What are you supposed to do with your life? Do you need to go to college to fulfill that purpose? The answer to that last question is, maybe.
What are you supposed to do with your life? Since God does have different purposes for different people, I can’t give you a precise answer. I can, however, tell you some general things that the Bible says are God’s purposes for most of humanity.
First, however, let’s look at how a college education fits into the world’s version of life purpose. When we are young, we are told that we must study hard and get good grades. Why do we need to get good grades? So that we can go to college. Why do we need to go to college? So that we can get a high paying job. Why do we need a high paying job? So that we can afford to send our children to college; so that they can have a high paying job; so that they can send their children to college, and on, and on it goes. This has been called “hell’s hamster wheel” and I think it’s time we got off.
Let’s look now at life purpose from a biblical perspective. First and foremost, we were created to glorify, love, and obey God. Is going to college necessary to fulfill this purpose? While it is true that people can glorify, love, and obey God in college, that doesn’t mean that it is necessary to go to college in order to do those things. In fact, it could be argued that for most, the college experience can hinder or, in some cases, even destroy one’s walk with the Lord. Of course, there are exceptions, but often college life leads to more sinning rather than more godliness.
In addition to the life purpose of glorifying, loving, and obeying God (that everyone is commanded to fulfill), there are other life purposes that most are to fulfill. One major aspect of life purpose is the building of strong families. When God created Adam and Eve, He told them to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28). Though it isn’t explicitly stated here, this command implies getting married first. The rest of Gen. 1:28 says “fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion.” This command implies home-discipleship. This command couldn’t be fulfilled by Adam and Eve alone, in one generation. It implies that they would have to teach their children how to live out this command. So, a major life purpose for most people is to get married, have lots of children, and teach them how to live out God’s word.
Is it necessary to go to college in order to fulfill this purpose? While some do find their future spouse in college, you don’t have to go to college to be married. Here again, going to college can be a hindrance to this aspect of life purpose. The college scene, with its “hook-up” culture, rampant pornography, and general lack of accountability, doesn’t do much to help prepare young men and women for a healthy, monogamous marriage. Not only are college students influenced by their peers, but the classes they attend don’t help much either. Even if the professors aren’t blatantly degrading the family (though many do), it is doubtful that any are promoting a biblical view of family.
Can people who go to college have healthy families? Of course, I know some personally. But that doesn’t mean that college is necessary, or even helpful for biblical family life.
Another major aspect of life purpose is that God has created us to be involved in some sort of productive labor. For Adam, that involved working in the garden (Gen. 2:15), and being paid for his work (in fruit, Gen.2:16). Ah-ha! This, you say, is why we must go to college: to get a high paying job.
But again, is it really necessary to go to college to make a living? Just because you can get a good job after getting a degree, doesn’t mean that you have to go college to get one, or that going to college guarantees you a paycheck. Many college students (close to half, last I heard) can’t find full-time employment after graduating, and a majority end up in a career other than the one they went to school for.
Furthermore, as many rich people will tell you, schools (including college) don’t usually teach you how to handle money, and how to make it work for you. Not to mention that many leave college buried in debt (also not good for family life). The fact is, you don’t need to go to college to become wealthy. In an article by Chad Roach in Generations magazine, he writes about studying Forbes’ chart of the world’s top billionaires. Of the top 15, only four had graduated from college; six were college dropouts, and one didn’t even finish high school.
So then, is it wrong to go to college? Not necessarily. In fact, if you feel called to certain professions like law or medicine, you might not have a choice. But for many people, going to college isn’t really necessary and can even be detrimental. Unfortunately, most go to college simply because that’s what society has told us we must do if we want to amount to anything.
The idea of college doesn’t come from the Bible. In fact, it was developed by pagans. The biblical model of education is one of hands-on, relational discipleship, similar to what we might call an apprenticeship or mentorship model. As the colleges become more and more expensive, more and more godless, and less and less effective at producing thinking, functioning people, we Christians need to start moving back to a more biblical model of education (at all levels, not just college).
We are not called to blindly do what the rest of the world does. In many, if not most cases, Christians can fulfill their God-given life purpose without throwing away their time, money, and morals at the local college.