What Does The Bible Mean by Train Up A Child?

The Context

Parents often have questions about the Bible. However, searching the worldwide web for answers can be a confusing search as one parent found out a few days ago. This parent had a question about a particular scripture and sent an email asking for meaning as his family begins a new school year. After our phone discourse on the scripture, he asked if I could share what we discussed for other parents to benefit from. This post is about that discussion.

Where Matters

In an age of bountiful information, it is easy for believers in Christ to substitute reading the Bible for the chatter online. In a time when everyone is an expert online, it is easy for followers of Jesus to become compromising just like the church of Pergamum. In a time where truth is based on preferences and other cultural phenomena, it is easy for Christians to forget that truth is a Person and resolute. In essence where a believer gets his or her “spiritual meal” matters as much as where you go for a root canal. It would be dangerous to go to a barbershop for a root canal! Barbers are experts in hair. Dentists are experts in all things teeth.

Proverbs 22:6

One of the scriptures that parents hold close in their hearts and prayer for their children is Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” And this scripture is one of the most misunderstood scriptures. This is because many parents believe God is asking them to train their children in specific professions such as accountancy, engineering, teaching and the list goes on and on. This belief often causes unwarranted stress for Christian parents and children that see this scripture as a call for professional training.

A Closer Look

Let’s examine the Greek interpretation of the word “train” in Proverbs 22:6 to guide our understanding not just of the word “train” but the entire scripture. Greek transliteration “chanak” is the definition for the word “dedicate” or “train up.” If we read the scripture Proverbs 22:6 with the Greek word in mind, we would then grasp the core understanding of the scripture this way, “Dedicate a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” With this Greek transliteration we get a  different picture of the scripture. Then the question arises- what is a parent dedicating his or her child to? And who is the parent dedicating the child to?

Biblical Root

Dedicating a child to God is a thread we see in the scriptures both in the Old Testament and New Testament. In 1 Samuel 1:27-28, Hannah prayed for God to bless her with a child. To show her appreciation and gratitude, Hannah chose to give her son Samuel to God. She dedicated him to the LORD, and Samuel grew to know God and live for Him. In the New Testament, we see the same practice of child dedication. In Luke 2:22, Joseph and Mary took baby Jesus to the temple to dedicate Him to God. This was part of Jesus’ life as the Son of Man.

The Church 

Many churches have special times for baby dedication. A time when parents bring their child or children to God. Pastors pray over the child or children, asking for God’s blessings and pray for the parents for wisdom and guidance in training the child/children in the way of the LORD. This practice of baby dedication at church is not salvation or baptism. Rather it is a time of concentrated prayer for the child, acknowledging the Creator of the child and asking for God’s hand and guidance upon that child’s life. After this comes the hard work of parenting- which is training up the child in God’s ways. My husband and I had the opportunity to dedicate each of our daughters at church. In our parenting journey with each daughter, we often felt the blessings of those dedication prayers from our pastors back then. Those prayers carried us through those active parenting seasons.

Purpose of Dedication

The parent that sparked this discourse, was surprised to see that the Bible provided guidelines on the purpose of dedication and the central theme for Proverbs 22:6. The purpose of dedicating a child to God is based on the command of Deuteronomy 6: 5-9 and repeated in Matthew 22:36-39.

Deuteronomy 6:5-9, “Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates.”

Matthew 22:36-39,“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”. And He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Both sets of scriptures from the Old Testament and New Testament point to the purpose of child dedication and focal truth of Proverbs 22:6. Christian parents dedicate their child/children to God, so that the soil of their hearts and lives will be fertile ground to know and love God with their soul, mind and heart. In essence, Proverbs 22:6 is God’s charge to parents to teach their child or children to love God so that they can grow up to live for God, His ways and His life! The next post on this topic will look at ways that parents can teach their children to love God and how to make their lives a fertile ground to love God and live for Him in their adulthood.