It is a fact that a man is known by his school - it marks him. Now in the present day there are any number of schools of thought, and men like to have disciples or followers. Indeed it has been so from the earliest days. The Greek philosophers had their schools, and the Pharisees and Sadducees theirs, but all such schools of men interfere with the school of God, and are on altogether different lines from the teaching of Christ. Every Christian ought to attend the same school - the school of Christ. He alone has the right to have disciples or followers, and no one can teach like Him. Of course I am not speaking of education in regard to things we need to know in connection with our daily occupations and ordinary life here. I am speaking of the moral teaching and ideas by which we are formed as we go through life - in this we need to be taught by Christ. He alone can form the mind rightly. All the thoughts of the world are destructive to our souls. Their thoughts are on the line of the glory of man, and of self-sufficiency and self-importance. Such thoughts cannot edify - they can only destroy. The thoughts of the world are based on the false idea that there is some natural good in man, something he can build upon, some competency and ability to produce something for God. The teaching of Christ was exactly the opposite of all this. He teaches us to distrust ourselves, and to find our sufficiency and competency not in ourselves, but in God. This is why the school of Christ is a costly one. On His side the education is all free, for He loves to teach us. On our side, however, we have to pay a great deal, for we have to drop ourselves and let our own wills go if we would learn from Him. That is why the school of Christ is avoided. There is no room there for the glory of man, or for our own will. The will of God is taught there, not the will of man. All that naturally would make life for us has to go if we would really learn in the school of Christ. “If any one will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9: 23). That is the only way to be a follower of Christ. Now what is it to take up one’s cross, if it is not to drop one’s self, not simply certain ways and habits, but our very life. This will mean suffering and shame in this world but the compensation of honour and glory in the coming day. What an encouragement to follow Him!
