?