Dear ICS Community,

“Little children, guard yourselves from idols.” 1 John 5:21

Every fortnight a different member of the senior leadership team brings a devotion to edify us, and yesterday Dr Nation got us thinking about Gospel vigilance as it relates to that verse. John is writing as an older and experienced follower of Jesus (and an eyewitness of the Word made flesh), who knows what many experienced Christians have found to be true; our hearts are idol-making factories. An idol is anything that takes the place of God in our affections and purposes, and if we are honest we all find within ourselves what C.S. Lewis found: “For the first time I examined myself with a seriously practical purpose. And there I found what appalled me; a zoo of lusts, a bedlam of ambitions, a nursery of fears, a harem of fondled hatreds. My name was legion.”

In education, Dr Nation reminded us that there have been two distinct approaches over the centuries, summed up in two books of the same name: “Confessions”. The starting point for the Christian teacher Augustine is that we are sinners from birth, and our sin is our responsibility. The starting point for the Enlightenment thinker Rousseau is that we are made good, so society is to blame for our sin. As in Jesus’ parable, the latter results in the prideful attitude of the Pharisee, whereas the former should make us in humility cry out with the tax-collector, who cannot even lift his eyes to heaven, “Lord, have mercy on me.”